First and Ben

 By Ben Anderson     Marshall football put early pressure on Ohio State Saturday, but it was not enough as the Herd suffered its second straight loss 49-14.       Marshall struck first on the game’s opening drive as the Herd drove 75 yards on 13 plays that took nearly seven minutes of the first quarter. The drive concluded with a 2-yard touchdown run from Ethan Payne to give Marshall a 7-0 lead and their only lead of the game.      The opening drive score was the pressure that Marshall head football coach Charles Huff wanted to put on the Buckeyes early in the game.      “I thought the biggest play, was we were down there on the goal line and we punched it in.” Huff said during his postgame news conference. “That’s a man’s yard down on the goal line. And I thought offensively, we were a lot more efficient today.”       Ohio State responded on their opening possession by going 70 yards on 2 plays to tie ...

by Ben Anderson      Marshall football will travel on Saturday to Columbus, Ohio, for its biggest game of the season against the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes.      Marshall enters the matchup coming off its bye week after losing to Virginia Tech 31-14 and used the bye week to work on fundamentals.      “I think anytime the schedule is going to be a challenge.” Marshall head football coach Charles Huff said during his weekly news conference. “Where college football, you need a little bit of a break in there to kind of really figure out who you are as It allowed us to make adjustments and to get tested on another level before we get into conference play.”      Marshall offensively during the bye week has focused on building the connection between quarterback and wide receivers as Marshall went three-and-out in half of its 14 drives against Virginia Tech.      “Sometimes we're getting it out so fast that the timing of ...

 by Ben Anderson      Marshal football will travel to the Horseshoe on Saturday for its biggest game of the season to play the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes.       Both teams enter the matchup after coming off their bye weeks.      Marshall, now in its 4th season in the Sun Belt Conference, enters the matchup at 1-1 and aims to pick up the offensive struggles from the 31-14 loss against Virginia Tech after the Herd went three-and-out in half of their 14 drives and was held to only 278 yards of total offense.        Ohio State enters the matchup 2-0 following a 56-0 win on Sept. 7 against the Western Michigan Broncos. The Buckeyes seek their 10th consecutive win in Ohio Stadium. Ohio State head football coach Ryan Day aims to improve to 21-5 in non-conference play during his tenure. The game will be teh Buckeyes' final game before Big Ten Conference play.       The game will mark the third mee...

 by Ben Anderson     Missed opportunities Saturday cost Marshall the game against Virginia Tech, Marshall head football coach Charles Huff said.       “Didn't make enough plays to beat a really good football team, too many missed opportunities in the beginning of the game that could have changed the outcome,” Huff said in his postgame news conference.  “Got to get better. We had opportunities, we got to make the catches, we got to get the guys on the ground. Can't turn the ball over. Special teams (were) back and forth (with) too many penalties.”      Marshall fell to Virginia Tech 31-14 and fell to 1-1 on the season.      Marshall struggled offensively as the first seven possessions resulted in punts except for the second drive that resulted in a missed field goal. Virginia Tech struck first with a 58-yard punt return for a touchdown on the final play of the first quarter.      “When you play a good te...

 By Ben Anderson           Marshall football overcame early challenges on Saturday to defeat Stony Brook 45-3 to start its 2024 campaign 1-0.      Marshall started the game slow, being forced to punt in their first two drives, until a rain delay that lasted over an hour and thirty-four minutes would hit late in the first quarter, but Marshall used that time to regroup and gameplan against the Seawolves.       “We went in the locker room we just didn't feel like we were planning a rhythm. I mean we did some good things obviously not knowing what Stony Brook was going to do or what they was going to do, it didn't allow us to kind of anticipate some things pre-snap.” Marshall head coach Charles Huff said during his postgame presser conference Saturday night. “We felt like we left a lot of opportunities out there in those first two or three series, we talked about what they were doing, we kind of eliminated the stuff we t...

by Ben Anderson    Marshall on Saturday kicks off its 2024 campaign against Stony Brook as both teams try to improve on the previous year’s losing records.  Marshall finished last season at 6-7 and suffered its first losing season in seven years. It now enters its fourth season in the Sun Belt Conference. The visiting Stony Brook Seawolves of the Colonial Athletic Association will come to Huntington from Stony Brook, New York following their first winless season in program history, finishing 0-10 last season.     The game will mark the beginning of new eras for both programs as Marshall will debut its revamped offense with first-year offensive coordinator Seth Doege’s air raid scheme. Seth Doege comes to Huntington after serving the 2022 season as the Tight Ends coach at Purdue and brings the air raid offense which is a pass-heavy and pass-first offense created by the late Mike Leach after playing for Leach at Texas Tech from 2009-2012. Stony Brook will deb...

by Ben Anderson A Marshall Journalism Hall of Famer and former sportswriter for Kentucky basketball recently said that journalism was not his original idea for a profession.   “In high school, a math teacher made an impression on me, and I wanted to be a math teacher.” said Jerry Tipton, who covered Kentucky basketball for the Lexington-Herald, told students in a sports journalism class at Marshall University in late August.  Tipton, once at college, decided to pursue journalism because of the support of his uncle. “My uncle was a Marshall Alumni and suggested to me to become a sportswriter.” Tipton said.  Like many journalists, Tipton started his career in college at Marshall Student newspaper, The Parthenon, which led to him getting his first job at the Herald-Dispatch. “In my junior year, Ralph Turner went to me and told me that the Herald-Dispatch was looking for students’ sports writers for Friday night high school football to answer the phones.” Tipton said....

 by Ben Anderson      The beginning line of “The Marshall football team’s first nine minutes or 2024 were much different than the 51 that followed” agrees with my impression of the game because Marshall’s offense could not get anything going in the first nine minutes of the game until the weather delay hit. The article details how Stone Earle struggled early with the “Air Raid” offense by missing five of his first seven throws. Overall, I thought the article did a great job with my impression of the game as it details the strong offense performance and high scoring of the Thundering Herd and how the stifling defense shut down Stony Brook in a dominant performance. Lastly, it tells the same interpretation that I had of Marshall’s offense, which, for running an “Air Raid,” surprisingly was more dominant in the run game than in the passing game, and how the run game is what got the scoring and momentum started for the Thundering Herd.  https://www.herald-dispatch.c...