Marshall ready to move forward from extended layout

—By Bill Cornwell

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Marshall football faces a challenging November, but the Thundering Herd will be fully rested to begin the final month of the regular season.

The stretch starts Saturday afternoon when the Herd (4-3, 2-1) plays host to Louisiana-Monroe (5-2, 3-1) at 3:30 pm at Joan C. Edwards Stadium, a game that can be seen on ESPN+.

Marshall last played on October 17 when he defeated Georgia State and Saturday’s contest will be the team’s first game in 16 days.

The Warhawks lost at South Alabama last week, 46-17.

Marshall relied heavily on a steady dose of his run game in the victory over the Panthers, with AJ Turner rushing for 177 yards and three touchdowns. Turner also had a receiving score and accounted for 207 all-purpose yards. He now leads the Sun Belt Conference with 717 rushing yards.

The Warhawks struggled defensively in the loss at South Alabama, especially stopping the Jaguars on the ground. UL Monroe allowed six rushing touchdowns and gave up 355 yards on the ground.

Those numbers could be a signal as to what Marshall plans to do offensively on Saturday, but MU head coach Charles Huff says the Warhawks defensive struggles could be temporary.

“They’ve done a really good job against the run this year,” Huff said. “I think last week’s performance was an outlier. “AJ is having a great year, but we have to make sure that the quarterback is efficient with the ball, make sure the offensive line eliminates negative plays and whoever is in the backfield needs to make positive runs and be efficient in their play.”

UL Monroe’s offense has not put up eye-opening numbers this season, but features a talented back in freshman Ahmad Hardy, who has rushed for 604 yards and six touchdowns. The Warhawks’ quarterback is another freshman, Aidan Armenta, who has thrown for 630 yards with five touchdowns.

“They do a good job scheme-wise of putting stress on your entire defense,” Huff said. “You can scheme up your defense, but it comes down to attacking the guy. I’ve been really impressed with Ahmad Hardy because he does a really good job of breaking tackles and very rarely does the first defender get him down. It’s going to be a collective effort to stop him and our fundamentals and technique from a tackling standpoint need to be sound.”

The Warhawks are led by first-year head coach Bryant Vincent, who took the job after serving as New Mexico’s offensive coordinator last year. Vincent also had coaching stops at UAB and South Alabama.

Marshall and Louisiana-Monroe have only met once before, and that contest was significant as UL Monroe, then known as Northeast Louisiana, defeated the Herd 43-42 in the 1987 NCAA I-AA National Championship Game in Pocatello, Idaho.

— — — — —

Although Saturday is not Marshall’s final home game of the season, it will be Senior Day, as the November 16 contest with Coastal Carolina will serve as a day of remembrance for the 75 victims of the 1970 Marshall football plane crash.

Eighteen MU seniors will be recognized before this week’s game and another three players that have previously gone through Senior Day festivities will also be recognized.