This is Part II of a five-part series covering the 2024 and 2025 seasons of Marshall Football away game travels to Sun Belt Conference towns.
Part I: Hattiesburg, MS
I was thrilled to jump to the Sun Belt. I loved the idea of renewing some old Southern Conference rivalries and the regional divisions just made sense in a college football world when location and a number in the conference name mean nothing. I had not traveled to many Conference USA road games and I really had no desire to do so. Oftentimes, those road games showed nearly empty stadiums on television, and the fanbases were not all that passionate online. Sure, some of the cities and metro areas could be fun to visit, but give me a good old college town atmosphere with rabid fans any day.
So with the move to the Sun Belt, I vowed to travel to more away games. In 2022, I went to Notre Dame, James Madison, and also Coastal Carolina’s stadium for the Myrtle Beach Bowl against UConn. It was two stadiums from the Sun Belt, but I really only got to experience the JMU gameday culture since Coastal had nothing to do with the bowl game. In 2023, I went to NC State, Coastal Carolina, and Appalachian State road games. Boone, NC for App State had been a destination trip for me for a long time and I finally got to mark that one off. The return trip to Conway, SC for Coastal allowed me to take in their tailgating experience and what their stadium is like with their fans in it.
But 2024 was going to be the best of them all for road trips. As soon as the schedule came out, I saw that it was favorable to attending lots of away games. I went to Ohio State and Virginia Tech sure, places I had been to watch the Herd before. But it was the Sun Belt road games I was really looking forward to: a return trip to Harrisonburg, VA and JMU; a first trip to Norfolk, VA for Old Dominion; and a place where I had wanted to tailgate for a ridiculously long time, Hattiesburg, MS for Southern Miss. In 2025, I knocked another bucket list tailgate off my list with Lafayette, LA for Louisiana, and then trekked back to Boone, NC for a return to App State. I hit them all. And below, I’m going to share my thoughts through words and photos on what the trips were like.
Heading to the Bay Area
I had missed out on going to Norfolk a few times and always knew it would be a cool trip. The 2024 schedule had a favorable date so my wife Ashley and I took to the road for the start of our Thanksgiving week vacation. Norfolk is just under seven hours away, so we didn’t have to break the trip up with a hotel stay like we did for Southern Miss and how late of a start we got both evenings.
Ashley and I hit the road late in the afternoon and were eyeing dinner in Richmond. She found Fall Line Kitchen & Bar that had a terrific menu, so we decided to stop there. It was in the lobby of a hotel, and parking was a bit of an adventure, but the food was amazing. We had a burnt ends appetizer and some cornbread served in a cast iron skillet with some of the best compound honey butter either of us had ever eaten. I got the southern fried chicken, mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, coleslaw, and hot honey, and Ashley got the braised short rib. It was a terrific atmosphere and the food was amazing. Again, you can tell how big of a role food plays in my life. Enjoying meals and making memories with Ashley is one of my favorite things.
Getting a Taste of the Town
We stayed right next door to Chartway Arena, Old Dominion’s Basketball arena, and it looks absolutely amazing lit up at night. The next morning, we walked over to The Bird, a breakfast spot a few blocks from our hotel that had some of the outskirts of campus as a backdrop for our walk. The Bird was great! They have table/bar seating cards instead of order numbers, and each card is a picture of a famous “bird.” We were Goose from Top Gun, but I have to admit I was hoping to get Larry. I had a great Salmon Lox Bagel and Ashley had the The Colonial Eggs Bennie. Fun place!
After that, we walked back to the room to get ready for the day. First up was Afterglow Brewing which is a small spot that our friends The Monarchists, a great ODU podcast, is associated with. We were only there for a little under an hour but got a great feel for the place. As we were leaving, a guy was bringing in these massive cookies to restock their supply selling his brand. Had to get one.
We went to Elation Brewing after that as it was close to the hotel/tailgate/stadium, and they were having live music. And indeed they did! There was an awesome Celtic punk/rock band called Dunkirk Riots absolutely putting on a show. We had a pizza from the pizza oven and enjoyed the vibe until it was time to tailgate.
Tailgating Like a King. . .Er, Monarch
The Monarchists were hosting us at their tailgate a stone’s throw from the stadium across the street. Mike Langston, Aaron Zielinski, and Gary Williams were awesome hosts and had as much food and drinks as we wanted. Also there as host was Justice from The G5 Hive podcast. I had been on both of these shows multiple times and it was great to meet everyone in person and get to know them better. That is one of the very best things I have experienced as a podcast host is getting to know amazing people from other Sun Belt schools. They introduced us to ODU player parents and other fans, and then we all went into the game. Other than not being able to take in my stadium chairs and having to walk them back to the hotel and then backtrack to the stadium, the game was nice. Marshall came out with the victory in a close game, and there was a decent showing of Herd fans there as well.
Before we left to head home the next morning, we wanted to get breakfast to squeeze in another local spot to eat. We ended up going to Biscuit Belly, which is actually a micro-chain and we had never been to one before. It wasn’t bad at all but our to-go order took close to an hour. And because I am insane when it comes to food and experiences, we also drove by Handsome Biscuit to get something from there as well.
See, I wanted to compare both to our great Tudor’s Biscuit World, so I got the Bacon, Egg, and Cheese at both to compare to the Mary B. Tudor’s won out, but I admit my extreme bias and both were very solid biscuits. The drive home was long but I had great company, and that makes a road trip!
