Marshall University Football: A Legacy of Thunder

The Marshall Thundering Herd football program represents Marshall University, competing in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) as part of the Sun Belt Conference (SBC). With a rich history dating back to 1895, the Thundering Herd have established themselves as a formidable force in college football.

A Storied History

Marshall University first fielded a football team in 1895. Over 125 seasons, they have compiled a record of 638-574-47, securing 14 conference championships, 13 of which were outright.

Home Field Advantage: Joan C. Edwards Stadium

Since 1991, the Thundering Herd have played their home games at Joan C. Edwards Stadium in Huntington, West Virginia. The stadium has a seating capacity of 30,475, expandable to 55,000. The stadium is one of two Division I stadiums named for a woman. Through the end of the 2024 season, Marshall boasts a 192-45 record at Joan C. Edwards Stadium, with a winning percentage of .810. The stadium opened in 1991 as Marshall University Stadium with a crowd of 33,116 for a 24-23 win over New Hampshire. A record crowd of 41,382 packed the stadium on September 10, 2010, when Marshall played in-state rival West Virginia Mountaineers in Huntington. The playing field is named James F.

Early Coaching Era

James F. Boyd served as Marshall's head football coach from 1909 to 1916. Rick Tolley led the team for two seasons before tragedy struck.

The 1970 Plane Crash and Rebuilding

The memorial at Spring Hill Cemetery in Huntington, West Virginia serves as a reminder of the victims of the Southern Airways Flight 932 crash. Rick Tolley was Marshall's head football coach for two seasons, coming to Marshall from his post as defensive line coach for Wake Forest and posting records of 3-7 and 3-6. In 1971, Marshall athletic director Joe McMullen hired Jack Lengyel to rebuild the program following the devastating plane crash that claimed the lives of most of the team. Lengyel recruited athletes from other sports, such as baseball and basketball, to fill the roster.

Frank Ellwood and Sonny Randle

Following Lengyel's tenure, Ohio University assistant Frank Ellwood, a Dover, Ohio, native, led the program for four seasons. The team went 2-9 during his first season and 5-6 during the 1976 campaign, a year in which the Thundering Herd upset 20th-ranked Miami (Ohio) on Sept. 12, 1976 at Fairfield Stadium in Huntington. The Herd had not defeated Miami since 1939. Sonny Randle became head coach following the 1978 season. Randle had been the head coach at East Carolina and Virginia. He went 12-42-1 during his five seasons in Huntington, which included a 5-26-1 record in Southern Conference play.

The Donnan and Pruett Dynasties

Under head coach Jim Donnan, who came to Marshall from his post as offensive coordinator at Oklahoma, Marshall achieved significant success in the Division I-AA. The Thundering Herd won the national championship in 1992 over Youngstown State (31-28) and were national runner-up in 1991, 1993 and 1995. Marshall set a I-AA record with five consecutive seasons making the semifinals of the I-AA playoffs from 1991 to 1996.

Bob Pruett left his post as defensive coordinator at Florida to become head football coach at Marshall, where he served from 1996 to 2004. During his tenure at Marshall, the Thundering Herd compiled a record of 94-23, featured two undefeated seasons, won six conference championships, won five of seven bowl games, and captured the I-AA National Championship in 1996. The 1996 team, ranked No. 1 all season, was 15-0 and won each game by more than two touchdowns. The 1996 team included future NFL players Chad Pennington, Randy Moss, John Wade, Chris Hanson, Eric Kresser, Doug Chapman.

Transition to Division I-A and the Mid-American Conference

Marshall moved to Division I-A and the Mid-American Conference in all sports in 1997. Since moving back to Division I-A, Marshall has finished in the Top 25 four times, in 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2014. From 1997 to 2000, Marshall appeared in the Motor City Bowl, losing in 1997 to Ole Miss before winning the next three bowl games against Louisville, BYU and Cincinnati. Marshall beat East Carolina 64-61 a double-overtime game in the 2001 GMAC Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. Marshall trailed 38-8 at halftime before rallying behind five Byron Leftwich touchdown passes. Marshall lost 32-14 to Cincinnati in the 2004 Plains Capital Fort Worth Bowl at Amon G.

Recent Coaching History

Former Marshall football player Mark Snyder became head football coach, leaving his position as defensive coordinator for Ohio State. Snyder coached Ahmad Bradshaw, Lee Smith, Vinny Curry, Albert McClellan and Cody Slate during his time as head coach at Marshall. Snyder's best season was 6-6 in 2009. On December 17, 2009, Doc Holliday, an assistant coach at West Virginia University, became Marshall's head coach after signing a five-year contract at $600,000 per season. Holliday led Marshall to a 10-4 season in 2013, capped with a victory in the Military Bowl. In the 2014 season, he led the team to a 13-1 season, winning the school's first C-USA Championship and the inaugural Boca Raton Bowl against Northern Illinois 52-23. In 2015, Holliday led the Herd to their first victory over a Big Ten school after beating the Purdue Boilermakers en route to a 10-3 season, including a win in the 2015 St. Petersburg Bowl. In 2020, Holliday led Marshall to a 7-0 start and a No. 15 Associated Press ranking. A three-game losing streak followed and the team finished 7-3. Marshall won the Conference USA East Division title, before losing to the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the 2020 Conference USA Championship game. Holliday was named Coach of the Year in 2020 by Conference USA.

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On January 17, 2021, Marshall hired Alabama running backs coach Charles Huff as its head coach. In his first season, Huff led Marshall to a 7-6 record. Marshall lost to the No. 23-ranked Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns 36-21 in the 2021 New Orleans Bowl. The school officially joined the Sun Belt conference in June 2022. On September 10, 2022, Huff led Marshall to their second all-time victory over a top-10 opponent after defeating the No. 8-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish 26-21 at Notre Dame Stadium. Huff earned his first bowl win as a head coach in the 2022 Myrtle Beach Bowl against the UConn Huskies 28-14, finishing the year 9-4. During the 2023 season, Huff guided Marshall to their first win over the Virginia Tech Hokies since 1940 with a 24-17 victory in Huntington. Despite a 4-0 start, Marshall would finish the regular season 6-6 and lose to the UTSA Roadrunners 35-17 in the 2023 Frisco Bowl to finish the year 6-7. During the 2024 season, Huff guided Marshall to its first Sun Belt East Division crown and first Sun Belt Conference Championship, becoming the first FBS school to win a title for three different conferences, by defeating Louisiana Regin' Cajuns 31-3 in Lafayette, Louisiana, as well as Marshall's first ten-win season since 2015.

In December 2024, Tony Gibson was named Marshall's head coach.

Bowl Game History

Marshall has played in 20 bowl games, compiling a record of 13-7 through the 2024 season. The Tangerine Bowl was unsanctioned by the NCAA until 1968. St.

Uniforms and Logos

Traditionally, the logo for Marshall athletics has been usually a green "M" letter logo, usually in trim, on what usually has been white helmets. Kelly and white are the primary colors of the football uniforms. Historically, there has also been a black alternate uniform. Historically, the football team has worn a white helmet, with a kelly green stripe surrounded by two white and black stripes across the middle of the helmet, with the "M" letter logo in kelly green with white and black trim; they have also worn a silver, or a kelly green helmet with the same striping as the white helmets, with both the same "M" logo in black (or white trim). The Thundering Herd athletic program has had a long standing relationship with Nike as their official outfitter. In 2019, Marshall released 2 new (black home and white away) jerseys with 3 pants (black white, and kelly green.) The black and kelly green jerseys had the stylized "The Herd" alternate logo on the front. The white home jersey had the "Marshall" wordmark on the logo's front, with the Nike "swoosh" logo on both the jerseys and pants, which also had the "M" / "The Herd" wordmark logo also on the pants. The jersey numbers were in block font style on the road / alternate jerseys, as they had historically been, and in a varsity font style on the home white jerseys. William G.

Rivalries

Marshall has several important rivalries that contribute to the excitement and tradition of the program.

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Appalachian State

Known colloquially as The Old Mountain Feud, the rivalry with Appalachian State was played annually 1977-1996. The rivalry resumed annual play in the 2020 season and is set to continue as Marshall joins Appalachian State in the Sun Belt Conference East Division in 2022. The significance of the rivalry is that both schools are public universities in the Appalachian mountains, dominant in FCS and FBS Group of Five football, recruit the same players out of the same regions, and have a national reputation that exceeds most peer football programs of their size.

Ohio University

Marshall's regional rival is Ohio University. Both schools compete against one another in the Battle for the Bell, with a traveling bell trophy as the prize for the victor. Both schools also played in the same MAC Conference for a number of years until Marshall joined Conference USA in 2005 - causing the annual rivalry game to go on hiatus. The regularly scheduled series resumed between the two schools in 2010. The rivalry was renewed in 2009 when the Herd and Bobcats faced off in the 2009 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, which the Herd won 21-17. Ohio leads the all-time series over Marshall, however the Thundering Herd have won 10 of 15 meetings since rejoining the FBS in 1997. The six-year series contract between the two schools ran out following the 2015 season. The series has since been renewed, as both schools are set to play one another in a future matchup in 2027.

West Virginia

Marshall played West Virginia in the annual Friends of Coal Bowl until 2012. Marshall and WVU first played in 1911, but it wasn't until 2006 before the two schools from the "Mountain State" faced off annually for the Governor's Cup. Some believe the rivalry began due to political pressure from the state government. The two last played in 2012, and there are no immediate plans to renew the rivalry.

East Carolina

Marshall and East Carolina have a "friendly" rivalry with one another. They are emotionally bonded by the tragic plane crash on November 14, 1970. The Thundering Herd were coming back from Greenville, North Carolina after a 17-14 loss to the Pirates when their plane crashed near Ceredo, West Virginia. One of Marshall and ECU's most memorable games was the 2001 GMAC Bowl as they combined for a bowl record, 125 points, as Marshall overcame a 30-point deficit to beat East Carolina 64-61 in double overtime. After Marshall defeated East Carolina in 2013, it marked ECU's last conference match-up as a member of Conference USA. On April 3, 2014, both schools announced that the two teams will meet again for a home and home seridatees in 2020 and 2021. East Carolina was supposed to host Marshall at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville, NC on September 5, 2020, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Marshall will host at Joan C. ECU was 6-3 against the Herd from 2005 to 2013 when both schools were in Conference USA. Joan C.

Notable Players

Marshall University's football program has produced numerous talented players who have gone on to achieve success at the professional level. Some of the most notable include:

Harry "Cy" Young: Starred in football and baseball at Marshall College (University status in 1961) from 1910 to 1912. Young then left Marshall, and was a two-sport All-American at Washington & Lee.
Jackie Hunt: (1939-41) set a national scoring record in 1940 with 27 touchdowns in a ten-game season. He rushed for nearly 4,000 yards for Thundering Herd, a hometown star for the Huntington High Pony Express before joining Marshall.
Mike Barber: (1985-88) was a record-setting receiver for Marshall who helped lead the Herd to its first I-AA title game in 1987 and its first Southern Conference title in 1988. He still holds the receiving yardage record at MU with over 4,200 yards and was a two-time All-American before he was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the fourth round in 1989.
Troy Brown: (1991-92) Considered the single-most dangerous scoring threat in all of Division I-AA during his two seasons in Huntington, few can match the heralded career of Marshall's record-breaking wide receiver. A dual threat on the playing field, Brown's elusive nature as a receiver and kick returner led the Thundering Herd to back-to-back trips to the Division I- AA (now FCS) National Championship game, garnering the NCAA title in 1992. He caught 139 receptions for 2,746 yards and 24 touchdowns in his career en route to earning First Team All-America honors his senior year.
Michael Payton: (1989-1992) was the starting quarterback for the Thundering Herd, leading the team to its first FCS national championship in 1992.
Randy Moss: (1996-1997) was a star wide receiver at Marshall in the program's final year in Division I-AA and its first year transitioning back into I-A, after having previously transferred from Florida State. Over two seasons at Marshall, Moss accumulated a total of 174 receptions for 3,529 yards and 54 receiving touchdowns, plus an additional rushing touchdown in 1997. Among Moss's receiving accolades at Marshall, he tied Jerry Rice's 1984 mark at Mississippi Valley State with 28 receiving touchdowns during Marshall's 1996 undefeated NCAA Division I-AA Championship season, including a four-touchdown performance in the title game against Montana; a 49-29 victory, and set a freshman I-AA receiving record of 1,709 yards; a record that still stands today. He also scored a touchdown in all 28 games Marshall played in 1996-97, won the Fred Biletnikoff Award in 1997, and that same year was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, finishing fourth in the voting.
Frank Gatski: C, 1985. Gatski is the only Marshall player to have his jersey number retired and was Marshall's first player in the Professional Football Hall of Fame. The university retired Gatski's No. 72 during a halftime ceremony at Joan C. Edwards Stadium on October 15, 2005. Gatski died a month later, at age 86. During his career with the Cleveland Browns (1946-56) and the Detroit Lions (1957) he won eight championships in 11 title game appearances. Cleveland won the All-American Football Conference four straight years, going 14-0 in 1948, before joining the NFL. The Browns won NFL titles in 1950, 1954 and 1955 and were runners-up in 1951, 1952 and 1953. Gatski's Lions beat the Browns for his final title in 1957.
Randy Moss, WR, 2018: Moss is the second player in the Professional Football Hall of Fame to have been a member of the Thundering Herd. In a career that spanned 14 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots, Tennessee Titans, and the San Francisco 49ers, Moss amassed the fourth-most receiving yards (15,292) and second-most re…

Looking Ahead

With a new head coach at the helm and a continued commitment to excellence, the Marshall Thundering Herd football program is poised to continue its legacy of success. The team's passionate fan base and state-of-the-art facilities provide a strong foundation for future achievements. The Marshall Thundering Herd football team is an intercollegiate varsity sports program of Marshall University. Marshall has appeared in the I-AA playoffs eight times, compiling a record 23-6.

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