ATHENS — Marshall didn’t leave Georgia with a win, but the Thundering Herd exited Sanford Stadium with its pride intact after a 45-7 defeat.

Marshall, with the most overhauled roster in the FBS ranks after 78 players left the team through the transfer portal after last season, out-gained Georgia 125 yards to 71 yards in the fourth quarter with each team scoring a touchdown in the final stanza.

“I think the speed of the game to start rattled us a little bit,” Thundering Herd first-year coach Tony Gibson said. “Once we got dialed in, I thought our kids did a really good job.”

Georgia scored on two of its first three offensive drives, but the Bulldogs needed quarterback Gunner Stockton to convert on fourth downs on each drive to do so.

Gibson said Stockton’s runs were a matter of broken assignments in his team’s first game together.

“He’s a good runner, he’s smart,” Gibson said. “But both times we should have had someone on the quarterback, but we had bad eyes.”

Marshall also had some first-down plays called back because of illegal formation calls, something Gibson attributed to Georgia’s impressive defensive front.

“They’re an impressive group, that’s an SEC front, I hope we don’t have to face another front like that all year long — if that’s in the Sun Belt, we’re in trouble,” Gibson said.

“Our tackles got three or four penalties lining up too deep, and I think they were doing that because of that front, to get an advantage on them.”

To Marshall’s credit, none of the three Thundering Herd quarterbacks were sacked in the game and Georgia’s defense was limited to six tackles-for-loss.

Thundering Herd senior safety Cam Smith said it was a matter of the team settling in.

“We struggled in the first 15 plays, but once we got situated I feel like we started to play together,” Smith said. “You could see we started slowing down a little bit. We started getting off the field on third down, that’s what we struggled with in the first quarter.”

Marshall gave up only one play of more than 25 yards, on a quick pass behind the line of scrimmage that USC transfer Zachariah Branch broke for a 47-yard touchdown.

The longest Georgia running play of the game was 21 yards by tailback Chauncey Bowens.

Georgia scored touchdowns on its first two drives, but Marshall was able to force a punt on three of the Bulldogs’ next four series in the first half.

KJ Bolden’s blocked punt led to Georgia’s third touchdown of the game, which came on a 20-yard scoring drive.

“I thought our defense fought really well in the second quarter made some plays, had some opportunities to get off the field, Gibson said. “Unfortunately, we gave up two big runs at quarterback so that was disappointing.

“The blocked punt took a lot of air out of us. I will take this one on me. Our staff, we have to do a better job. We have to get our guys better prepared.”

The Thundering Herd exited with a bit of a quarterback competition, as Zion Turner came off the bench to connect on downfield passes of 34 and 44 yards against the Georgia secondary.

It was the Bulldogs’ back ups, but most would agree it was still a talented group of players opposing the Marshall players — inexperienced, but fresh.

“We finally crossed the 50-yard line and punched one in,” Gibson said of the Thundering Herd’s seven-play, 83-yard touchdown drive that closed out the scoring in the game.

“(Turner).made a couple of good throws. I will have to go back and evaluate who our guy will be next week.”