I'm not trying to be a dick, which is unusual for me.
But that's exactly what every single coach is who comes to Marshall. Nobody starts their career by saying they only want to be the Marshall HC. And if they do, and when they get there, a five year $15 million contract at Syracuse/Wake Forest/etc. speaks a lot louder than their $850k contract at Marshall.
Every single coach Marshall should be interested in already is looking at Marshall as a stepping-stone. They don't plan on coming to Marshall to do a good job and then not move onto the bigger stage for a lot more money.
I'm not trying to be a dick, which is unusual for me.
But your entire post makes no sense. Every coach who comes to Marshall sees it as a stepping-stone, HC or assistant. And that's not exclusive to Marshall. The same holds true for just about every school outside of maybe 15-30.
So your idea is to find one of these coaches (which is all of them) and pay them 40% less than what they could get elsewhere and teach them they can use Marshall as a stepping-stone (as if they don't already know that)?
No coach is going to leave a $250k FCS job who is doing good enough to get an FBS gig in order to earn $500k and hope he can succeed, when he is able to get $850k at other FBS gigs.