With nod to history, surging ODU focuses on present in visit to Marshall

NORFOLK — A fairly substantial fraction of Old Dominion’s 27 returning letterwinners had more than a little to do with the team’s 42-35 home loss to Marshall last November.

The defeat, the last in a three-game skid, stung as much as any of last season’s seven, in that it derailed the Monarchs’ uphill climb toward bowl eligibility.

Even fewer current players factored into the Thundering Herd’s 41-35 victory in Huntington, West Virginia, two years ago. It is, especially in the era of massive roster turnover, relative ancient history.

For further perspective, most of ODU’s current players were awaiting adolescence when Marshall took the first meeting between the teams, in 2014. None of them can recall as participants even the Monarchs’ 35-17 win in 2017, their lone victory in the 10-game s