COLLEGE FOOTBALL Marshall prepares for farewell tour in ACC

The Thundering Herd expect to be targets of MAC opponents.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Animosity, yes. Concern? Not really.
Marshall's final tour of the Mid-American Conference is only three months away, and the Herd are well aware and prepared for a tense good-bye at league road games.
Just as Big East fans didn't take kindly to the impending move of Virginia Tech, Miami, Fla., and Boston College to the Atlantic Coast Conference, opposing MAC fans won't be best buddies this season with Marshall and Central Florida, which head to Conference USA in 2005.
"Everybody always guns for us," Marshall quarterback Stan Hill said during a promotional event Friday. "We're everybody's rival team. It makes us prepare better because we know every game's going to be a tough game, and everybody's trying to beat the Herd."
Marshall has heard the grumbling before.
Kent's request
In December, Kent State athletic director Laing Kennedy called for Marshall and UCF to be banned from being eligible for conference championships next season.
But MAC commissioner Rick Chryst has said there's no effort by the league to disqualify Marshall and UCF.
"Last year they were still kind of throwing little shots at us saying we need to hurry up and get out of the MAC," Marshall cornerback Willie Smith said. "They're going to hate us because they know we're going to leave the MAC with a bang."
Remedy
Coach Bob Pruett figures the best way to silence the enemy crowd is playing well.
"If you go up and take care of business, that doesn't surface," he said. "If we go in there, get into a dogfight and they get all juiced up, it becomes a factor in the game."
Marshall will try for its sixth championship this fall since returning to the league in 1997.
Marshall had its string of six-straight bowl trips snapped last year when it finished 8-4. It was the first time since 1990 that the Thundering Herd didn't play a postseason game.
"That hurt," Smith said. "The MAC championship didn't look right without us in it. That just makes us even hungrier now to get out there for that first game."
Marshall opens the season at home against Troy State on Sept. 4. It plays at Ohio State on Sept. 11 and at Georgia on Sept. 18 before starting league play Sept. 29 at home against Miami.