Marshall Football held its annual Spring Game on April 12 in front of a crowd of 10,113.
The game provided a first look at the 2025 Marshall Football team under first-year head coach Tony Gibson.
The game will also allow the team to simulate a game day experience and routine of a Saturday in the fall. The game’s format featured two 15-minute halves.
Marshall’s “Green” team had a shutout game against Marshall’s “White” scoring 41 unanswered points.
“It was good to get out today in front of a large crowd and see what we could do with coaches off the field,” Gibson said. “I was impressed with some things. We turned the ball over way too much in my opinion, a couple tipped throws. Defensively, I thought they did a really good job on the Green team of taking advantage of those. Carlos did some good things and moved the ball; a lot of scoring drives, but we still have a lot of work to do.”
Carlos Del Rio-Wilson, a redshirt junior, spent the last three seasons as the primary backup quarterback for the Syracuse Orange. However, he did not appear in any games last season due to injury.
“I thought Carlos had a really good two weeks. The last two weeks of spring kind of separated himself and doing some good things,” Gibson said. “The competition is still open, however. I’m not going to name a starting quarterback right now, but him, Zion (Turner) and JacQai (Long) are all guys who are going to battle.”
Turner spent last season as a part of the Jacksonville State Gamecocks as one of the backup quarterbacks while only seeing one pass attempt. However, his best season so far in college football was in 2022 when he was a part of the UConn Huskies, where he threw 1,407 yards, nine touchdowns and a passer rating of 107.3.
Long is currently a three-star prospect out of Hurricane High School but redshirted last year and has not had action in college football yet.
“I thought Antwan Roberts showed up today,” Gibson said. “Antwan is coming off a knee this past season, but I thought he got in and ran the ball hard a couple times. It was really good to see him step up and do that. He wasn’t scared on that knee, so I was proud of him for that.”
After a successful Spring Game, the Herd will rest up before hitting practice hard again for this upcoming season.
“So, right now, we’ll give the kids a couple days off and have a lot of one-on-one meetings with position coaches, myself and let every guy know where they stand on our football team and what’s next for them,” Gibson said. “We have you know some open weight room hours guys to get in work out and then we have to finish strong academically. That’s the most important thing moving forward right now.”
After the game, a ceremony was held on the field honoring former Marshall Football alumni, including members of the 1971 Young Thundering Herd and the 2024 Sun Belt Conference Championship team.
“It’s awesome,” Gibson said. “Those guys have been unbelievable to me in my staff and these players, and I want to repay them – you guys – I made them go through and shake every hand and tell those guys thank you for what they’ve done.”
Marshall starts the season off against one of the top teams in college football, the University of Georgia Bulldogs, before hosting its home opener against one of the newest FBS members, the Missouri State University Bears.
Nate Harrah can be contacted at [email protected].
