Huntington, W.Va. ? Despite all the titles and trinkets Marshall has secured over the past two decades, the Thundering Herd never have faced a marquee opponent at home.
Kansas State isn’t the same program that earned a top-10 ranking and Big 12 Conference championship two years ago, the year Marshall beat the Wildcats in Manhattan.
Nonetheless, Kansas State is hailed as the highest-profile team ever to come to Huntington when the teams meet today.
There’s really no comparison. The only other school from a BCS conference to play at Marshall was Temple in 1999.
“That’s what makes the game more exciting,” Marshall defensive back Willie Smith said. “We finally got one of the big-time teams to come in from a big-time conference. It’s going to be a great day for us.”
Marshall rejoined Division I-A in 1997 and won the first of four straight Mid-American Conference championships. But during the nonconference portion of the schedules, the Thundering Herd mostly attracted I-AA teams to its stadium while usually going on the road as fodder for bigger schools.
That was the case until 2003 when the Thundering Herd, coming off losses to Tennessee and Toledo, went to then-No. 6 Kansas State on the arm of a backup quarterback and pulled off the biggest victory in school history.
The reminders of that are constant and everywhere on campus this week. The few players left at Marshall from that season have enjoyed the look back and are using it as motivation.
“I remember everything,” said offensive lineman Toby Bullock, a first-year starter in 2003. “We were just ecstatic.”
If Marshall’s confidence was sky-high after that game, imagine it now playing at home, where it has lost only seven times since its stadium opened in 1991.
“We ain’t trying to make it No. 8 anytime soon,” Bullock said.
Kansas State offensive tackle Jeromey Clary, who has made a team-high 27 consecutive starts, said a Bill Snyder-coached team never was allowed to take anyone lightly. Not two years ago or now.
“It will be a tough game in their house,” Clary said.
Both teams have had similar recent pasts.
Kansas State followed its Fiesta Bowl berth in 2003 by going 4-7, its first losing record in 12 years. Marshall’s 6-6 record in 2004 was its first non-winning season in 21 years.
Neither are expected to be factors in their leagues in 2005, Kansas State in the Big 12, Marshall in its debut season in Conference USA.
Both teams had new quarterbacks and struggled to pull off double-digit victories in their season openers.
Florida International returned a blocked punt for a touchdown and turned two of four Kansas State turnovers into short TD drives. A Kansas State drive stalled on the five-yard line.
In Mark Snyder’s first game as coach, Marshall trailed I-AA William & Mary 24-23 late in the third quarter. It took backup quarterback Bernie Morris and a long fumble return for a touchdown by linebacker Matt Couch to rescue the Thundering Herd.
