Topic: Are you OK with keeping Huff?

[saherdfan]

Yes.  He deserves a chance to turn it around!

[parshall2marshall]

Like has been stated, it depends mostly on:

(1) What Huff can get from the portal
(2) What his new assistants can come up with in terms of player development and schemes.

[Source03]

I have been told by a lot of coaches that all though they are the captain of the teams it is the assistants are the most important part of the team.  That is why we are not successful and the only way we could change the team was with their input and their recommendation. This should have token place last year with the firing of Legg and Trickett. I felt the first year Trickett was our problem on offense, but no one listen to a lot of fans. This was due to poor calling of plays and not coming up with  new ideas to change our calling from year to year. I believe all of the changes was necessary but the other one who should have been released was our Defense coach. I want to give Huff another year, but his hiring can't be friends or people he might owe something too. He needs to hire the best people out there and if it means he needs additional funds to hire people than get with Spears and discuss this.  Then have Spears come back to the fans to get these funds if we don't have it. In other words if we want to win give him the tools  to get the correct people. One suggest I would like too see is forget about Francher as quarterback and move him to a receiver and get a proven quarterback from the portal but at the same time take at lease two other people to prove they can lead the team. 

[herdfan48]

Not happy He should have also dumped the DC.  That would have been a little easier for me to stomach.

TRS
MU 71

I totally agree. If Huff is staying the DC should have also been gone. Morrison was let go, but I feel like the linebacker play and lack of stopping the run has been due more to the scheme that is being played. Thats on the DC and not the linebacker coach.


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[miltonherdfan]

This should have token place last year with the firing of Legg and Trickett. I felt the first year Trickett was our problem on offense, but no one listen to a lot of fans. This was due to poor calling of plays and not coming up with  new ideas to change our calling from year to year.

trickett wasn't the OC huff's 1st yr

[NewfieHerdFan]

I'm going to try and be optimistic and hope Huff goes all out on getting things corrected/improved for next season. I'm guessing he doesn't want to fail and be sent back to a position coach somewhere. He definitely wants to move up the head coaching ladder (P5 school). Next season will be huge for him.

[Echo 5]

I think we are all trying to pick the option that sucks the least.  Personally, I'm leaning towards letting Huff go all while admitting that opinion doesn't address the money aspect.  A successful season in '24 means he has to (1) find 3 qualityoffensive coaches plus a LB coach, and (2) recruit a great deal of player talent to begin with, not to mention replace key players like Porter, JJ Roberts, Ali, Neal, etc.. If he doesn't do all of the above perfectly, then we are likely going to replace him after next year anyway.  I think the chances of success are very slim, especially getting that many quality coaches with only one year left on his contract.  Almost like having lightning strike 4 times in the same spot.

It seems the option that sucks the least would be to start over with a new staff.  But, this comes at a steep cost ($700k+), so I'm guessing the athletic budget just can't take that hit. 

No good options either way, and hoping for the best.  But I'm not happy with either option.



 

[elginherd]

Not really. We had a championship game appearance the year before he came and he comes in talking about closing the gap. Closing the gap from a championship game appearance means winning a championship.

If he couldn't do that in 3 years he doesn't deserve a 4th.

Well, he did close the gap towards last place in the conference.
It's a frame of reference problem.

[thelonderee]

There are several things that bother me about Huff.

1) Each of the last two seasons he has seemingly gotten caught up in the early talk about his next job, and this has caused the team to lose focus.
2) The QB situation has been a glaring problem. Huff said no one was prepared to play when Fancher got dinged up. I lost confidence in him at that point.
3) He threw Pennington under the bus after his first meaningful playing time, which came after we were down by several scores on the road.
4) Our offense during his tenure has been unproductive. Too many turnovers, too many three and outs, putting too much pressure on our defense. If we want to win, we HAVE to be able to stretch the field in the passing game. Can't rely on pounding the rock. It's predictable and easy to stop. A balanced attack is the only way to dominate opponents.
5) He has not done what a true leader does: admit mistakes, own them and take steps to improve. Instead, he constantly points at others for the reasons why our team has stumbled.

Nothing makes me think this will change in year four, regardless of who he hires to fill the holes on his staff. I don't dislike Huff, but I don't think he is even a decent head coach and Marshall should have moved on from him after this season. I will hope that I'm wrong and year four is an amazing year. But I don't expect much. Probably 7-5, 6-6 or 5-7.

[elginherd]

There are several things that bother me about Huff.

1) Each of the last two seasons he has seemingly gotten caught up in the early talk about his next job, and this has caused the team to lose focus.
2) The QB situation has been a glaring problem. Huff said no one was prepared to play when Fancher got dinged up. I lost confidence in him at that point.
3) He threw Pennington under the bus after his first meaningful playing time, which came after we were down by several scores on the road.
4) Our offense during his tenure has been unproductive. Too many turnovers, to many three and outs, putting too much pressure on our defense. If we want to win, we HAVE to be able to stretch the field in the passing game. Can't rely on pounding the rock. It's predictable and easy to stop. A balanced attack is the only way to dominate opponents.
5) He has not done what a true leader does: admit mistakes, own them and take steps to improve. Instead, he constantly points at others for the reasons why our team has stumbled.

Nothing makes me think this will change in year four, regardless of who he hires to fill the holes on his staff. I don't dislike Huff, but I don't think he is even a decent head coach and Marshall should have moved on from him after this season. I will hope that I'm wrong and year four is an amazing year. But I don't expect much. Probably 7-5, 6-6 or 5-7.

I agree with everything that you said.

[Thundering In MD]

I voted "no."  My main reason is that he has only played Fancier until he was forced to make a change.  Then he put In Pennington as the only QB.  There were other QBs who could have gotten some snaps and experience.

The same can be said for RB.  Ali and Payne aren't the only RBs.  Looks like Ali is jumping ship.  So now Huff will have Payne, who is a good contributor, with the only game experience.

Not saying I'm right, but I felt Huff was in a battle with someone over QB.  Again, I felt he sent out Fancier as sole captain to show he was right.

Please note that I used "felt" twice and I have several corporate tests to prove I have a low empathy score.  So take it for what it's worth.

[bbcard1]

2) The QB situation has been a glaring problem. Huff said no one was prepared to play when Fancher got dinged up. I lost confidence in him at that point.

He had a backup plan, but T.J.McMahon was unable to go. There have been years where we have had to go deeper into the QB rotation than #3 (decades ago), but those were years where we were considerably better as a team than much of our competition.

[herdman22]

I am, but not 100% convinced he will be here next year. There's a lot to happen between now and then.


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[MarshallSteve]

I'm leaning no. If he had 2-3 years left on his contract then maybe but with one year remaining I feel like its just extending the inevitable. Probably looking at a sub .500 team next year with new coordinators and then starting over again in 2025.

 And what really good coach would want to come here knowing he's on the hot seat and likely out after next season?

I say cut the ties now and move on. Especially if the rumors are true and he doesn't want to be here anyway.

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[Lord Haw-Haw]

There are several things that bother me about Huff.

1) Each of the last two seasons he has seemingly gotten caught up in the early talk about his next job, and this has caused the team to lose focus.
2) The QB situation has been a glaring problem. Huff said no one was prepared to play when Fancher got dinged up. I lost confidence in him at that point.
3) He threw Pennington under the bus after his first meaningful playing time, which came after we were down by several scores on the road.
4) Our offense during his tenure has been unproductive. Too many turnovers, too many three and outs, putting too much pressure on our defense. If we want to win, we HAVE to be able to stretch the field in the passing game. Can't rely on pounding the rock. It's predictable and easy to stop. A balanced attack is the only way to dominate opponents.
5) He has not done what a true leader does: admit mistakes, own them and take steps to improve. Instead, he constantly points at others for the reasons why our team has stumbled.

Nothing makes me think this will change in year four, regardless of who he hires to fill the holes on his staff. I don't dislike Huff, but I don't think he is even a decent head coach and Marshall should have moved on from him after this season. I will hope that I'm wrong and year four is an amazing year. But I don't expect much. Probably 7-5, 6-6 or 5-7.

Agree, 100%. You brought out your points very well. Nothing was overlooked about perceived problems with Huff. This has to be one of the best posts in the last year about the problems with Huff and the football program. Five (5) stars.

[NewfieHerdFan]

What are the reasons Huff wants out of Huntington/Marshall? I've heard that his wife isn't fond of the area (not sure if that's true or not) and I'm guessing he feels (ego) he needs to be at a bigger program. And didn't he say something like it's hard to recruit well because no one wants to come to Huntington?

[muherd34]

What are the reasons Huff wants out of Huntington/Marshall? I've heard that his wife isn't fond of the area (not sure if that's true or not) and I'm guessing he feels (ego) he needs to be at a bigger program. And didn't he say something like it's hard to recruit well because no one wants to come to Huntington?

It was something like that.  Huntington is a tough place to live or something.

[2xBison]

What are the reasons Huff wants out of Huntington/Marshall? I've heard that his wife isn't fond of the area (not sure if that's true or not) and I'm guessing he feels (ego) he needs to be at a bigger program. And didn't he say something like it's hard to recruit well because no one wants to come to Huntington?

My guess is most coaches not from here want out eventually.  We all agree stepping stone job.  Then we go on and recycle the "his wife hates it here" self loathing rumor we have circulated on herrion, huff, Gilbert and more.  Maybe it's true, maybe not, the rumor has been out since the Huffs arrived.  To be true then the Huffs (as local public figures) are dumb enough to tell someone that.  So....


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[JeremyBlake23]

Nope. I'm never ok with getting rid of assistant coaches to save the head coaches job. He already went out and hired the best people he knew to hire. Why would he do any better the second time around?

[panthersherd]

Im not happy about it but my opinion is irrelevant.

[HerdEcon]

Nope. I'm never ok with getting rid of assistant coaches to save the head coaches job. He already went out and hired the best people he knew to fire. Why would he do any better the second time around?

I can't think of an instance where a HC fires his assistants/coordinators to save his own job and the HC has been able to turn the program around.  All of the instances I can think of the program didn't substantially improve and the HC got fired along with his staff a short time later.  Maybe some others can think of examples, but they escape me at the moment. 

[svherd]

His initial hires were poor, except for Guidry and Street. The others just bad coaches or short on experience. Trickett should never have been our OC, just smart enough or experienced enough.

[HerdEcon]

His initial hires were poor, except for Guidry and Street. The others just bad coaches or short on experience. Trickett should never have been our OC, just smart enough or experienced enough.

I agree about Trickett.  He was not ready and may never be.  I though he may make a good QB coach, which obviously he didn't.