Week 3 Preview: Marshall vs. Eastern Kentucky

Fresh off of a narrow 21-20 loss to FBS-newcomer Missouri State, Marshall will once again try to defend its home field against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels.

The Tony Gibson era is off to a shaky start for the Thundering Herd.

Saturday night in Huntington, the reigning Sun Belt Champions will take on the Colonels for the first time since the abbreviated season back in 2020– where Marshall won 59-0. The Thundering Herd have not lost back-to-back home games since 2022 and look to avoid their first 0-3 start since 2010.

The Colonels have not beaten an FBS team since their 2022 7OT thriller against Bowling Green, taking the win with a final score of 59-57.

Marshall

After being in control for most of the game, Missouri State’s air attack proved to be too overwhelming for the Thundering Herd secondary that allowed for 388 yards through the air. Included in these yards were two touchdowns of 50+ yards. After scoring 20 unanswered points, Marshall’s offense didn’t show much life in the second half as the Herd went 1-for-2 on field goal attempts and punted five times. While the Thundering Herd did go 2-for-3 in the red zone, Marshall quarterback Zion Turner believed the red zone offense could’ve been better.

“We got to finish drives. In the redzone, we’ve got to be 100% scoring and we weren’t today.” Turner said. “There’s a lot of mistakes a lot of plays we left out on the field, especially in the redzone.”

A week after throwing for 100 yards in the loss to Georgia, Turner threw for only 89 yards and 1 interception against the Bears. Turner was additionally one of three Marshall players to eclipse 60 rushing yards, while also touting the teams only touchdown.

Despite the loss, the Marshall pass rush played a solid game. Linebacker, Kerion Martin stood out with a career high and team leading 13 tackles (six solo) with one sack. The Thundering Herd’s pass rush got to the Missouri State quarterback six times, with seven different players recording at least half a sack.

Head coach Tony Gibson gave flowers to Missouri State after their first FBS win in program history.

“I want to give coach Beard and his staff and team a lot of credit” said Gibson. “They outplayed us, outcoached us.”

Coach Gibson also opened up about the plan moving forward for his Thundering Herd.

“We have to figure this thing out. Whether its personnel or scheme wise, we have to go back to the drawing board and figure this thing out in a hurry” Gibson said.

Eastern Kentucky

The Colonels are heading to Huntington, W. Va. as an unsurprising underdog at 1-1 on the season.

After getting boat-raced in Week 1 against Louisville, the Colonels did get back into the win column with a 10-point win over Houston Christian in their home opener. Despite being given a 12.5% chance to win by ESPN, the Colonels could be in the right place at the right time with Marshall reeling from back-to-back losses.

Eastern Kentucky’s defense shined against Houston Christian, forcing three fumbles and recovering two of them. Defensive lineman, Brad Gurly was the cornerstone for the defense, totaling six tackles (three solo), two tackles for loss, a sack and forcing a fumble. The Colonels scored on one of the forced fumbles, returning it for a 75-yard touchdown.

After forcing three turnovers in back-to-back weeks, Colonels head coach Walt Wells talked about his defenses ability to manufacture turnovers

“We did not expect it to be this big of a rate with the touchdowns. But I did expect us to have the ability to be able to do that.” Wells said “I think that’s a credit to our players and our coaches and the plans that they have during the week.”

The Colonels have not beaten an FBS team since 2022 but are hoping to change their fortunes against a Marshall team that is, as coach Wells put it, trying to find themselves.

“They’ve got 70 new players, they’ve got all new coaches.” Wells said “We have to come out and play to our strengths; we have to play physical and play smart.”

Eastern Kentucky’s last 2-1 start was back in 2022.