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2025 Sun Belt Football Previews: Marshall Thundering Herd
65 Plays2 months ago
Brian and Zeke return to talk over a completely changed Marshall team following the Sun Belt championship and exodus of Charles Huff and Braylon Braxton.
What will this year's Thundering Herd look like under first year coach Tony Gibson?
Email questions to the show at warmweatherfans@gmail.com!
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Transcript
Introduction and Current State of Marshall Football
00:00:16
Speaker
Welcome everybody into another edition of Warm Weather Fans, the Sun Belt Podcast. My name is Brian Stone, joined this week by Zeke Palermo as we talk about our final team in the East, the Marshall Thundering Herd, who are...
00:00:32
Speaker
I don't know, to say a shell of themselves from last year's team would be an understatement. um you know we'll We'll get into the the roster and coaching changes and all of that good stuff, but before we do that, Zeke, how's it going?
00:00:48
Speaker
I'm good. I'm good. we We just got off with our Louisiana preview. um By the time that this episode goes out, we will be... What, eight days away? Eight, nine days away from ah college football, and and that includes... I'm not actually sure. Do we have any week zero games in the conference?
00:01:09
Speaker
No, we have no week zero games. Well, I guess we're still two weeks away from call ah Sunbelt football, but college football is right there. you can almost taste it, and that's always an exciting time, man.
00:01:22
Speaker
Yeah.
Review of Previous Season and Coach Departure
00:01:23
Speaker
um You know, this is going to be a tough one for ah Marshall fans to hear. I mean, especially because of how last season went.
00:01:35
Speaker
It seemed like they had kind of bottled lightning, you know, to and caught lightning in a bottle, so to speak. I mean, it it was... it was a kind of a one in a million shot.
00:01:47
Speaker
I think with everything going on around the team, Charles Huff, again, i if, if anybody truly does know the details of what went down between the AD and Charles Huff, shoot us a line, warm weather fans at gmail.com.
00:02:01
Speaker
Um, However, it seems like a lot of conjecture ah around what happened with the team. I mean, especially you had assistant coaches kind of lashing out at the fans and and the team itself and the program at the end of last year. So again, who knows what happened, but they did the thing that everybody tells opposing teams not to do, which is don't have your coach on a one-year expiring deal going into a season because it's going to totally wreck your team.
00:02:31
Speaker
It did for 2025, but last year you uncover Braylon Braxton. He steps in for Stone Earl, comes in makes a kind of a miracle run after they finally decide that Braxton's the right way to go.
00:02:47
Speaker
Again, all the way to the Sunbelt title game, including a huge comeback in the the season finale against JMU. They play Louisiana, who, you know, obviously we're recording both our Louisiana and Marshall preview at the same time.
00:03:01
Speaker
ah We talked about it. They trounce Louisiana 31 to three. And then the entire roster just kind of, you know, the Huff thing is is for real. he He takes off and goes to Hattiesburg.
00:03:13
Speaker
Yeah. They had 30 or more players hit the portal at the end of last year, so they did not compete in a bowl game. They also had a bunch of injuries at the end of last year, so they they literally couldn't field a team.
00:03:27
Speaker
um So the last we saw of them, they were excellent and were just crushing a very good Louisiana team who had been kind of hurt with injuries at the quarterback spot specifically.
New Coaching Era Under Tony Gibson
00:03:41
Speaker
Now... I think we we usually start with the offense, but I think we have to start with with the head coaching spot and go on down. Tony Gibson comes in. Um, he has been the defensive coordinator at West Virginia and then NC state.
00:03:57
Speaker
Um, I, Tony Gibson, I have kind of middle of the pack experience with him. He was actually in the running for the Georgia Southern job when we eventually hired Tyson Summers back in, I think it was 2016 off the top of my head.
00:04:13
Speaker
um He obviously didn't get that job, but had just stuck around, been a defensive coordinator at some P5 schools, Dana Holgerson at West Virginia, and then, you know, NC State.
00:04:27
Speaker
But Zeke, what are you... the vibes around this team have to be all time bad coming into this season. This is, this is basically like starting a team from scratch, you know, and and just trying to start from square one.
00:04:39
Speaker
Yeah. um Tony Gibson spent the past four, five years or so, at NC State as their defensive coordinator. um And when he was there, NC State had a couple of really, really good years defensively, but also had some really, really bad ones.
00:04:57
Speaker
So it's a mixed bag there. Obviously, personnel fluctuates a lot. But, I mean, with NC State, you're looking at ah he spent, let me count it, six years there. Twice he had his defenses allowed at least 30 points a game.
00:05:13
Speaker
But the other three times, you're in the 19 to 20 range. that's a huge gap. I mean, that is a several wins or losses a year type swing ah from 20 to 30 points a game.
00:05:25
Speaker
ah So it's not a horrific hire from that angle. This is a Marshall team that has had some really good defenses. Mike Green, obviously um being the most notable product out of that defense, who's now putting on a pretty good show in NFL preseason looks like he's going to, uh, make a pretty quick transition into a, ah a strong professional career.
00:05:52
Speaker
From what I understand, Tony Gibson is local ish, uh, to West Virginia. From what I understand, i mean, he, he's very long tenured. He's been a coach for, for several decades at this point.
00:06:05
Speaker
Um, it, it, this is just going to be the hardest episode for us to record. because there's so many unknowns. We're talking about a head coach with a minimal, if any head coaching experience. um As I I'm checking it again here, his last head coaching job was in 95 for a high school. um We're talking about players on both sides of the ball that have either never played or, you know, we're getting 11 tackles last year you
00:06:37
Speaker
had 104 receiving yards. So this is just, everything is, everything is fresh. Um, I think that's a real disappointment. Marshall is obviously a brand name in college football.
Offensive Challenges and New Additions
00:06:48
Speaker
It's one that I think since it's inclusion or since it joined the Sunbelt is one that we want to be good.
00:06:55
Speaker
Um, Marshall again, movie and history aside is just like kind of a name brand of G5 football. Um, So it's disappointing to understand that this is going to be, they're probably going to, they will go from the pinnacle of the conference, probably to the seller that ULM Southern Miss have been in, in recent years.
00:07:17
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, this was weeks ago, but on our X account at Warm Weather Fans, I posted the odds for teams to win the Sun Belt.
00:07:28
Speaker
Marshall was like firmly in the basement. I'm pretty sure it was something like plus 2,000 in order to win the conference. So listen, if you're a Marshall fan and you feel very confident for some reason in this in this year's team,
00:07:45
Speaker
Drop a couple hundos on it. see See what happens. But I just, i like you said, this is going to be one of the hardest episodes to do because they have almost no returning production to speak of.
00:07:58
Speaker
ah You know, you get a couple of guys here and there that did a little bit, but not not a ton. ah The coaching... So actually, let's start off.
00:08:10
Speaker
I can start here. I know a little bit about the the offensive coordinator. So you get Rod Smith comes over from Jacksonville State, where he coached last year under Rich Rodriguez. um ah Rich, or maybe he wasn't the OC, but he was it was a coach at Jacksonville State.
00:08:27
Speaker
ah That Jacksonville State was very good last year and and they kind of rallied late in the year and ended up beating Western Kentucky for Conference USA title. So they were a conference champ.
00:08:38
Speaker
They were in a very interesting kind of spread option style attack where they were not throwing the ball very much. I mean, they had they had games where they were running for 300 yards ah per game, like as a team, like they were.
00:08:52
Speaker
ah We talked about it last year when we were doing our recaps, when they played coastal in week one, they look like the worst quarterback situation in the country. And by the end of the year, they were winning their conference. So that clearly something got shaped up. They fixed the play calling, you know, who knows how much again, Rod Smith had to do with that versus rich Rodriguez, who was the head coach and offensive guru. And it's now at West Virginia.
00:09:18
Speaker
Um, um, Now he's Rod Smith's got his work cut out for him here with this offense because let's start with the quarterback spot. So you get at least Phil steel has projected a guy in Carlos Del Rio Wilson, who is a transfer over from Syracuse.
00:09:36
Speaker
Uh, I made the joke before we started recording Syracuse is not exactly a football powerhouse that I want to be grabbing guys from, at least like homegrown. I mean, they did some things with Kyle McCord, but he was a, he was an Ohio state guy.
00:09:51
Speaker
Uh, he was not a Syracuse, you know, born and bred player. Um, um, you know i think they unless they feel really good about the little bit that they saw from Del Rio Wilson in 2023, I think it needs to be an open competition to see who starts at quarterback for them because, frankly, yeah any of these guys, you can you can pick them out of a hat.
00:10:12
Speaker
Zion Turner, ah Ja'Kai Long is another guy. ah And then Del Rio Wilson. That's kind of your – you get Jack Clarity, who's also on the roster.
00:10:23
Speaker
I truly don't know what to expect out of this quarterback spot. I think my anticipation for the offense is just to run the heck out of the ball and just kind of let the chips fall where they may. i don't I don't know.
00:10:36
Speaker
i don't know. I think this team – I mean, they're going to be in a position, though, where this team is going to need points pretty quickly. pretty quickly in games, they're going to need to start scoring and start scoring quickly. Um, so if they want to run it out, kind of and bleed out over the course of the game, maybe that's what they decide to do. Um, because the running back, but the thing is the running back room is not, uh, substantially more, um, be a proven,
00:11:02
Speaker
We were looking at Tony Mathis who last year at Houston, 170 yards. ah You've got Joe Sean Barbie who last year played for McNeese state 831 yards. That's good.
00:11:14
Speaker
That's very good actually, but it be state unsure how that's going transfer translate. translate We got Michael Allen, a guy from UNLV who did some interesting things last year. um It's,
00:11:28
Speaker
We're going to say this this could be a really quick episode because every position is going to be like this. It's going to be like, oh, this guy had some had a year of some solid success at FCS, or this guy was a transfer from an interesting team last year.
00:11:42
Speaker
Yeah. I'm sorry. i really feel like failing in our job, but there's no other option. No. You just say, I don't i don't know. I've never seen these guys play. I'm really sorry.
00:11:53
Speaker
ah There was a 247 Sports article that went up like two hours ago that I was i was kind of glancing at earlier. It was called Quotes from Coach Gibson and a Quarterback Bound.
00:12:05
Speaker
I tried to pull it up as we start recording. It's now a 404 error. Not a green sign. yeah exactly ah It's tough, man. It's really, really tough. ah and i with Some of these transfers really highly.
00:12:22
Speaker
I think that's worth noting. Carlos Del Rio Wilson gets Phil Steele's top 15. I think that's by position. So 15th ranked quarterback transfer. um Awesome.
00:12:37
Speaker
i I will say this. So I, the, you know, peek behind the curtain, the the interview with Phil Steele has been recorded. It's in the can. and It's been edited. It's been scheduled.
00:12:48
Speaker
It's going up on the 19th. This is probably not probably. This is not a good sign. I think Marshall was the only team he and I did not discuss at all.
00:12:58
Speaker
I don't think we said three words about Marshall, to be quite frank. I think we talked about it a little bit when we were talking about Southern Misses team. But but we we didn't speak a word about Tony Gibson, about the situation here with the whole team.
00:13:13
Speaker
ah You know, Shocker here, he's bearish on the team overall. I mean, he's got both the offense and defense taking like huge, huge steps back and being like, all right, guys, this is like a rebuilding thing. This isn't like a, hey, he's going to turn around in year one and pull like a ah John Summerall or any anything close. Even a Bob Chesney, he's going to come out and win eight games in his first season.
00:13:37
Speaker
That's not happening. I mean, everybody around the team that covers... G5 football is like, yeah, it's just it's not going happen in 2025. So we'll we'll have to see.
00:13:49
Speaker
You know, you went over the running backs. The receiving core is not much better. I mean, as far as what returning production is. And I promise, Marshall, we're not picking on you guys. But there's truly nothing really to talk about.
00:14:02
Speaker
I mean, DeMarcus Lacey played at Jacksonville State last year.
00:14:08
Speaker
Again, with Jacksonville State's offense, he had 84 yards receiving. Like, that's that's one of the big that's one of the big transfers at receiver. Antonio Harmon, another transfer, this time for Mississippi State, did not play for Mississippi State last year at all.
00:14:26
Speaker
And then DeAndre tarm Tamarez ah played at Western Carolina and had 576 yards. ah I don't know what Western Carolina has been up to, but at least when Georgia Southern was in the FCS and playing them every year, they were the doormat of the SOCON.
00:14:46
Speaker
Everybody went and just was like, this is a free, free win every year. I mean, they were winning like two games a season. So I, I don't know. There might be guys that are further down ah this projected depth chart that step up like,
00:15:00
Speaker
Ben Turner out of D2 West Liberty. You got Xavion Turner Bradshaw out of Virginia Tech. ah You got Marcel Williams who played seven games last year at App State.
00:15:14
Speaker
picked your Pick your poison. like Choose your fighter type tight passing game. and you don't You don't get a ton out of the tight end position either in Toby Payne who Phil Steele has as his preseason first team tight end in the conference but Payne's all of last year was very much a blocking type guy.
00:15:34
Speaker
If you read his bio on the team website, it highlights one of his key contributions as being like a really good kickoff blocker. And that's not to understate that value, but in a offense that needs someone that's been in this program, he's your highest returning yardage, a skill position player.
00:15:52
Speaker
He had 168 yards last year. um It's tough. I guess his blocking acumen can, by time for Del Rio Wilson, I suppose.
00:16:03
Speaker
um
00:16:06
Speaker
i I truly don't know. I mean, I wouldn't be shocked, like I said, if they if they just said screw it and ran something similar to what Jacksonville State did last year, where it was run, run, run, run run and then, like, you know, there are ugly games where the run doesn't work, and guess what?
00:16:24
Speaker
You're getting your doors blown off, but... it It beats the other option, which is trying to air it out 40 times with a guy with a quarterback you don't quite believe in. Shoot. I mean, with ah with a guy like Payne, who is capable of catching passes and plays a very blocking role, if one of these running backs really pop out, this could be like a Southern Miss from a couple years ago when they had a revolving door of quarterbacks, and it was Frank Gore taking mostly wildcat-type snaps.
00:16:52
Speaker
um would I mean, at It feels like, again, it's super early preseason, but at this point, it's like you where you you have to get the yards wherever you can. Yeah.
00:17:03
Speaker
I mean, okay, going to the offensive line, you return one starter in Jalen Slappy. I'm putting him down on my all-name team, just spoiler alert. ah At right guard, he started 13 games last year, so at least somebody from that that amazing team besides Toby Payne on the offense ah played.
00:17:24
Speaker
ah So there's that. But you've got four you've got four new starters on the offensive line. ah Tyler McDuffie, the left tackle, started 11 games last year at Hampton, but he is massive. 365. I mean, it's like it's like someone shaved a grizzly bear and like sent him out there and was like, protect his blind side. I mean, he's a huge dude. ah Yeah, I mean, from there, it's like Tariq Montgomery played in eight games last year.
00:17:53
Speaker
ah I don't know how to pronounce this guy. The left guard, last name Adams. I do not want to butcher his first name. ah you know It said he started two games and participated in 13 games last year.
00:18:06
Speaker
So it's like, ah outside of Slappy, you don't have guys that have significant experience. You've got guys that have played in spurts, but you don't know what you're getting out of these guys. so we talked about in the Louisiana preview something I do want to point
Season Start and Game Predictions
00:18:22
Speaker
out. ah The weight of that offensive line Per Phil Steele, the five projected starters all clock over 300. They sum up to 1,600 pounds. They average 324 across them.
00:18:35
Speaker
um That was just something we were talking about with the Louisiana preview that we recorded about an hour ago with Matt. um You got some maulers up front.
00:18:46
Speaker
Can pave the way, especially if you've got what I think I might start advocating for, especially if we see some running back play. Tony Mathis. Joe Sean Barbie, Michael Allen taking those snaps.
00:19:01
Speaker
Yeah. we'll see is it Is it an option to just put the heaviest five guys out there, or I guess heaviest four guys and Slappy out there and just see like what happens? like See if they can just absolutely kill the other team? I mean, it's like one of their guys on the bench is Isaac Clary.
00:19:20
Speaker
He's 6'7", 343, and is ah projected as a backup guard. like What's the value in just sticking the heaviest, biggest dudes you can out there and just going like, push forward and let's see what happens?
00:19:32
Speaker
and though I think this is going to step on the toes of the schedule section of the show, but they're they're going to be a week late to even testing all this out. Because who does Marshall draw week one at Georgia?
00:19:47
Speaker
I mean... they might walk Georgia just might put their score on the card and hand it to the referee and Marshall's like, all right, thanks guys. We'll take that paycheck. Thank you.
00:19:58
Speaker
ah All right. So ah that's the offense. You have no idea what you're getting. Any of these guys could start or play because frankly, outside of slappy and Toby Payne in a blocking tight end role, everybody else's jobs kind of up for grabs.
00:20:15
Speaker
It doesn't feel like anybody is slotted in is like, absolutely. This guy has to start. Defensively is not much better. You return two starters on defense from last year.
00:20:26
Speaker
ah Number one, I think, is Jadarius Green-McKnight, the strong safety, ah who ah played in – started all 13 games, notched 38 tackles at the safety spot.
00:20:40
Speaker
And then you've got Marvay Myers-Glover. What? Middle Tennessee last year. Bill Steele's been doing this weird thing where he goes all hacked for guys that were starters at other teams.
00:20:54
Speaker
I don't understand it. My bad. Hand up. That's my mistake. ah No. Yeah, you're right. I didn't get to that yet. Marve Myers Glover, I was going to say at Middle Tennessee. I did read that one. I thought you were talking about the safety.
00:21:08
Speaker
I was confused for a sec. ah Yeah. So... Well, then you've got, what, one returning starter then? Yeah. So I'll start from the top. All right. ah So defensively, ah at least when I kept up with ah West Virginia, when Tony Gibson was the defensive coordinator there, they ran 3-3-5. It'll be interesting to see if that's what they deploy. I mean, that's the way that it projects on paper.
00:21:35
Speaker
You got three really big dudes up front in Jamal Weiss, Katron Evans, and Jaleel Rivera Harvey. um
00:21:46
Speaker
i I don't know. I mean, i guess the idea is, you know, Weiss is coming over from having played the last two years at South Carolina. Hopefully you've got a little pedigree there because South Carolina had a stupidly deep defensive line.
00:21:59
Speaker
um So maybe he just couldn't find the the right fit and is a good player that just couldn't get on the field. ah Katron Evans is a huge nose guard at 335.
00:22:11
Speaker
ah Played last year at Charlotte. Eight tackles, one and a half tackles for a loss. And then ah Rivera Harvey apparently played at Marshall in 2023, transferred to Western Kentucky last year, played in four games, and then transferred back to Marshall, at least according to Phil Steele.
00:22:29
Speaker
ah Yeah. Do you have anything on this defensive line? just ah They're big, man. That's something. At least I guess you can see the fit on paper because it's like some of these teams you look at and you're like, you guys are going to run a three, four in your defensive ends, 245 pounds. How's that?
00:22:51
Speaker
How does that work exactly? um All right. So at the linebacker spots, you've got Javay Gilmore, ah who started, played in 11 games last year at Mississippi state, only notched two tackles.
00:23:08
Speaker
not Not a lot there. Jabril Al-Amin played, had two starts and 23 tackles last year at Jacksonville State in the linebacking corps. And then Cannon Lewis projects as your Mike, who played for Gibson last year at NC State.
00:23:25
Speaker
He's got a couple of these NC State defensive transfers, so you've got to at least hope, like... hey, he he helped recruit these guys. He can kind of point them out and say, these are guys that I want to bring over with me because I think they can be something at Marshall.
00:23:39
Speaker
Yeah, that was something we didn't really touch on. A couple of those offensive transfers, too, are coming over from Jacksonville State with Rod Smith. So you you think there's some sort of rapport there.
00:23:51
Speaker
Obviously, would require Rod Smith's left blessing before they let them transfer in. um So, There is something to be said about that. Sure.
Defensive Rebuilding and Strategies
00:24:02
Speaker
ah And then in the secondary, you've got Josh Pierre-Louis, or Lewis, ah did not play last year at West Georgia, transferring over, slotting in as your nickel corner.
00:24:13
Speaker
ah I mentioned Myers Glover from Middle Tennessee. Daryl Sweeting projects as the other corner, ah played four games last year at Temple. ah Green McKnight is your strong safety, your lone returning starter to the team.
00:24:27
Speaker
And then at the free safety spot, you got Cameron Smith, ah who played at Eastern Michigan in 2023, and then Jackson State, FCS Jackson State last year, and notched 27 tackles. So again,
00:24:44
Speaker
doesn't project to to be great level, high level football on paper. We'll have to see if, if, if Gibson scheme can kind of bring these guys together and, and make them kind of a full unit.
00:24:56
Speaker
But yeah, I mean this, this unit was going to be deprived of a lot of talent anyway. Obviously Mike green, as we started at the top with, he's the headliner 17 sacks. You just don't replace that.
00:25:09
Speaker
ah You get a couple other guys. Jaden Yates at the linebacker spot was real good. J.J. Roberts was exceptional in pass defense as well. ah He had like something stupid like 13 breakups.
00:25:22
Speaker
So they were going to take a step back with this year, but much like the rest of the team, instead of a step back, it's going to be a slide, you know, shoots and ladders.
00:25:32
Speaker
You're on square number 99. and don't pass go Don't pass go. Don't collect $500. Go straight to jail. Yeah. like that.
00:25:44
Speaker
All right. So let's move over to the schedule. ah I Zeke, if you will vamp for a little bit, I will look up their win total. I'm pretty sure I know what it is off the top of my head, but I want to be sure that that is ah confirmed. So can you take through schedule?
00:26:05
Speaker
Yeah, so as we said, they start the season at Georgia. that's you know That will be a good cash injection to an otherwise struggling football team. ah You get your first home opener or home home game of the year.
00:26:20
Speaker
You host Missouri State. That will be interesting, getting a new FBS program in. That could be a fun one. You get Eastern Kentucky the week after that, also at home before going on a two-week road trip at Middle Tennessee at Louisiana.
00:26:36
Speaker
You take a bye October 4th before playing back-to-back home games, Old Dominion, and then Texas State, Texas State being your homecoming game. You get October 25th. You take another bye before returning to play Coastal Carolina.
00:26:53
Speaker
At Coastal, that game is on a Thursday, Coastal off of a bye. You then get a really tough James Madison team November 8th. That James Madison team is off a bye and you will probably be looking at clinching a spot in the championship game that week.
00:27:09
Speaker
And then you end the season at Georgia State, at App State versus Georgia Southern. um Georgia State might be as close to a winnable game as they have.
00:27:21
Speaker
in the conference with App State at App and versus Southern kind of figuring it as losses. I see two, I see three to five wins. I think stealing five wins here, realistic expectation four, maybe realistic expectation three being Missouri State EKU.
00:27:47
Speaker
and maybe Georgia State. um I don't know. i don't really know anything about Middle Tennessee. um They're usually not good. There's three to four wins here that if you come out without three wins, that'll be a disappointment, um although this year will be a disappointment anyway. What's the number at?
00:28:11
Speaker
Well, I'll say this. This might be a future ah Brian put actual money on it. The over-under is four and a half, and the under is plus 110. That looks pretty juicy to put some money on because...
00:28:27
Speaker
I don't see this team winning in five games. I think if they won five games, it would be... i think they need to be thanking the high heavens that Tony Gibson worked a miracle with this roster because this just isn't it in year one. I mean, I don't i don't know what else to say.
00:28:43
Speaker
Like, ah again, Missouri State, Eastern Kentucky, maybe Middle Tennessee, maybe you catch Coastal on that Thursday night off of a bye.
00:28:57
Speaker
Coastal's quarterback situation is about the same as Marshall's. They've got like a P5 transfer that no one knows is good and has not really played. And then like you said, i actually think Georgia State is is like a league better than Marshall at this point.
00:29:13
Speaker
And like, that's not saying a lot, but yeah they they at least know who their quarterback is. They have a number one receiver with Ted Hurst. ted hirst It just depends if they can play defense to me.
00:29:26
Speaker
And then I think app is kind of in a similar ish boat. I think they've got a better foundation, but this is brand new coach, you know, coming over ah from the Carolinas.
00:29:41
Speaker
Like, you know, who knows who knows what they ultimately look like. Yeah, man, I've got like four wins, five wins max. Again, they are – so I just checked it on DraftKings. They are plus 3,000, so the odds have actually gone up or down, I guess, rather, to win the conference. So, again, if you feel – if you are a Marshall fan and you feel passionate that they are they will win this conference and that, you know, Tony Gibson's going to show all the haters and they're going to beat Charles Huff for the Sunbelt title –
00:30:13
Speaker
lay some cash on it. You know, you might, you might be able to buy yourself a new house ah with these odds. um But yeah, Zeke, I mean, that pretty much does it, man. that I mean, usually we talk about like kind of the ins and outs of the team and, you know, but I felt like we talked about kind of last year's Marshall team when we reviewed Southern Miss, because that's primarily where a lot of their players are and reside at this moment.
00:30:40
Speaker
They're their ex head coach as well. And there's just so little returning production, both from internally guys that were already on the roster and guys that were outside the team.
00:30:52
Speaker
Like even guys that came from elsewhere, like really haven't played that much where they played at a low level of football. So yeah, man, that's, that's just kind of where it stands. It's it's, it's going to be a really tough season.
00:31:05
Speaker
I think for Marshall. Yeah. ah Marshall, I think, I don't know if and when we'll figure out how the Charles Huff departure really played out.
00:31:17
Speaker
But something that really raises a flag to me about the state of the program is that... Huff left like just December, right? it It was not long after the championship. it was like it was like the day It was like two days or whatever after the championship game because Matt, we made a joke that Matt was like, Hattiesburg's not that far from Lafayette.
00:31:40
Speaker
And I was like, you should drive over there and be at the press conference because... he asked Huff going into the championship game, like, how do you feel about these rumors? And Huff was like, well, any 12 year old can make up rumors. And then was like, Matt, you need to drive over there and sit in the front row and be like, what's up.
00:31:58
Speaker
So I know it was like, it was announced like probably less than a week after that. I hope maybe one day we'll get the 30 for 30 on it. Um, because that, that was a really weird situation. Um, and Tony Gibson, i I guess we'll see, but on paper, it doesn't look like even with that full off season ah to bring in guys, doesn't look like he did an excellent job replenishing his staff. um I think unlike a team like App State or other teams we've seen recently with new head coaches, this is going to be a pretty disinteresting first couple of years ah because they're truly starting from ground zero and they really just have to build
00:32:43
Speaker
start with the foundation um unlike really I feel like any other team we've seen in college football just considering how many names they lost and the caliber of talent by volume and by person.
00:33:01
Speaker
I've got to say this and I'll go ahead and put this take out right now. they need to almost be operating like SMU was post death penalty.
00:33:12
Speaker
Like what you need to do is go to your roster. You have four returning starters on the whole team. Let those guys play because you know, they earned it fine.
Focus on Future Development
00:33:23
Speaker
The rest of the team, if you even have an inkling that a younger guy, like a redshirt freshman, sophomore, is better or could be better, just throw them out there.
00:33:34
Speaker
I mean, this is just going to be purely a season of development. Like, you have no expectations. You're not even you're not meant to compete for a bowl game. you're You're not even meant to be probably in the top five teams in the East.
00:33:47
Speaker
Like, it is... I mean, you're projected to be in the basement. So I'm looking at their recruiting class, which I haven't done for any other team, because frankly, most other teams at least have something to discuss.
00:33:59
Speaker
You got Koi Fagan, the incoming freshman at quarterback. Let him play. Like, at least if you are as bad as as as we think, let him play the last four games of the season. Keep his red shirt or whatever you want to do with him and just get him some game reps, because frankly, like, what else are you going to do?
00:34:19
Speaker
You know, like you're not going to develop any of these like upperclassmen. They're not coming back. so and you're not competing for a a Sunbelt title at least theoretically so yeah just play the game guys for an mta twenty six rebuild and you just want to absolutely gutter roster here you go this was Kennesaw State of last year shoot you've probably got more pieces in Missouri State uh than you do here Yeah.
00:34:49
Speaker
So again, if you want to, if you want a true rebuild, this is, this is like starting again from like team builder and clicking on like cupcake in the team settings and being like, all right, let's just start from zero and see how it goes.
00:35:04
Speaker
All right. Zeke, as we wrap up here, let everybody know where they can find you on socials and then I'll close us out. Yeah, man, you can find me on Twitter at Zeke Palermo, Z-E-K-E-P-A-L-E-R-M-O. You can also find the pod on Twitter at WarmWeatherFans, just as you see it above our heads.
00:35:22
Speaker
Yeah, ah you can email the show, warmotherfans at gmail.com. You can catch me on X at WatchTheStone. Next week, we will be back with our Phil Steele interview to start the week.
00:35:35
Speaker
And then at the end of the week, we will put together our all-names team and we'll... I don't know. We could do it draft format, maybe like where we, we go one, two, three, and then, and then do like a snake draft style, uh, thing with the all names team, but we go position by position.
00:35:52
Speaker
Um, Yeah, it should be a fun one. And then from there, the week after, we're going to preview week one and then we'll be into actual real life football and and done projecting things like this Marshall roster for for who's going play.
00:36:06
Speaker
But thank you guys. That wraps up the preview series. Again, we will be back next week with our ah Phil Still interview and more on Warm Weather Fans.