Marshall Backs Out of Indy Bowl After Loss of Players To Portal

December 14, 2024 by Staff

The Sun Belt Champion Marshall Thundering Herd (10-3) have opted out of the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl game against American Athletic Conference Champion Army.

A 5-7 Louisiana Tech of Conference USA has reportedly accepted an invitation to fill the void. Louisiana Tech's Ruston campus is just an hour drive east of Shreveport where the bowl game is played.

In the aftermath of the the Herd losing head coach Charles Huff to Southern Miss, Adam Rittenberg at ESPN reports that the team has "36 players in the transfer portal, including 29 scholarship players and 17 players on the team's two-deep", that played in the Sun Belt title game in a 31-3 rout at Louisiana a week ago.

Per Rittenberg's article, "All three Thundering Herd quarterbacks who played this season are in the portal, including starter Braylon Braxton, the Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year. Defensive end Mike Green, the Sun Belt Player of the Year, declared for the NFL draft Friday. A number of Marshall staff members also have left, some joining Huff at Southern Miss."

Southern Miss on December 8 announced Marshall head coach Charles Huff as the new HC of the Eagles. Huff leaves the Herd after leading them to the Sun Belt title and compiling a 32-20 record in four seasons and a 1-2 record in bowl games. He replaces Will Hall who was fired on October 20 when the team was 1-6. Hall's assistant head coach and GM, Reed Stringer, served as the Golden Eagles' interim head coach for the remainder of the 2024 season and went 0-5. Hall was just 14-30 at Southern Miss, including a woeful 8-19 mark in conference games. Seven of the over-all wins, and four of the conference wins, came during the 2022 season when the Eagles were 7-6 (4-4) and won the Lending Tree Bowl over Rice, 38-24. His career record of 70-50 includes sterling records of 25-11 at D2 West Alabama from 2011-2013, and 31-9 at West Georgia from 2014-2016. West Georgia was a D2 school at the time and is now in its first season in the FCS. His teams also made the D2 playoffs in two of his three seasons at each of those schools, including a pair of semifinals appearances at West Georgia. As a player, he was the D2 player of the Year (Harlan Hill Trophy) in 2003 as the quarterback of North Alabama which was also D2 at that time, but moved up to the FCS in 2022. Interim head coach Stringer, who has been with the program since 2018, was an offensive tackle at Delta State (1998-2001).

Marshall quickly named NC State defensive coordinator Tony Gibson as the new head coach. He has been with the Wolfpack since 2019 after previously spending the 2013 through 2018 seasons at West Virginia. Telly Lockette, the AHC under Huff, was named interim HC of Marshall for the bowl season.