I waited awhile for all the moves to be made before I stepped back and looked at what happened and how I feel about it. Indulge me when I go through these one by one.
Charles Huff - I am glad he came here, happy for what he was able to accomplish. Seemed to run a clean program, always wanted to be in control of everything. I liked some things about him, and I think he may have learned a few things about what weren't his best traits. I believe he came here for good reasons for the Herd and for himself. I suspect he and we, will be happier with him being at SoMiss. So in effect, it is a good situation. Good luck to him except when we play them. I am sure he must have worked hard here to get us to a championships level. I do thank him for that.
Tony Gibson - I know his career and I am happy he chose to come to us. Some longtime assistants are great at becoming HC's while others struggle with change. I think he will be a little tougher than he appeared in his media day event. His immediate challenge is the portal, more in gaining outsiders than retaining players. The current good ones will get nice offers from bigger schools. The average ones may find it better just to stay here. I doubt he will get into a bargaining game with this group. The timing of any success will depend a great deal on his assistants, and his connections. For example, he may ask a coach at an ACC school just how good or bad is a player in the portal from that school. As they will respect him, he should be able to get some very good feedback from a lot of coaches. I believe that the JMU-Indiana success won't happen a lot, where a HC moved to a HC at a bigger school and brought along almost a whole starting lineup. For that reason I think it may take a few years for Coach Gibson to get back to championship level. I have no expectations of immediate success. Maybe .500 but winning those close games is now the challenge for most teams.
Christian Spears - I suspect he is very happy as he may feel that he has gained some control over the program. I think he, and Marshall, did not handle the media very well. No matter what he says now, or explains to us, the negative stuff never overcomes the good or correct news. But, in many ways his hands were tied as we were winning and everyone inside knew what was going to happen, win or lose. In my experience, major schools HC's report to the AD for budgets and personnel issues, but for job security and evaluation, it is the President, and indirectly or directly, the Board that decides on HC's life. I hope he has great success here, as I do believe his job is more about dollars for the very immediate and longer term future.
All of us - We Are Marshall and we get to celebrate an amazing "comeback" year. Forget the bowl, they are now meaningless TV shows that only resemble how good or bad your team was this year. I can wear Marshall gear knowing we won a lot of close games. Did we fall apart in at least one loss? Sure, but the rest of the way our team played as if they understood why we love the Herd. I do wish there was less banter on here about who is right, who is wrong, who is smart, etc. It is a message board, not a living room. I believe that if some of our posters knew each other better in real life, they might just see a little more eye to eye. I think what we often see here is an outgrowth of how much we care about Marshall. It is pure passion about wanting to win. Our suffering was so strong, so long, and hurt so deep, that no one can expect us to sit back and watch and not get up and cheer on the Herd, or be totally miffed and quiet when we see things we think are going wrong. I have a few friends in Huntington that some of you may think have been a problem, but I will guarantee you that their love for the Herd knows no bounds.
I apologize for the length of this run-on, but as I said, there is no stopping us when we care about the Herd.
Charles Huff - I am glad he came here, happy for what he was able to accomplish. Seemed to run a clean program, always wanted to be in control of everything. I liked some things about him, and I think he may have learned a few things about what weren't his best traits. I believe he came here for good reasons for the Herd and for himself. I suspect he and we, will be happier with him being at SoMiss. So in effect, it is a good situation. Good luck to him except when we play them. I am sure he must have worked hard here to get us to a championships level. I do thank him for that.
Tony Gibson - I know his career and I am happy he chose to come to us. Some longtime assistants are great at becoming HC's while others struggle with change. I think he will be a little tougher than he appeared in his media day event. His immediate challenge is the portal, more in gaining outsiders than retaining players. The current good ones will get nice offers from bigger schools. The average ones may find it better just to stay here. I doubt he will get into a bargaining game with this group. The timing of any success will depend a great deal on his assistants, and his connections. For example, he may ask a coach at an ACC school just how good or bad is a player in the portal from that school. As they will respect him, he should be able to get some very good feedback from a lot of coaches. I believe that the JMU-Indiana success won't happen a lot, where a HC moved to a HC at a bigger school and brought along almost a whole starting lineup. For that reason I think it may take a few years for Coach Gibson to get back to championship level. I have no expectations of immediate success. Maybe .500 but winning those close games is now the challenge for most teams.
Christian Spears - I suspect he is very happy as he may feel that he has gained some control over the program. I think he, and Marshall, did not handle the media very well. No matter what he says now, or explains to us, the negative stuff never overcomes the good or correct news. But, in many ways his hands were tied as we were winning and everyone inside knew what was going to happen, win or lose. In my experience, major schools HC's report to the AD for budgets and personnel issues, but for job security and evaluation, it is the President, and indirectly or directly, the Board that decides on HC's life. I hope he has great success here, as I do believe his job is more about dollars for the very immediate and longer term future.
All of us - We Are Marshall and we get to celebrate an amazing "comeback" year. Forget the bowl, they are now meaningless TV shows that only resemble how good or bad your team was this year. I can wear Marshall gear knowing we won a lot of close games. Did we fall apart in at least one loss? Sure, but the rest of the way our team played as if they understood why we love the Herd. I do wish there was less banter on here about who is right, who is wrong, who is smart, etc. It is a message board, not a living room. I believe that if some of our posters knew each other better in real life, they might just see a little more eye to eye. I think what we often see here is an outgrowth of how much we care about Marshall. It is pure passion about wanting to win. Our suffering was so strong, so long, and hurt so deep, that no one can expect us to sit back and watch and not get up and cheer on the Herd, or be totally miffed and quiet when we see things we think are going wrong. I have a few friends in Huntington that some of you may think have been a problem, but I will guarantee you that their love for the Herd knows no bounds.
I apologize for the length of this run-on, but as I said, there is no stopping us when we care about the Herd.