COLUMN- As Marshall’s 2013 football season officially begins with the start of spring practice, there are new faces and new personalities to get to know. However, most of them won’t be wearing helmets and shoulder pads, rather they’ll be in shorts and ball caps wearing whistles.
Doc Holliday has always had an eye for talent. His reputation as a top recruiter has been well known around the country for years. No one has ever doubted his ability to lure talented prospects to Huntington. Wooing high school prospects was again a top priority this offseason but Holliday also had to recruit an entirely new coaching staff.
Now, Herd fans are hoping the same eye for talent on the field is just as good when it comes to finding talent on the sidelines and in the press box. All indications are Holliday has assembled a very capable staff that has the experience necessary to take the program to the next level.
New defensive coordinator Chuck Heater was the most high profile hire of the winter. Heater takes over a beleaguered Marshall defense that was statistically among the worst in the country last season. Heater transformed lowly Temple into a respectable defense in the Big East and has been called one of the best teachers in the game by Ohio State’s Urban Myer.
He appears to be just the man for the job.
Marshall also brought in Alex Mirabal to coach the offensive line and for his recruiting prowess in Florida. He will work to improve a unit still still needs to do a better job running blocking and providing a clean pocket for quarterback Rakeem Cato. Mirabal can also fill the void left by the departure of JaJuan Sieder who was a major presence in Florida for The Herd.
Mike Furrey was hired to work with The Herd’s young and talented wide receiving corps. Furrey played eight seasons in the NFL and as the head coach of Kentucky Christian University turned a 0-11 program to a 7-4 team by the end of the 2012 season.
Holliday found Adam Fuller at Chattanooga where he was serving as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach and brought him to Huntington to mentor the linebackers. In 2012, Fuller’s defense ranked in the top 18 in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) in nearly every category, including first down defense (6th, 15.7 per game), total defense (10th, 307.91), pass defense (12th, 166.0) and scoring defense (18th, 20.4).
The last hire was new running backs coach Thomas Brown. His coaching resume isn’t that long but his experience as a running back for one of the top programs in the country is extensive. Brown spent just one season as the running backs coach at Chattanooga but played at the University of Georgia and knows a thing or two about hard-nosed running.
Much like recruiting players, on paper it appears to have the right guys. However, just like recruiting players, we won’t know if these were the right moves until we see the results on the field.