One Group of Five opponent remains before the Buckeyes begin Big Ten play.
Marshall
Thundering Herd
Marshall has yet to defeat an FBS opponent this year, starting 1-1 with a 45-3 win over FCS Stony Brook and a 31-14 loss at Virginia Tech. The Thundering Herd finished 6-7 in 2023 and haven't won 10 games in a season since 2015.
It's not to say they aren't capable of stunners – Marshall and current head coach Charles Huff beat then-No. 8 Notre Dame on the road in 2022 – but there's nothing on paper to suggest Ohio State shouldn't achieve a similar result against Marshall to its 46-point victory in Week 1 and its 56-point victory in Week 2.
Still, Marshall is a team with a few weapons to watch on the field and some cool history.
Turn(er) Around
Marshall running back A.J. Turner's 2024 campaign is off to a blazing start. The kicker is that he's not even the Herd's starting running back.
Turner has collected back-to-back 100-yard games spelling starter Jordan Houston on eight and six carries, respectively. In total, he stands at 222 yards on 14 attempts, an average of 15.9 yards per carry with one touchdown. That score was an 80-yard jaunt against Stony Brook, the first touchdown of Marshall's season.
The ballcarrier was also one of the team's few bright spots in its loss to Virginia Tech, ripping off runs of 21 and 69 yards to finish with 103 yards on his six carries.
As a team, Marshall ranks 35th in the nation with 203 rushing yards per game.
Green Machine
Marshall's colors may be green and white, but this title is in reference to the Herd's most disruptive player on defense, defensive end Mike Green.
Starting his career as a linebacker at Virginia in 2021, Green missed all of 2022 before arriving at Marshall as an edge rusher in 2023. He began emerging as a threat at the end of that campaign and has gotten off to a raucous start this season, collecting 3.5 sacks with 14 total tackles. He grabbed two quarterback takedowns against the Hokies.
There's stout linebacker help behind him as well with Landyn Watson and Jaden Yates – a Columbus native – each collecting 20 tackles through two games. With nine pass breakups already as a team, the Herd are 27th nationally in pass defense, allowing just 144 yards through the air per game. They have the nation's No. 43 total defense.
Aerial Agitations, Questionable Run D
Marshall quarterback Stone Earle. (Photo: Peter Casey – Imagn Images)
Two main weaknesses have appeared thus far this season for Marshall – passing offense and rushing defense.
Marshall has completed just 50% of its throws thus far and averages 210.5 passing yards per game, marks that rank 129th and 83rd nationally. The Herd's 6.2 yards per pass attempt is also 111th in the country.
Starting quarterback Stone Earle has shown a rushing threat in 2024, picking up 86 yards on the ground including sacks, but throwing the ball he's a meager 23-of-52 (44.2%) for 228 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.
Marshall is 88th in rushing yards allowed per game (151), though it is 38th in yards per carry allowed (3.1). The ground is where Virginia Tech was able to wear down the Herd, however, collecting 208 rushing yards against just 151 passing yards in its 17-point victory.
What's In a Name
Marshall's university history dates back three decades further than Ohio State's, founded well before the dawn of the Civil War in 1837. One of West Virginia's oldest colleges, the school is named after United States Supreme Court justice John Marshall.
Considered a founding father, Marshall is the longest-serving chief justice in the history of the Supreme Court, serving from 1801 until he died in 1835. He served in all three branches of the federal government, serving as secretary of state from 1800 to 1801 and as a member of the House of Representatives representing Virginia from 1799 to 1800. He was instrumental in the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788.
Marshall, which has resided near the western border of West Virginia since it became a state in 1863, was founded by residents of Guyandotte County in Virginia in 1837. According to tradition, those residents planned the institute with the help of local lawyer John Laidly, a personal friend of Marshall's. He decided to honor his legacy by naming the school after him.
Each September, Marshall recognizes its namesake's role in the ratification of the Constitution with an event called “Constitution Week.”
A Herd that Thunders
Marshall has one of the most distinctive and neat nicknames in college football, at least in this writer's opinion. The roots of a Thundering Herd can be traced back to Native American folklore and tradition, as the herds of buffalo roaming the western plains provided tribes with all they needed to survive for generations.
The Herd's first nickname was actually the Indians. The moniker "Big Green" took hold in 1910, though it was admonished for being boring per the university's history. "Thundering Herd" first appeared in a story by Huntington Herald-Post sportswriter Duke Ridgley in the late 1920s, emerging from a 1925 movie and novel of the same name.
Some felt the name was too tied to the West and Marshall continued rolling through nicknames for the next few decades. They were called the "Boogercats" briefly in the 1930s, a reference to bogie cats, an animal native to Scotland. That was shelved quickly for obvious reasons, and both Big Green and Thundering Herd were used until a student vote in 1958 made Big Green official, except the media continued using Thundering Herd.
Finally, a landslide vote of 85% of students settled on Thundering Herd as a permanent nickname in 1965. The same vote chose Marco the Bison as the team's official mascot.
