The Marshall Thundering Herd made the controversial decision to move away from former Head Coach Doc Holliday this week, garnering shock and some reprimand from national college football prognosticators.
While the move is certainly a risk given Holliday’s steady and sustained success, the gamble comes before and not after what Marshall administrators seemed to view as an inevitable decline under Holliday’s watch. Sinking average annual attendance and a complete meltdown in the final two months of play before Holliday’s contract expired certainly didn’t do him any favors.
Holliday’s poor performance on the recruiting trail over the past two years certainly didn’t help his cause either as Marshall finished 13th in Conference USA recruiting rankings last year and are on track to finish in the bottom five this February.