Marshall Thundering Herd 2022 College Football Preview
July 16, 2022
2021 Recap
Record – 7-6
ATS – 6-7
Year one of the Charles Huff Experience wasn’t that great, but it wasn’t a train wreck either. The Herd rebounded quite nicely off a three-game losing streak by rattling off four wins in a row, but they finished with a thud. The mighty Hilltoppers destroyed them in the regular season finale (L 53-21) and the Cajuns took care of them in the New Orleans Bowl (L 36-21).
Does Marshall have a license to improve in 2022?
Marshall Thundering Herd 2022 Outlook
OFFENSE
The offense did some good work LY as they averaged a robust 33 PPG (#30 FBS) whilst doing most of their damage thru the air (#18 passing offense). QB Grant Wells threw for over 3,500 (!) yards but simply made too many mistakes (16-13 TD to INT) over the course of the year. Marshall will have a new starting QB and it’ll almost certainly be the former Texas Tech signal-caller Henry Colombi running the offense. It can’t hurt to feature a QB that’s thrown over 300 Big 12 passes and played much better competition. Two of the top-four receiving targets are back including #1 Corey Gammage (78,878, 2TD) and keep an eye on highly-regarded specimen WR Bryan Robinson who comes over from Florida St. RB Rasheen Ali is one of the more underrated stars in the country and rolls into 2022 off a great campaign in which he dominated on the ground (1,401, 23 TD!) whilst catching 46 balls out of the backfield. There might be an issue up front as an OL that performed so well LY (19 sacks, 4.7 YPC) loses their star center and LT and are much less experienced overall.
DEFENSE
Marshall can almost always be counted on to play good defense, but while they were excellent vs the pass LY (#12 FBS pass efficiency D, 54.7%, 18-10 TD to INT; 40 sacks, #15 FBS) they were surprisingly weak vs the run (189 YPG, #104!). We really like the look of the defense heading into 2002 as new DC Lance Guidry has a small handful of excellent returnees to work with in addition to Power 5 transfers that could earn starting roles. The DL has the potential to be REALLY good given the return of their DE combo (Alston, Cumberlander) that combined for 13 TFL and an impossible 25 (!) QBH LY, and the interior got a great dose of talent infusion via the transfer portal. 1st Team C-USA member and #1 tackler Abraham Beauplan leads a strong LB group and they boast a pair of all-conference CBs in Micah Abraham and Steven Gilmore. It’s a RISE IN CLASS moving to the new-and-improved Sun Belt but this just might be the best overall D in the conference.
Special Teams
KR Jayden Harrison did a fine job LY (25.2, TD) but they’ll need to rebuild the kicking game from scratch. That might not be a bad thing given that the Herd made just 8-13 FG attempts in 2021.
Schedule Analysis
Overall – The Herd draws the top-two teams from the West (Louisiana, Troy), go ON THE HIGHWAY to face Notre Dame, and play three straight road games in September. The good news is that Coastal Carolina and Appalachian St both have to come to Huntington, and they get to battle things called Norfolk St and Gardner-Webb.
Potential ATS Trouble Spot – September 17 – at Bowling Green
This is a SANDWICH spot between Notre Dame and the conference opener at Troy. Also note that Bowling Green appears to be a BURGEONING JUGGERNAUT.
Season Win Total
Per BetOnline July 16
Over 7 -115
Under 7 -115
MEGALOCKS says:
Lean: Over
There are a number of tough games on the docket but enough free squares for us to feel that ‘7’ is very close to a worst-case scenario.
MEGAmazing Tidbits
Marshall has been tough to beat at home over the L10Y (46-18, .718) but note that they’ve booked a stinky 21-31-1 (40%) ATS mark over that time horizon as home chalk. BEWARE!
MEGALOCKS Outlook:
We’d like to feel a bit better about the offensive line and the QB situation but that defense should be flat out NASTY. These guys are a prime contender in the brand new FUN BELT East division and we give them a solid shot to get to the conference title game. It won’t be easy, but it’ll be a fun ride. Let’s go!
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WEBSITE
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NEWS
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/sports/marshall_sports/
http://www.espn.com/college-football/team/_/id/276/marshall-thundering-herd