DALLAS – After leading his team to an East Division title and a Conference USA Championship Game appearance, Marshall’s Doc Holliday has been named Conference USA Coach of the Year, as voted on by the league’s head coaches.
Marshall Football’s all-time leader in games coached and wins over FBS opponents, Holliday has led the Thundering Herd to 7-2 record this season, including a 4-1 finish in C-USA play. Marshall spent much of the regular season in the national rankings, reaching as high as No. 15 in multiple weeks.
Under Holliday’s tutelage, Marshall placed 12 players on the C-USA All-Conference teams, including a league-best nine first team selections. The Thundering Herd produced the C-USA Defensive Player of the Year in senior LB Tavante Beckett, who averages 9.6 tackles per game, has 7.5 TFL’s, one forced fumble, a nation-leading four fumble recoveries and one touchdown. Marshall also produced the C-USA Freshman of the Year in QB Grant Wells who has completed 61% of his passes for league-bests of 1,877 passing yards and 18 passing touchdowns (third-most among all FBS freshmen).
Holliday was named the American Football Coaches Association’s FBS Region 4 Coach of the Year on Dec. 15. Region 4 covers all of Conference USA and the Big 12 Conference. He is a finalist for the AFCA National Coach of the Year.
Holliday has recorded 85 wins at Marshall, including three straight seasons with 10 or more victories from 2013 to 2015. The Thundering Herd went 13-1 in 2014 with a Conference USA title and victory in the Boca Raton Bowl. Holliday has also led Marshall to eight bowl games, winning six of the first seven. The Herd will seek another bowl victory when it faces Buffalo in the Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama on Christmas Day.
This marks the second time that Holliday has been named Conference USA Coach of the Year, as he also won the award in 2014 when he led the Herd to a C-USA Championship. Holliday becomes the fifth coach in C-USA history to win multiple Coach of the Year awards.
