Former Nick Saban understudy Charles Huff is “bringing the juice” to the Thundering Herd football program as it prepares for the 2021 season.
By Keith Morehouse
HQ 114 | SUMMER 2021
In the middle of 300-plus football campers on a blazing summer day, Marshall Head Coach Charles Huff has their undivided attention. He oozes confidence and bravado in the post-camp talk. His straw hat might suggest that he hasn’t fallen far from the Nick Saban coaching tree, but that’s just window dressing on a hot football field. Huff is his own coach now. A lifetime around the game prepared him for this.
“My dad always tells the story that when I was 5 years old I wanted to be the coach and let everybody else play,” Huff said from his spacious office overlooking Edwards Stadium. “The schemes were interesting to me, so it started at a young age.”
It was his love of the strategy of football that fueled his dream to go into coaching; however, it was his own career as a player that led him to where he is today.
“I played Pop Warner back in the day, and I was always over the weight limit; I had to play with the older, bigger kids.” Huff said. “Then when I got to high school I knew my talent wasn’t going to allow me to play in the NFL. But I loved the game so much and wanted to find a way to be around it.”
Huff realized he wanted to be on the sidelines long after he hung up his cleats. Besides, coaching was the family business — his father Charles was a women’s basketball coach at Delaware State University. So, he began to build a resume that would stand out when athletics directors and search committees went looking for head football coaches. He’s brought 17 years of coaching experience to Marshall from schools such as Maryland, Vanderbilt, Penn State, Mississippi State and, most recently, perennial powerhouse Alabama.
Huff’s measurables in coaching include a tireless work ethic, a far-reaching social media presence and high expectations of his players on and off the field. It’s why on a hot summer Saturday he and some of his star players are volunteering by working on a landscaping project at the A.D. Lewis Center in Huntington. Huff wants his lessons to go well beyond the yard lines on a football field. Times like these are when his father’s advice comes in handy.
“He’s really been helpful when it comes to seeing the big picture,” Huff said of his father. “He told me to make sure and treat everybody the same way, and to separate your job from your feelings.”
“You can get a sense of who he is and what he stands for from his posts on social media,” sophomore linebacker Eli Neal said emphatically. “Everything you see on social media — that’s him for real. It’s not just for play. He brings energy to his job every single day. He’s bringing change to Huntington, and his energy is contagious.”
“Coach Huff is absolutely amazing. I love the guy,” junior linebacker Koby Cumberlander added. “He’s a good leader. He brings his own energy, his own juice. That’s the most important thing. He has definitely changed the culture around here.”
But change can be difficult in a football program, especially at Marshall where the Herd had plenty of success under Doc Holliday. When Charles Huff got to town, he wanted to make sure the players were buying what he was selling.
“I’ve been to the doctorate school of coaching under Nick Saban,” Huff said of the coach who’s won seven national championships at Alabama. “I’ve had a lot of experiences along the way. In order for the players to trust you, respect you, buy into what you are trying to do, you have to holistically dive in.” Huff knew from experience not every player would hitch his wagon to the new staff. To him, it was neither a blow to his coaching ego nor an indictment on Marshall’s program.
“You either adapt or die,” Huff said. “There’s no more dinosaurs in the world because they didn’t adapt. You’re either going to adapt to exactly how we want things done or you’re going to have to move on.”
But he’s confident in his ability to find replacements for players who left the program. Huff arrived in Huntington with a reputation as a recruiting whiz. The website 247Sports named him the National Recruiter of the Year for the 2021 season for his work in bringing top-notch prospects to Alabama.
Next on the horizon, though, is a date with the Naval Academy in Annapolis to kick off Huff’s head coaching career. Some of the preseason prognosticators have picked Marshall to win the East Division of Conference USA, and with 15 starters returning from last year’s 7-3 team there is optimism in the program.
Quarterback Grant Wells, and receivers Corey Gammage and Talik Keaton, have caught Huff’s eye this summer. There’s also a big, experienced offensive line to plow the way ahead. On defense there are plenty of battle-tested veterans like linebackers Koby Cumberlander and Eli Neal, defensive lineman Jamare Edwards and defensive backs Steven Gilmore, Brandon Drayton and Nazeeh Johnson.
Huff hopes his team isn’t listening to the preseason hype.
“One of the mottos we have around here is, ‘Don’t take the rat poison.’ While we like it when the sports writers predict that we will win every game because it creates a lot of excitement, we also know that the more you read it the more it will kill you. I try to teach our players to use the hype as a means to focus more on our goals.”
After another long day back at “Camp Huff,” the coach has gathered all the young players on the field to impart some final words of wisdom.
“The one thing about Marshall you must remember is that it’s a very special place,” Huff asserts. “This university has a rich heritage of strength, determination and resiliency. The football program rose from the ashes of a plane crash that took the lives of nearly the entire team, and went on to win two Division I-AA national championships, produce two Heisman Trophy finalists and send dozens of players to the NFL. What they have accomplished here is remarkable.”
Charles Huff clearly understands the football program and his role in its future. And it helps that the man tapped to lead the Thundering Herd on Saturdays is used to wearing different hats as he handles sales, public relations, recruiting and, of course, coaching. His straw hat is getting plenty of wear already.
