Marshall Beats South Alabama 20-13 as Walk-On Judah Price Scores Late Winner

Marshall wore black on Tuesday night, with a miner's pick on the helmets and jerseys to honor West Virginia's coal miners. Fittingly, the game was decided by a walk-on from Coal City who summed up the winning drive in five words.

"That's just the coal way," Judah Price said.

Price's 5-yard touchdown run with 1:49 left gave Marshall a 20-13 win over South Alabama at Joan C. Edwards Stadium, in front of 21,904 fans and a national TV audience. It was the Thundering Herd's first Sun Belt win of the season, and it came against an offense that had been putting up video game numbers in league play.

Marshall moves to 4-3 and 1-2 in the Sun Belt. South Alabama falls to 4-3 and 2-1.

A quarterback change and a kicking duel

Sen. Jim Justice handled the pregame coin toss, but the real storyline before kickoff was under center. Coach Tony Gibson went with Zion Turner over Carlos Del Rio-Wilson, the league's preseason offensive player of the year, who had thrown three first-half interceptions against Coastal Carolina. It was Turner's first start since he faced Missouri State a year earlier.

The first half was not pretty for either offense. Marshall's Jorge Diaz Nicolas missed from 49 yards but connected from 47 and 48. South Alabama's Davis Little answered with field goals from 29 and 42, the second coming on the final play of the half, and it was 6-6 at the break.

The Herd defense set the tone early. Kelvon McBride strip-sacked Jaguars quarterback Jared Hollins in the first quarter, and the pressure never really let up.

The turning point: Cole Funderburk's dive

With the game still tied in the third quarter, cornerback Charles McCartherens got a hand on a Hollins pass and batted it into the air. Defensive end Cole Funderburk dove and came up with it at midfield with 6:13 left in the quarter. It turned out to be the only turnover of the night.

"Cole is a kid that plays with his hair on fire every snap," Gibson said.

Marshall cashed in. Adrian Norton made a one-handed grab for 38 yards to flip the field, and Turner finished the six-play, 55-yard drive himself, diving in from 3 yards out with 3:25 left in the third. That gave Marshall a 13-6 lead.

South Alabama missed a 45-yard field goal on its next trip. Marshall had a chance to put the game away in the fourth quarter, but Diaz Nicolas missed a 27-yard attempt. That miss nearly cost the Herd.

South Alabama's answer

The Jaguars did not have much going through the air, but they were relentless on fourth down. South Alabama went 5-for-6 on fourth-down tries, including a converted fake punt in its own territory, and that kept a 13-play, 80-yard drive alive. PJ Martin finished it with a 19-yard touchdown run with 4:38 left, and Little's extra point made it 13-13.

For a team that had been averaging 54 points a game in Sun Belt play, it was the only touchdown of the night.

The winning drive, all on the ground

Marshall's response started with heartbreak. Turner broke loose for what looked like a 75-yard touchdown, but a holding flag wiped it out, and Turner went to the medical tent.

In came Khalil Wilkins. The backup quarterback ran for 19, 22 and 14 yards on a drive that did not include a single pass, and Price punched it in from 5 yards out with 1:49 to go.

"Zion had a great run, and I don't know if it was the turf monster or what, but I saw him get up slow," Wilkins said. "Whether I did it, whether Judah did it, one of my brothers, we was going to get in the end zone."

Turner heard the rest of it from the tent. "I was in the tent trying to get right and I just heard the crowd going wild," he said.

Price was blunt about how simple it got. "They could not stop the one play that we were running," he said.

The stop that sealed it

South Alabama still had time. The Jaguars crossed midfield, and on third-and-1, cornerback Brayden Hall met the pass in the open field and dropped the receiver for a 4-yard loss. On fourth-and-5, pressure off the edge forced an incompletion, and Marshall took over to run out the clock.

After the way South Alabama had lived on fourth down all night, that was the stop the Herd needed.

The stars

Turner did exactly what Gibson asked. He completed 21 of 33 passes for 181 yards with no interceptions and ran for 45 yards and the touchdown. "Zion managed the game really well, and he didn't put the ball in jeopardy," Gibson said.

Wilkins led all rushers with 69 yards on eight carries and added a 35-yard kickoff return. Price had 30 yards and the game winner. Toby Payne caught seven passes for 69 yards to lead the receivers.

Defensively, Daytione Smith had nine tackles, and true freshman Tristan Lester posted seven tackles and a pass breakup in his first career start. McBride finished with 1.5 tackles for loss to go with his strip sack. Punter Cooper Heimbach also deserves a mention: he averaged 50.5 yards a punt with a long of 63, and his first three punts were all pinned inside the 20.

For South Alabama, Hollins completed just 12 of 33 passes for 148 yards and the interception. Brendan Jenkins was his top target with four catches for 75 yards, and Martin ran for 60 yards and the touchdown.

The stats that actually mattered

The yardage was nearly even, 328 for Marshall and 326 for South Alabama. The difference was in the details. South Alabama ran 42 times for 178 yards but went just 4-of-18 on third down, which is why it had to live on fourth down in the first place. And the Jaguars, who came in among the best in the country in turnover margin, lost the only turnover of the game.

For a Marshall defense that had been getting picked apart, holding a 54-point offense to 13 is the headline. The full breakdown is in the Marshall box score (opens in a new tab).

What it means

Gibson made it clear the defense was the story. "I'm just so proud of this defense because we'd been struggling," he said, according to Marshall's recap (opens in a new tab). "Numbers don't lie and we did a deep dive in the half-bye week we had and challenged our guys. The message was, 'Do your job!' We did that tonight."

Gibson also pointed out that it was "the first time all year long that we've been able to sustain over 60 minutes and finish games off." Marshall's next game was against Old Dominion on Halloween, Oct. 31. South Alabama, still in the thick of the Sun Belt race, had a game against Louisiana Tech the same day.

The last word

Gibson had a simple message for his team about who its real opponent is. "Quit beating us. It's us versus us every week," he said. "We've got five more left. If we continue to play like we're playing, I like where we're at as a football team right now."

On a night built around the people who work underground, the Herd won the hard way: a defensive end diving for a tipped ball, a backup quarterback carrying the load, and a walk-on from Coal City finishing the job. "Hard-working people, just getting the job done," Price said. "That's what we did tonight."

Sources: Marshall Athletics, The Associated Press, WV MetroNews, The Herald-Dispatch, WMUL-FM and the Ironton Tribune. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Marshall Athletics.