Every week, Jay will be bringing you insight into the upcoming game by taking a look at the opposing head coach. Let’s get ready for football!
Thursday will be a big day for Marshall head coach John “Doc” Holliday. Playing a premier opponent like Ohio State always presents an opportunity for a coach to pick up a big win for their program, but for Holliday, who has been on the college football scene for over 30 years now, the game will be especially significant. This is because the Marshall-Ohio State game will be Holliday’s first game walking the sidelines as a head coach.
Having been an assistant coach at West Virginia, Florida, and North Carolina State, Holliday was announced as the new head coach at Marshall last December, replacing Mark Snyder and bringing promise of restoring a tradition of winning to a faltering Marshall program. Walking into the ‘Shoe on gameday could certainly be an intimidating spectacle for a new coach entering their first game, but most likely a veteran like Holliday will be all business. He’s seen Ohio State before, most notably in the 2006 BCS National Championship Game, when Holliday was serving under Urban Meyer at the University of Florida.
At 53 years of age, Holliday has waited some time for his chance to call the shots from the perspective of head coach, and Marshall seems like a good fit. While Marshall Athletic Director Mike Hamrick asserted that they “weren’t interested where people were from” when conducting the search for the new head football coach at the University, it is clear that there is some excitement about having Holliday, a native West Virginian, taking the reins. Stated Hamrick: “He’s a West Virginian….he’s a West Virginian you need to understand that.” Having been born and raised in Hurricane, West Virginia, Holliday actually played linebacker at WVU, where he lettered three years, and spent the vast majority of his coaching career with the Mountaineers, fulfilling various roles there from 1979-1999 and from 2008-2009. These facts no doubt contributed to Holliday’s name surfacing as a candidate when the Mountaineers were undergoing their own head coach search to find a replacement for our favorite punching bag from up North.
Holliday has made a name for himself as an excellent recruiter, and seems poised to establish a reputation as a bit of a hard-ass as well, having dismissed five players from the team already for rules violations. While the incidents leading to the dismissals were serious, Holliday expressed his outlook on unwelcome conduct in general by stating “This football team is going to do what we ask them to do. If they don’t, they won’t be here.”
Holliday has coached a variety of positions throughout his tenure with each of the schools he’s served, from receivers to linebackers and everything in between. His success coaching secondary defenders at Florida comes as no surprise given that he holds a Masters degree in Safety Management from WVU. Despite his nickname, Holliday does not hold any higher degree.
With the intensity and experience of their new leader, the fans at Marshall have good reason to hope for the rebirth of a team they can be proud of.
Coach Holliday – congratulations on your new position at Marshall! We look forward to sending you home with a 0-1 record to start your head coaching career!
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