Mark Snyder
Mark Snyder is the current American football head coach of the Marshall Thundering Herd team. Snyder is the 28th head coach for the football squad after a notable tenure with Ohio State. Him, along with cross-state rivals West Virginia Mountaineers coach Rich Rodriguez, are only a handful of coaches coaching at their alma mater.
Pre-Coaching Years
The South Point, Ohio native was a 1988 graduate of Marshall. Snyder played in 1987 for the football squad, leading the Southern Conference with 10 interceptions and was second on the team with 124 tackles his senior year at Marshall and helped lead the Herd to a landmark come from behind win at Louisville and a berth in Marshall's first-ever national championship game. He captured honorable mention All-America honors 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 to Northeast Louisiana (43-42) in the 1987 Division 1-AA National Championship game. Snyder's 10 interceptions in 1987 still stands as the Marshall and Southern Conference single-season record.
Coaching Career
Early Coaching
After graduating from Marshall, the following fall he began his coaching career as a student assistant coach for the Herd. He moved on to UCF the following year and spent two seasons there, the first as a graduate assistant and the second coaching linebackers.
In 1991, Snyder joined Jim Tressel at Youngstown State University as the outside linebacker coach. Snyder was given special teams and inside linebacker responsibilities in 1994, and then 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 under Glen Mason at Minnesota. While coaching 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's best players were Lamanzer Williams, who led the nation in sacks in 1997, and Karon Riley, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in 2000.
Ohio State Buckeyes
Snyder again reunited with Jim Tressel at Ohio State University and was 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. 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. Hawk led OSU with 141 tackles en route to becoming the No. 5 overall pick by the Green Bay Packers in the 2006 NFL Draft.
Return to Marshall
Marshall University's football program welcomed home one of its own when Mark Snyder was introduced as Marshall's 28th head football coach on April 14, 2005. "I am pleased that Mark decided to return to his alma mater and lead our football program into a new era," Marshall Director of Athletics Bob Marcum said at Snyder's hiring. "He brings a great deal of experience, enthusiasm, and a proven record of success at the highest levels of college football to Marshall."
Snyder's first season, the 2005 campaign, had plenty of highlights as well. It marked the emergence of sophomore running back Ahmad Bradshaw, who finished the season with 997 yards rushing (tops among underclassmen in Conference USA) en route to earning second-team All-C-USA honors. Thanks to the Herd's membership in Conference USA and the league's multi-year agreements with ESPN and CSTV, Marshall gained a record amount of exposure by appearing on national television a record eight times in 2005. In addition, the Thundering Herd set a school single-game attendance record with a crowd of 36,914 for the Kansas State contest on September 10 and in the spring of 2006 set a Green & White Game record with 17,346 fans. The former Marshall standout led one of the youngest Thundering Herd teams on record, one that lost 25 seniors from the previous year and had only six returning starters, to a 4-7 overall and 3-5 conference mark in his first season - Marshall's first in the highly competitive Conference USA. Marshall had only three returning starters on offense and had to replace its entire defensive front seven in 2005. Adding to the challenge was the fact that Snyder did not take over the program until the end of spring practice. The first year head coach particpated in only one spring practice and did not have an opportunity to install his system or get to know his personnel until August. Despite this, the Thundering Herd managed to be competitive in nearly every contest. In fact, the Thundering Herd was only a couple of breaks away from a seven win season and a bowl berth with three of the squad's losses coming by a mere five points or less.
In Snyder's second season, he saw Bradshaw return at running back and receivers Marcus Fitzgerald (brother of Pittsburgh standout Larry Fitzgerald) and Hiram Moore breakout. Snyder's second season saw a bit more production, after a loss to West Virginia in the annual rivalry game to start the season. The Herd posted a 5-7 record and a 4-4 conference record. The Herd were 4-1 at home and 1-6 away. The marquee victory of the season was over UTEP, who were led by Jordan Palmer at quarterback. Bradshaw rushed for 261 yards and 5 touchdowns in the conference victory.
To begin Snyder's third season as Marshall head coach, the Herd started the season 0-5, with losses to Miami, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Cincinnati, and Memphis. Immediately after the Herd's home loss to New Hampshire, many of the Marshall faithful were calling for Snyder's resignation.[1] [2]
Personal Life
Mark and his wife Beth, who is a native of nearby Ironton, Ohio and a graduate of the University of Kentucky, have three daughters: Chelsea, Lindsay, and Shaylee.