Last Updated on August 17, 2020 1:49 pm
BOONE, N.C. – Longtime football rivals App State and Marshall announced Monday that they have agreed to add two more games to their upcoming series with the first matchup now scheduled for Sept. 19, 2020 in Huntington, W.Va., and an additional game in Boone on Sept. 8, 2029.
The two schools announced in 2015 a home-and-home series that includes a 2021 game in Boone (Sept. 25) and a 2022 game in Huntington (Sept. 17).
After previously losing all four of their originally scheduled 2020 nonconference opponents – Morgan State, Wisconsin, Wake Forest and Massachusetts – the Mountaineers recently added a Sept. 12 home game against Charlotte and a Sept. 26 home game against Campbell. The Sun Belt Conference's Aug. 4 decision allows each league school to play up to four nonconference games in addition to the eight-game league slate.
“We are glad to add Marshall to this year's schedule and thankful to athletics director Mike Hamrick and his team for working with us to get this done,” App State Director of Athletics Doug Gillin said. “This regional matchup is good for our student-athletes, alumni and fans.”
App State, the reigning Sun Belt Champion and a top-20 nationally ranked team in the final 2019 polls, and Marshall, which competes in Conference USA and has earned bowl berths in six of the last seven seasons, have squared off 22 times on the gridiron, with 21 of those matchups coming when the Mountaineers and Thundering Herd were both members of the Southern Conference from 1977-96. App State holds a 14-8 advantage in the all-time series.
Marshall was the top-ranked Division I-AA team in 1994 when No. 24 App State secured a 24-14 upset. The next year, the No. 2 Mountaineers went on the road to defeat the No. 3 Thundering Herd 10-3 during App State's perfect 11-0 regular season.
“I fondly remember our games against Marshall during my playing days,” said App State head coach Shawn Clark, a West Virginia native who was a four-year starting offensive lineman for the Mountaineers from 1994-98. “It was an incredible rivalry then, and we are excited to renew the rivalry now.”
Scheduled to play for the first time as FBS opponents, App State and Marshall are two of the standard-bearers for successful transitions to the top level of college football.
The Mountaineers have gone a record-breaking 5-0 in bowl games during their first five postseason-eligible seasons, and their 54-12 record since the start of the 2015 season ranks No. 5 nationally. Marshall lost its bowl debut as an FBS newcomer during the 1997 season and won bowl games each of the next five seasons, contributing to its overall FBS bowl record of 12-3.
