Pitt Assistant Takes Thundering Herd Job

[Sweetleaf22]

Tom Herrion, known to the casual Pitt fan as "assistant coach nailed with a coin in West Virginia", will now have a completely new opportunity to get hit with things by Mountaineer fans, as he recently took the head coaching job at Marshall University in Huntington, WV.


It's going to be a tough road for the highly-regarded assistant, as the Thundering Herd has not been to the Big Dance since 1987 and has never won a tournament game. While the Marshall football program has produced a number of notable pros, including Randy Moss, Chad Pennington, Byron Leftwich, Troy Brown, and Ahmad Bradshaw, the basketball program has not had near the same level of success, although they did finish 24-10 and 11-5 in Conference USA last season.

Herrion is not a stranger to head coaching, as he went 80-38 in four seasons (2002-06) at the College of Charleston, including a 25-8 record in his first season. He was also an assistant under Pete Gillen for eight years at Providence and Virginia, and is considered a top-level recruiter. He was the lead recruiter in bringing Dante Taylor to Pitt, their first McDonald's All-American since Brian Shorter and Bobby Martin from the class of 1987.

Appalachian State's Buzz Peterson was Marshall's first choice, but when the two sides could not agree on terms, Herrion came to the rescue. Herrion was also a finalist for the Holy Cross job, which opened up when Sean Kearney was fired after one season.

Of course, the other question this raises is who Jamie Dixon will hire to fill in the void on his staff. Chris Dokish posted a lengthy list of possibilities that included Kearney, recently-fired Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio, former UVa coach Dave Leitao, and Duquesne assistant Scott Rigot, among many others. This will be a story worth keeping an eye on.