The 2008 Marshall Thundering Herd football team represented

Marshall University Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States. The university is currently composed of nine colleges: L ...

in the

2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the highest level of college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The regular season began on August 28, 2008 and ended on De ...

. Marshall competed as a member of the East Division of

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

, and played their home games at

Joan C. Edwards Stadium Joan C. Edwards Stadium, formerly Marshall University Stadium, is a football stadium located on the campus of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, United States. It can hold 38,227 spectators and includes twenty deluxe, indoor suites ...

. The Thundering Herd were led by fourth-year head coach

Mark Snyder Mark Snyder (born December 30, 1964) is an American football coach and former safety who is the linebackers coach for the Orlando Guardians of the XFL and previously the linebackers coach for the Houston Gamblers of the United States Football Le ...

. Marshall finished the season with a 4–8 record (3–5). Before the season, ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'' ranked Marshall the 115th team in the FBS (out of 120) and predicted they would finish with a 1–11 record. Against 11th-ranked

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, the Herd led 14–0 in the second quarter, but gave up 51 unanswered points in the remainder of the game. Later in the season, Marshall upset

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, 37–23, after having led 37–9 earlier in the final period. The following week, they lost in

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to favorite

East Carolina East Carolina University (ECU) is a public research university in Greenville, North Carolina. It is the fourth largest university in North Carolina. Founded on March 8, 1907, as a teacher training school, East Carolina has grown from its orig ...

by a

field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. The entire ba ...

, 19–16. Marshall held

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quarterback Chase Clement to 84 passing yards in the first half, which was tied at 7, but went on to lose, 35–10. In the season closer, they proved competitive for eventual Conference USA runners-up

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

.''

Phil Steele's Phil Steele (c. 1960) is an American sportswriter and analyst who focuses exclusively on college and professional football. He is considered a "highly respected prognosticator" within the sports media. His company, Phil Steele Publications, prod ...

2009 College Football Preview'', vol. 15, p. 210, 2009.

Schedule

References

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, an i ...

Marshall Thundering Herd football seasons

Marshall Thundering Herd football The Marshall Thundering Herd football team is an intercollegiate varsity sports program of Marshall University. The team represents the university as a member of the Sun Belt Conference East Division of the National Collegiate Athletic Associat ...

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