Minium: ODU Football Looking For First Win Ever at Marshall

By Harry Minium

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- Old Dominion is a solid favorite when the Monarchs venture to Marshall Saturday for what is likely the biggest Sun Belt Conference football game to be played so far this season.

The winner of four in a row, each by comfortable margins, and receiving votes for the first time in a national FBS poll, ODU (4-1 overall, 1-0 Sun Belt) is a 14.5-point favorite to defeat Marshall (2-3, 0-1) when they face off at 3:30 p.m.

But history says that regardless of the line, or the records, Marshall wins nearly every time the Herd and Monarchs hook up.

ODU has lost to Marshall nine out of 10 times over the last 11 seasons and is 0-5 in Huntington.

Because both schools were in Conference USA before moving to the Sun Belt in 2022, ODU has played Marshall more than any other program. And other than James Madison and Virginia Tech, I would venture that there is no team Monarch fans would love to beat more than Marshall.   

ODU’s only victory came in 2016 when arguably the best team in Monarch history lost to one of the worst in modern times for the Herd.

ODU would finish 10-3 and defeat Eastern Michigan in the 2016 Bahamas Bowl. Marshall finished 3-9, and it was the only Herd team in the last 13 years that failed to garner a bowl bid.

ODU has since lost in eight in a row to Marshall. Some ODU players were in the fourth grade the last time the Monarchs beat Marshall. 

“They’ve certainly had my number,” said Ricky Rahne, ODU’s head coach.

True, Rahne is 0-4 against the Herd, but every game he’s coached against Marshall has been competitive. Prior to his arrival, ODU lost five games to Marshall by a combined margin of 130 points, or 26 per game.

Rahne, on the other hand, has lost some heartbreakers.

In 2021, his first season, the Monarchs led 13-6 with less than a minute to go and Marshall was in its own territory. However, Marshall quarterback Grant Wells hit Willie Johnson with a 52-yard touchdown reception with 33 seconds left to send the game into overtime. 

Wells then threw a 22-yard TD pass to Shadeed Ahmed for the game winner in OT.

ODU suffered a 12-0 shutout to Marshall in 2022. ODU advanced into Marshall territory five times but was undone by four turnovers.

Then came a 41-35 defeat in Huntington in 2023 and a 42-35 loss in Norfolk in 2024.

The Monarchs bolted to a 21-3 lead in 2023 before Marshall scored 28 unanswered points to take command. ODU rallied to trim the lead to six on a Kadarius Calloway 75-yard run, but two late Monarchs drives were snuffed out by the Marshall defense.

Then, last season, Marshall drove 75 yards for a touchdown with 4:03 left, and then held off Monarch drives twice in the final minutes to claim a victory that knocked ODU out of bowl contention.

Rahne said he’s told his team to be prepared for an unfriendly reception from the crowd at Joan C. Edwards Stadium. The Herd is 188-44 at “The Joan,” as they call their stadium, which is one of the finest in the Sun Belt.

That is a 81.4% winning percentage, which is the fourth best in FBS.

He said Marshall fans have rallied behind first-year coach Tony Gibson, a West Virginia native who grew up not far from Huntington, attended Glenville State in West Virginia and coached at West Virginia University. 

Marshall has a proud football history that dates back to 1895 and since moving up to FBS, has been to 19 bowl games, winning 13. And that does not include the 2024 Independence Bowl game the Herd were forced to turn down.

Marshall won two Division I-AA (FCS) national titles before moving up to FBS.

Marshall nearly dropped football after a plane returning the 1970 team from a game at East Carolina crashed into a hillside just short of the Huntington airport. Nearly every member of the football team and coaching staff, as well as most of the team's major donors, were killed.

The Herd played in 1971 with a hastily recruited team that was shut out in half of its 10 games, but won twice. The movie "We Are Marshall," starring Matthew  McConaughey, was made about the resurrection of Marshall football in 1971.

The Herd did not have a winning record again until 1985, but the fan base has been extremely loyal, in good times and bad. The "We Are Marshall" chant will be heard often among the Herd faithful. 

“I told our players to expect a very difficult atmosphere there,” Rahne said. “I expect they will have 30,000 fans and that they will be loud.

“We’ll have a traveling party of about 110 people. So, I guess it will be 110 versus 30,000.”

Gibson faced a mammoth rebuilding task when he was hired last spring and has done remarkably well.

The Herd lost 56 players, including more than 35 transfers, last season. There were so many transfers that after winning the 2024 Sun Belt title, the Herd was unable to compete in the Independence Bowl -- they simply didn't have enough guys on their roster.

Marshall opened this season with a 47-7 loss at Georgia, and was upset by Missouri State, 21-20. Gibson has since settled on Carlos Del Rio-Wilson, a transfer from Syracuse, at quarterback, and played well in a 38-7 victory over Eastern Kentucky and a 42-28 victory at Middle Tennessee State.

“They really played well at Middle Tennessee,” Rahne said. “And their quarterback is very good.

Two weeks ago, Marshall lost its Sun Belt opener, 54-51, in overtime to Louisiana. Rio-Wilson completed 24 of 31 passes for 258 yards and three touchdowns. 

"We're playing a really good Marshall team. They've had leads in their losses. This is a much better team than their record indicates. They play violent and have some big-time playmakers." 

Gibson said that “ODU is as good as anyone on our schedule, including Georgia.

“They’re explosive. They make plays all over the place on offense. Their quarterback is dynamic, as are their wideouts and running backs. Their defense is outstanding. They don’t give up a lot of explosive plays.

“We’ve got to score, we’ve got to maintain possession, to keep the (Colton) Joseph kid off the field. He’s torched a lot of people this season."

And ODU would love to finally torch the Herd in Huntington.

Minium is ODU’s senior executive writer. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram