ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia will open its 2025 season on Saturday with a 3:30 p.m. ET clash with Marshall inside Sanford Stadium. The Bulldogs are a 39-point favorite vs. a team that no one knows much about.
The Thundering Herd have a pretty interesting and even rich history. Even since moving to the FBS level, Marshall has fielded some really talented teams and put players into the NFL. This squad, however, is almost brand new.
Head coach Tony Wilson, in his first season with the team, welcomed 61 new players to the roster back in February. That came after the previous Marshall head coach, Charles Huff, left to coach at Southern Miss and took quite a few players with him.
There’s a lot that Georgia doesn’t and really can’t know about the team that will roll into Sanford Stadium on Saturday. The Bulldogs can look at film of players at previous schools and what the Marshall coaching staff has done in the past, but that’s not necessarily the focus. Kirby Smart says that the key to this game and the other 11 on the schedule is being the best UGA can be.
“You start with yourself, right?” Smart said when asked how he is preparing for the Thundering Herd. “You prepare yourself by how you run to the ball, how you strike people, how you move people, how you run the ball, throw the ball, don’t turn it over. A lot of sloppiness in first games, penalties, so it starts with that. So you’re asking about the opponent. The opponent is us, and it’s going to be us every week this year. It is important that we know what they do, and sometimes that’s less information than others.”
Smart started his Monday press conference with a familiar tone. Heading into his 10th season as a head coach, Smart discussed his respect for the Marshall program and its history of having really good players.
When asked to zero in on some of those players, Smart declined but seemed to point to Marshall’s group of running backs as one of the most talented units on the roster. He has watched film of those players at previous schools, and he came away impressed.
But the fact remains that this Marshall team hasn’t played much football together. This coaching staff hasn’t had the opportunity to see many of these players in game action. While this type of roster might be more common in College Football going forward, Smart says he hasn’t seen many groups that are this transfer-heavy.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a roster that when we write on the depth chart ‘transfer’, it’s three-deep transfer, four-deep transfer, three-deep transfer in all these spots,” Smart said. “A lot of transfers, but that’s more and more evident all over. Probably first games all over the country this weekend will be a lot of guys figuring out, like, well, who’s in that spot? Who’s in that spot? Nobody has a clue who’s in those spots. The less teams are in the spotlight, the less you’ll know. But, again, it’ll be probably more of an adjustment from the kickoff to the first quarter than most games, but it’ll also be about us.”