The Big Ten has two head coaching vacancies that need to be filled before getting to October, and a former Penn State assistant under James Franklin could be a name worth following as a potential candidate for at least one of the job openings. Michigan State officially parted ways with Mel Tucker following an explosive investigative report into alleged misconduct. Michigan State made the move citing Tucker bringing embarrassment to ths the job search for the next head coach of Michigan State officially gets underway, one of Franklin’s former assistants was ranked as a worthy candidate on the radar.
Marshall head coach [autotag]Charles Huff[/autotag] was among the top 10 coaching candidates highlighted by Spartans Wire. It is easy to see why Huff ranks relatively high on the ranking too.
“A lot of buzz has been centered around Marshall’s [autotag]Charles Huff[/autotag], and admittedly he could be on a rise on this list as the season goes on, but now he checks in at No. 4 after a huge win over Virginia Tech and starting 3-0 this season,” Spartans Wire noted in its power ranking of the top 10 coaching candidates for the program.
Huff spent the 2011 season as an offensive quality control assistant for James Franklin at Vanderbilt. The two previously worked together on the Maryland coaching staff as well in 2009. Huff reunited with Franklin when Franklin took the head coaching job at Penn State in 2014. Huff served as the team’s running backs coach and special teams coach for four seasons before leaving for Mississippi State to be an assistant head coach and running game coordinator for Joe Moorhead, who left his position as Penn State’s offensive coordinator to be the head coach of the SEC program.
Huff spent one season at Mississippi State and moved to Alabama to be an assistant head coach and running backs coach for Nick Saban, who is also a former head coach at Michigan State. Huff took the head coaching job at Marshall in 2021 and immediately took the Thundering Herd to a 7-6 record in his first season and 9-4 in 2022. Huff has Marshall off to a 3-0 start following this past weekend’s victory over Virginia Tech, coached by former Penn State defensive coordinator Brent Pry.
Huff is clearly a coach on the rise and has a well-respected profile as a candidate for the Michigan State job. We’ll see if he gets a chance to interview for the job as the Michigan State job search moves forward.