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By Geoff Coyle for wvillustrated.com
December 17, 2009
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. WVU team sources have confirmed with wvillustrated.com that John “Doc” Holliday worked out a contract late Wednesday evening for the head-coaching job at Marshall University and has begun working to build his staff for the Thundering Herd.
Holliday has reached out to a number of members of the current WVU staff with offers to join him at Marshall, though nothing can become official until he is officially named to the position.
Among those Holliday has offered are current WVU safeties coach Steve Dunlap, running backs coach Chris Beatty and graduate assistant JaJuan Seider. Dunlap turned down the initial offer to become Marshall’s defensive coordinator, but may still accept in the days to come.
Beatty has yet to respond to his offer to join Holliday as offensive coordinator, but is expected to have an answer in the immediate future.
Seider, who has been instrumental in getting recruits from the Palm Beach, Fla. area to Morgantown, will be joining Holliday’s staff as a position coach, though which position is not yet known. Seider is a former WVU quarterback and was drafted by the San Diego Chargers in the 6th round of the NFL draft back in 2000.
Seider is thought by many to have been the driving force behind the majority of WVU’s Florida recruits, and in speaking to many of them myself, his name is referenced far more than Holliday’s with regards to what drew the prospect to Morgantown. He would have been a fine candidate to take on a position at WVU, but after accepting the offer from Holliday, he appears to be off the market.
Holliday has also contacted another graduate assistant at WVU to join him in some capacity at Marshall, though the details of the position are still fuzzy and will not be confirmed until later Thursday.
Also later Thursday, Holliday will officially be announced as head coach of Marshall University. All the speculation will become reality, and with it, his search for the right staff will become much more public.
Doc is a good man, and I wish him well with his new job.
Like his predecessors, he has an opportunity to build constructive
relationships with fellow educators. I am certain that, at this point,
he still has them with personnel at West Virginia. Hopefully, unlike
his predecessors, he is astute enough to maintain them. In my
view, the fact that he does not have roots in the delusion that has
dominated the scene at Marshall for the past couple decades should
be view as a positive at this point. He is a good choice for Marshall.
If you look at neighboring states, there isn't the kind of anomosity you see here among institutions of higher learning. There are groups in Huntington that have turned things into a kind of competitive circus. Instead of having a cooperative attitude, they constantly seek confrontation. Their goal is to "grow" by any manner possible, even if it means stepping on the toes of other schools within the state. Morgantown generally just tries to ignore them, but sometimes their noise becomes such a nuisance that a response is inevitable.
Having Doc Holliday, a West Virginia guy, in Huntington could be a good thing. He has friends in Morgantown, and is respected by officials there. They are not blaming him for taking this job, and he has a chance to build some positive things between West Virginia and Marshall. But, he would be fighting a strong headwind there in a land where the preference is for conflict rather than cooperation. The attitudes of the Hatfields and McCoys is not totally gone there, and still it permiates the atmosphere from time to time. The place is an anachronism, really. Anyway, here's hoping Doc can institute some positive changes in attitudes.
I wish Doc Holliday the best but to be perfectly honest he didn't bring any impressive recruits to WVU so you can count me as one Mountaineer fan that never touted his abilities in that category. Sure he might have had some leverage with Florida high school football players in the past, but what can Marshall really offer them that will steer such athletes away from BCS schools. I mean you can only make so many promises when the most you can offer is a chance to play in the Liberty Bowl...
I have nothing against Doc. I think he is a good guy and as an assistant
his contract didn't prevent him from taking other jobs. He got an almost
$200,000 raise. He would have been stupid to have passed it up. More
power to him. With the kind of money WVU pays assistants an equally
impressive one will be quickly found.
Good programs have good assistants that other programs want. It
happens all the time and is a compliment to the program. Apparently
Hamrick has known Doc for a long time and tried to hire him at other
programs where he worked. The man has to make a living, and must
take opportunities as they present themselves like anyone else.
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