Last year, Tech traveled to West Virginia to face a Marshall team without the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback. The Herd finished that season at 8-5, but according to sports-reference’s SRS metrics, both Marshall's offense and defense were fairly average in college football.
Granted, Aaron Allen was playing his first meaningful snaps at QB, but Tech lost 31-10 to a team that would go on to lose to Charlotte by two scores the next week.
I’m re-opening these old wounds because, at this point in the season, the 2020 Thundering Herd team looks significantly better than the team that beat the Bulldogs by 21 a year ago.
The strength of the team is the defense. In 2019, the Herd allowed 25 points and 380 total yards per game. But so far in 2020, Marshall seems to have the best defense in the conference:
But as good as that defense is, the offense has excelled at making the defense look even better.
Just like how an interception can be a boost to the offense, and offense taking care of the ball can be a boon to the defense.
And the Herd offense has excelled at protecting the football:
But the Thundering Herd defense won’t let the offense have all the fun. In fact, the Marshall defense leads Tech opponents with 2.0 interceptions or recovered fumbles per game.
So add a good turnover offense to a good turnover defense, and you get an unsurprisingly good turnover team:
It's still early, but a +5 turnover margin already for the Herd is a significant improvement over the ±0 number in 2019.
But jumping back to the offense helping the defense concept, it turns out when you take care of the ball, you force your opponents into long fields:
While the offense has helped with the starting field position, special teams has played an equally large role. Tech fans have seen what bad kickoff coverage looks like. Against UTEP, the Bulldogs allowed a kickoff return that allowed the Miners to get back into the game.
But where Tech has struggled, Marshall has excelled:
Okay, fine, here's what that chart looks like if we include the Bulldogs. I was hoping to save you from this:
One of the most glaring weaknesses for Tech is a strength for the Herd.
Couple that with the ability to prevent and produce turnovers, and you can see why Marshall is seen as the team to beat in C-USA this year.
Granted, Marshall's opponent's so far were FCS Eastern Kentucky, 1-3 Western Kentucky, and an Appalachian State team that is also yet to play a strong opponent. It's possible Marshall's numbers are simply inflated due to their easy schedule.
I hope that's true, or else the Thundering Herd team traveling to Ruston this weekend may increase their winning streak over the Bulldogs to three.
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Nathan is also a contributor to gtpdd.dog, a lighthearted Louisiana Tech blog. Be sure to check out @gotechplsdntdie on Twitter.
