Marshall University Director of Athletics Mike Hamrick introduced Doc Holliday as the Thundering Herd's 29th head football coach on December 17, 2009.
Holliday, a Hurricane W.Va. native, is widely regarded as one of the top recruiters in the nation and he brings with him more than 30 years of collegiate coaching experience to Marshall that includes stops at Florida, NC State and West Virginia.
In 2011, the Herd went 7-6 against the 16th-toughest schedule in the nation, a slate that was ranked second among non-BCS schools. Two of those victories came against eventual C-USA champion Southern Miss and Big East co-champs Louisville, the latter coming on the road for the program's first non-conference road win since the early 2000s. Marshall also won five Conference USA games, the most for the program since it joined the league in 2005. Holliday also mentored All-American defensive end Vinny Curry, who was named the league's Defensive Player of the Year.
His first Herd squad won four of its last five games in 2010 and featured two first-team All-Conference USA performers in Curry and linebacker Mario Harvey. Marshall got it done in the classroom as well as tight end Lee Smith was named to C-USA's All-Academic Team and the squad, as a whole, was recognized by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) for its outstanding graduation rate. The Herd was one of just 15 schools in major college football to have a graduation rate of 90 percent or better based on the NCAA's Graduation Success Rate formula.
During his coaching career, Holliday has coached in 22 bowl games, three national championship games and coached 11 players that have gone on to the National Football League. He has also coached five All-Americans and 18 student-athletes that have earned all-conference or All-East honors.
Holliday came to Marshall after serving as associate head coach at West Virginia for two seasons where he also served as the director of recruiting while coaching tight ends and fullbacks for the Mountaineers. Rivals.com has named him one of the Top 25 recruiters in the nation and he helped WVU amass a 2009 recruiting class that was nationally ranked No. 22 by Scout.com and No. 27 by Rivals.com.
Prior to that, he worked as the associate head coach and safeties coach at the University of Florida from 2005 to 2007 and as the associate head coach and wide receivers coach at NC State from 2000-04. During his tenure at Florida, the Gators won the 2006 National Championship and the UF secondary led the SEC in interceptions in both 2005 and 2006. He also coached two All-SEC standouts Reggie Nelson and Major Wright. At NC State, he coached three of the top eight receivers in Wolfpack history (Koren Robinson, Bryan Peterson and Jerricho Cotchery) and the 2003 N.C. State team set six different school-records for passing including yards, yards per game, passing touchdowns and completion percentage.
He started his coaching career as a graduate assistant in 1979 and went on to serve in a variety of coaching positions at his alma mater that included serving as the wide receivers coach from 1983-1989 and again from 1993-1999, the inside linebackers coach from 1990-92 and as the assistant head coach from 1995-99. Holliday was a three-year letter-winner at linebacker at West Virginia (1976-78) and has earned both a bachelor's degree (1979) and a master's degree (1981) from WVU. He and his wife Diana have four children - Meghan, Cade, Chase and Cody.
