Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Names Mark Snyder Head Football Coach
4/14/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Marshall Names Mark Snyder Head Football Coach
4/14/2005
- Video of Press Conference (Requires Media Player)
Photo by Matt Riley |
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. ? Interim President Michael J. Farrell and Director of Athletics Bob Marcum announced the hiring Thursday of Marshall alumnus and Tri-State Area native Mark Snyder as the school?s new head football coach.
?When we played for the national championship in 1987 we could only dream of the heights to which Jim Donnan and Bob Pruett would take the program,? Snyder said. ?I have always been proud to have been a part of Marshall?s resurgence in football and now I am honored to have the opportunity to return to my alma-mater and lead Marshall into a new era. This is an exciting time for the Thundering Herd family as we move into Conference USA and our football team will not only represent, but serve the University and the Tri-State area well on and off the field. Our goal is to be the class of college football.?
Snyder, who has spent the past four years as an assistant coach under Jim Tressel at Ohio State University, is coming off of his first season as the Buckeyes? defensive coordinator. In Snyder?s four years at Ohio State, the Buckeyes posted a 40-11 overall record and tallied a 3-1 record in bowl games, including victories in the 2003 and 2004 Tostitos Fiesta Bowls.
?Marshall University welcomes home a distinguished alumnus,? Farrell said. ?Mark Snyder follows the tradition established by Bob Pruett by having demonstrated excellence at Ohio State University, Minnesota and Youngstown State. We are very pleased that he has accepted our offer to be head coach of the Marshall University football team.?
Farrell said Snyder?s five-year contract will pay him a base salary of $144,200 a year. Additional promotional compensation of about $135,000 and an incentive package of about $197,000 could bring the total package to about $478,000 based in large part upon his coaching success.
Farrell also said Snyder will receive a $50,000 ?welcome bonus? from the Thunder Club.
?I am pleased that Mark has decided to return to his alma-mater and lead our football program into a new era,? Marcum said. ?He brings a great deal of experience, enthusiasm, and a proven record of success at the highest levels of college football with him.?
Snyder helped develop a number of outstanding players at Ohio State, including All-Americans Matt Wilhelm, Cie Grant, and A.J. Hawk. Both Wilhelm and Grant played key roles in Ohio State?s 2002 national championship before going on to become NFL draft picks. Last season, Hawk led OSU with 141 tackles en route to earning All-America status.
Snyder came to Ohio State from the University of Minnesota, where he spent four years coaching the Golden Gophers? defensive ends. Prior to Minnesota, he also coached at Marshall, Central Florida and Youngstown State.
The Ironton, Ohio, native was an all-state selection at Ironton High School and played collegiate football at Marshall. Snyder led the Southern Conference with 10 interceptions and was second on the team with 124 tackles his senior year at Marshall. He captured honorable mention All-American and first-team All-Southern Conference honors that season as the Thundering Herd posted a 10-5 overall record and finished as national runners-up in the 1987 Division 1-AA National Championship game.
Snyder graduated from Marshall in the spring of 1988 and started his coaching career the following fall as a student assistant for the Herd. He went to Central Florida the following year and spent two seasons at UCF, the first as a graduate assistant and the second as a part-time coach working with the linebackers.
In 1991, Snyder joined Tressel?s Youngstown State staff as the outside linebackers coach. Snyder was given the added responsibility of special teams coordinator and inside linebackers coach in 1994 and was promoted to defensive coordinator and secondary coach in 1996.
During his tenure at Youngstown State, the Penguins won three NCAA Division 1-AA national championships and played in four consecutive national championship games, facing Marshall in three of those contests (1991, 1992, and 1993).
Following the 1996 season, Snyder went on to spend four years as the defensive ends coach at Minnesota. While he was with the Golden Gophers, Minnesota?s defense twice set school records for single-season sacks and averaged 40.7 sacks during a three-year span. While at Minnesota, Snyder helped develop Lamanzer Williams, who led the nation in sacks in 1997 and Karon Riley, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in 2000.
Mark and his wife Beth, who also is a native of Ironton and a graduate of the University of Kentucky, have three daughters: Chelsea, 12, Lindsay, 11, and Shaylee, 4.
