One day after Marshall won the Sun Belt Championship, the program and the conference saw some major coaching changes.
Southern Miss announced Sunday that Marshall head coach Charles Huff would become USM’s next head coach, and Marshall followed by hiring Tony Gibson to replace Huff.
Huff is 32-20 in the FBS as a head coach. That’s from the past four years at Marshall. The Thundering Herd went 9-3 during the 2024 regular season before defeating Louisiana in the Sun Belt title game. He led Marshall to four consecutive bowl appearances.
Huff was a well-respected assistant coach and recruiter before taking over at Marshall.
During his career, Huff has mostly coached running backs. And within the past decade, he’s mentored some great ones like Saquon Barkley of Penn State and Najee Harris and Brian Robinson Jr. of Alabama.
Huff was an assistant head coach and running backs coach at Alabama from 2019-20. The year before, he was an assistant head coach, running backs coach, and run game coordinator at Mississippi State.
He was a running backs coach and special teams coordinator at Penn State from 2014-17. He also worked with RBs at Western Michigan in 2013, and he was an assistant running backs coach at the pro level for the Buffalo Bills in 2012.
He was an offensive quality control coach for Vanderbilt in 2011 after coaching offensive linemen for a year at Hampton, which is where he played and started 12 games at center as a senior.
He was an assistant O-line coach at Maryland in 2009. He began his coaching career at Tennessee State, first working with offensive linemen in 2006 and then becoming a tight ends coach and special teams coordinator from 2007-08.
“As we started this search, we were focused on finding a dynamic leader who could get our program back to competing for championships,” Southern Miss athletic director Jeremy McClain said in a press release. “Charles Huff has proven that he is a winner who can build a championship culture within the Sun Belt.”
Before going to Marshall, Gibson was a defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at NC State, where he’s been since 2019. In 2021, he was a nominee for the Broyles Award, which goes to the top assistant coach in the country.
He began his career as the head coach at Gilmer County High School in West Virginia in 1995. He then was a defensive backs coach at Glenville State (1996) and worked with DBs and special teams at Cumberland University (1997-98).
He was a defensive coordinator at West Virginia Tech from 1999 to 2000 before coaching DBs at West Virginia from 2001-07. He was an assistant head coach while working with DBs and special teams at Michigan from 2008-10.
He was a secondaries coach and pass game coordinator at Pitt (2011) and an assistant head coach and safeties coach while also working with special teams at Arizona (2012) before returning to West Virginia. While there, he was a safeties coach (2013), defensive coordinator and linebackers coach (2014-15), and an associate head coach, defensive coordinator, and linebackers coach (2016-18).
During his career, he’s coached five All-Americans, 27 all-conference honorees, and 22 eventual pros.
“Finding the right person to lead the Thundering Herd Football program is one of the most important decisions we will make in Marshall Athletics,” Marshall athletic director Christian Spears said. “We recognize the significance of the moment. We want to thank our President Brad D. Smith for his leadership, his principle-based approach and thought partnership as we made this decision.
“In addition, we are grateful for Mike Valentine – our Senior Associate Athletic Director and Sport Administrator for Football for his role in ensuring we made a great decision. Finally, I want to commend our Board of Governors for their collaboration and support, as well.
“The 32nd Head Coach in the history of our program is coming home! He is a proud Boone County native with an enormous wealth of coaching experience that will continue to elevate and honor the tradition of success of Marshall Football.”
