Mark Snyder
Encyclopedia
Mark Snyder is the former head coach of the Marshall University
Thundering Herd football team
in Huntington, West Virginia
. He is currently the defensive coordinator
at the University of South Florida
. Snyder was the 28th head coach for the football squad after a four-year tenure with Ohio State University
.
native is a 1988 graduate of Marshall. Snyder played in 1987 for the football squad, leading the Southern Conference with 10 interceptions and was second on the team with 124 tackles his senior year at Marshall and helped lead the Herd to a landmark come from behind win at Louisville
and a berth in Marshall's first-ever national championship game. He captured honorable mention All-America honors and first-team All-Southern Conference honors that season as the Thundering Herd posted a 10-5 overall record and finished as national runners-up to Northeast Louisiana (43-42) in the 1987 Division 1-AA National Championship game. Snyder's 10 interceptions in 1987 still stands as the Marshall and Southern Conference single-season record.
the following year and spent two seasons there, the first as a graduate assistant and the second coaching linebacker
s.
In 1991, Snyder joined Jim Tressel
at Youngstown State University
as the outside linebacker coach. Snyder was given special teams and inside linebacker responsibilities in 1994, and then promoted to defensive coordinator and secondary coach in 1996. During his tenure at Youngstown State, the Penguins won three NCAA Division 1-AA national championships and played in four consecutive national championship games, facing Marshall in three of those contests (1991, 1992, and 1993).
Following the 1996 season, Snyder went on to spend four years as the defensive ends coach under Glen Mason
at Minnesota
. While coaching the Golden Gophers, Minnesota's defense twice set school records for single-season sacks and averaged 40.7 sacks during a three-year span. While at Minnesota, Snyder's best players were Lamanzer Williams, who led the nation in sacks in 1997, and Karon Riley
, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in 2000.
at Ohio State University
and was coming off of his first season as the Buckeyes' defensive coordinator. In Snyder's four years at Ohio State, the Buckeyes posted a 40-11 overall record and tallied a 3-1 record in bowl games, including victories in the 2003 and 2004 Tostitos Fiesta Bowls
. Snyder helped develop a number of outstanding players at Ohio State, including All-Americans Matt Wilhelm
, Cie Grant
, and A.J. Hawk. Both Wilhelm and Grant played key roles in Ohio State's 2002 national championship before going on to become NFL draft
picks. Hawk led OSU with 141 tackles en route to becoming the No. 5 overall pick by the Green Bay Packers
in the 2006 NFL Draft
.
Snyder's first season, the 2005 campaign, had plenty of highlights as well. It marked the emergence of sophomore running back Ahmad Bradshaw
, who finished the season with 997 yards rushing (tops among underclassmen in Conference USA
) en route to earning second-team All-C-USA honors. Thanks to the Herd's membership in Conference USA and the league's multi-year agreements with ESPN
and CSTV, Marshall gained a record amount of exposure by appearing on national television a record eight times in 2005. In addition, the Thundering Herd set a school single-game attendance record with a crowd of 36,914 for the Kansas State contest on September 10 and in the spring of 2006 set a Green & White Game record with 17,346 fans. The former Marshall standout led one of the youngest Thundering Herd teams on record, one that lost 25 seniors from the previous year and had only six returning starters, to a 4-7 overall and 3-5 conference mark in his first season - Marshall's first in the highly competitive Conference USA. Marshall had only three returning starters on offense and had to replace its entire defensive front seven in 2005. Adding to the challenge was the fact that Snyder did not take over the program until the end of spring practice. The first year head coach participated in only one spring practice and did not have an opportunity to install his system or get to know his personnel until August. Despite this, the Thundering Herd managed to be competitive in nearly every contest. In fact, the Thundering Herd was only a couple of breaks away from a seven win season and a bowl berth with three of the squad's losses coming by a mere five points or less.
In Snyder's second season, he saw Bradshaw return at running back and receivers Marcus Fitzgerald (brother of Pittsburgh
standout Larry Fitzgerald
) and Hiram Moore breakout. Snyder's second season saw a bit more production, after a loss to West Virginia
in the annual rivalry game to start the season. The Herd posted a 5-7 record and a 4-4 conference record. The Herd were 4-1 at home and 1-6 away. The marquee victory of the season was over UTEP, who were led by Jordan Palmer at quarterback. Bradshaw rushed for 261 yards and 5 touchdowns in the conference victory.
To begin Snyder's third season as Marshall head coach, the Herd started the season 0-7, which included a home loss to New Hampshire, a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) school. However, the Herd won their final three home games of the season, including a 26-7 victory over then division-leading East Carolina. The Herd finished the 2007 season with a 3-9 season record. One of the few highlights of the season was sophomore tight end Cody Slate
earning All-American honors.
In 2009, Snyder came under fire for his losing records in the previous years. Despite returning an experienced team, Snyder struggled early on in the season. In an early game against Bowling Green University, in which the Thundering Herd were losing to their former MAC rivals, the student section turned on Snyder by rhythmically chanting "Fire Snyder." Pressure continued to mount against him when the Herd blew a 13-point lead in the 4th Quarter of their annual contest against the University of Central Florida. With a win over Southern Methodist, Marshall became bowl eligible for the first time since 2004, and for the first time since Snyder became head coach in 2005.
led them to a 21 - 17 victory over the Ohio University
Bobcats in Marshall's first bowl game since 2004.
and a graduate of the University of Kentucky
, have three daughters: Chelsea, Lindsay, and Shaylee.
Marshall University
Marshall University is a coeducational public research university in Huntington, West Virginia, United States founded in 1837, and named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States....
Thundering Herd football team
Marshall Thundering Herd football
The Marshall Thundering Herd football team is an intercollegiate varsity sports program of Marshall University. The team represents the university as a member of the Conference USA Eastern division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, playing at the Division 1 Bowl Subdivision...
in Huntington, West Virginia
Huntington, West Virginia
Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia, along the Ohio River. Most of the city is in Cabell County, for which it is the county seat. A small portion of the city, mainly the neighborhood of Westmoreland, is in Wayne County. Its population was 49,138 at...
. He is currently the defensive coordinator
Defensive coordinator
A defensive coordinator typically refers to a coach on a gridiron football team who is in charge of the defense. Generally, along with his offensive counterpart, he represents the second level of command structure after the head coach...
at the University of South Florida
University of South Florida
The University of South Florida, also known as USF, is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, one of the state's three flagship universities for public research, and is located in Tampa, Florida, USA...
. Snyder was the 28th head coach for the football squad after a four-year tenure with Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
.
Playing career
The South Point, OhioSouth Point, Ohio
South Point is a village in Lawrence County, Ohio, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 3,742 at the 2000 census.South Point is a part of the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH, Metropolitan Statistical Area . As of the 2000 census, the MSA had a population of 288,649.The village mayor...
native is a 1988 graduate of Marshall. Snyder played in 1987 for the football squad, leading the Southern Conference with 10 interceptions and was second on the team with 124 tackles his senior year at Marshall and helped lead the Herd to a landmark come from behind win at Louisville
University of Louisville
The University of Louisville is a public university in Louisville, Kentucky. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of the first universities chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General...
and a berth in Marshall's first-ever national championship game. He captured honorable mention All-America honors and first-team All-Southern Conference honors that season as the Thundering Herd posted a 10-5 overall record and finished as national runners-up to Northeast Louisiana (43-42) in the 1987 Division 1-AA National Championship game. Snyder's 10 interceptions in 1987 still stands as the Marshall and Southern Conference single-season record.
Early Coaching
After graduating from Marshall, the following fall he began his coaching career as a student assistant coach for the Herd. He moved on to the UCF KnightsUCF Knights
The UCF Knights are the athletics teams of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. All of UCF's varsity sports teams are known as the Knights, with the women's teams sometimes referred to as the "Lady Knights." The Knights, which includes the university's 16 varsity sports teams,...
the following year and spent two seasons there, the first as a graduate assistant and the second coaching linebacker
Linebacker
A linebacker is a position in American football that was invented by football coach Fielding H. Yost of the University of Michigan. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up approximately three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage, behind the defensive linemen...
s.
In 1991, Snyder joined Jim Tressel
Jim Tressel
James Patrick Tressel is a gameday consultant for the Indianapolis Colts, and former collegiate football head coach at both The Ohio State University from 2001 to 2011 and at Youngstown State University from 1986 to 2000. Tressel is most notable for his time at Ohio State. He was hired by the...
at Youngstown State University
Youngstown State University
Youngstown State University, founded in 1908, is an urban research university located in Youngstown, Ohio, United States. As of fall 2010, there were 15,194 students and a student-faculty ratio of 19:1. It is recognized as being one of the premier schools in the country, comparable to Ivy League...
as the outside linebacker coach. Snyder was given special teams and inside linebacker responsibilities in 1994, and then promoted to defensive coordinator and secondary coach in 1996. During his tenure at Youngstown State, the Penguins won three NCAA Division 1-AA national championships and played in four consecutive national championship games, facing Marshall in three of those contests (1991, 1992, and 1993).
Following the 1996 season, Snyder went on to spend four years as the defensive ends coach under Glen Mason
Glen Mason
Glen O. Mason is an American football coach. Mason previously served as the head football coach at Kent State University, the University of Kansas, and the University of Minnesota, compiling a career college football record of 123–121–1.-Playing career:Mason played college football at...
at Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
. While coaching the Golden Gophers, Minnesota's defense twice set school records for single-season sacks and averaged 40.7 sacks during a three-year span. While at Minnesota, Snyder's best players were Lamanzer Williams, who led the nation in sacks in 1997, and Karon Riley
Karon Riley
Karon J. Riley is an gridiron football defensive lineman who most recently played for the Cleveland Gladiators of the Arena Football League-High school career:...
, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in 2000.
Ohio State Buckeyes
Snyder again reunited with Jim TresselJim Tressel
James Patrick Tressel is a gameday consultant for the Indianapolis Colts, and former collegiate football head coach at both The Ohio State University from 2001 to 2011 and at Youngstown State University from 1986 to 2000. Tressel is most notable for his time at Ohio State. He was hired by the...
at Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
and was coming off of his first season as the Buckeyes' defensive coordinator. In Snyder's four years at Ohio State, the Buckeyes posted a 40-11 overall record and tallied a 3-1 record in bowl games, including victories in the 2003 and 2004 Tostitos Fiesta Bowls
Fiesta Bowl
The Fiesta Bowl, now sponsored by Frito-Lay and named with their Tostitos brand, is a United States college football bowl game played annually at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Between its origination in 1971 and 2006, the game was hosted in Tempe, Arizona at Sun Devil...
. Snyder helped develop a number of outstanding players at Ohio State, including All-Americans Matt Wilhelm
Matt Wilhelm
Matthew Wilhelm is an American football linebacker who's currently a free agent in the National Football League. He was drafted by the San Diego Chargers in the fourth round of the 2003 NFL Draft...
, Cie Grant
Cie Grant
Willie "Cie" Grant is a former American football linebacker in the National Football League for the New Orleans Saints and is currently a free agent. He played college football at Ohio State University...
, and A.J. Hawk. Both Wilhelm and Grant played key roles in Ohio State's 2002 national championship before going on to become NFL draft
NFL Draft
The National Football League Draft is an annual event in which the National Football League teams select eligible college football players and it is their most common source of player recruitment. The basic design of the draft is each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order...
picks. Hawk led OSU with 141 tackles en route to becoming the No. 5 overall pick by the Green Bay Packers
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...
in the 2006 NFL Draft
2006 NFL Draft
The 2006 National Football League Draft, the 71st in league history, took place in New York City at Radio City Music Hall on April 29 and April 30, 2006. For the 27th consecutive year, the draft was telecast on ESPN and ESPN2, with additional coverage offered by ESPNU and, for the first time, by...
.
Return to Marshall
Marshall University's football program welcomed home one of its own when Mark Snyder was introduced as Marshall's 28th head football coach on April 14, 2005. "I am pleased that Mark decided to return to his alma mater and lead our football program into a new era," Marshall Director of Athletics Bob Marcum said at Snyder's hiring. "He brings a great deal of experience, enthusiasm, and a proven record of success at the highest levels of college football to Marshall."Snyder's first season, the 2005 campaign, had plenty of highlights as well. It marked the emergence of sophomore running back Ahmad Bradshaw
Ahmad Bradshaw
Ahmad Bradshaw is an American football running back for the New York Giants of the National Football League. He was drafted in the seventh round of the 2007 NFL Draft by the New York Giants...
, who finished the season with 997 yards rushing (tops among underclassmen in Conference USA
Conference USA
Conference USA, officially abbreviated C-USA, is a college athletic conference whose member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports...
) en route to earning second-team All-C-USA honors. Thanks to the Herd's membership in Conference USA and the league's multi-year agreements with ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
and CSTV, Marshall gained a record amount of exposure by appearing on national television a record eight times in 2005. In addition, the Thundering Herd set a school single-game attendance record with a crowd of 36,914 for the Kansas State contest on September 10 and in the spring of 2006 set a Green & White Game record with 17,346 fans. The former Marshall standout led one of the youngest Thundering Herd teams on record, one that lost 25 seniors from the previous year and had only six returning starters, to a 4-7 overall and 3-5 conference mark in his first season - Marshall's first in the highly competitive Conference USA. Marshall had only three returning starters on offense and had to replace its entire defensive front seven in 2005. Adding to the challenge was the fact that Snyder did not take over the program until the end of spring practice. The first year head coach participated in only one spring practice and did not have an opportunity to install his system or get to know his personnel until August. Despite this, the Thundering Herd managed to be competitive in nearly every contest. In fact, the Thundering Herd was only a couple of breaks away from a seven win season and a bowl berth with three of the squad's losses coming by a mere five points or less.
In Snyder's second season, he saw Bradshaw return at running back and receivers Marcus Fitzgerald (brother of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
standout Larry Fitzgerald
Larry Fitzgerald
Larry Darnell Fitzgerald, Jr. is an American football wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League, and currently ranks fourth all-time in league history in receiving yards per game for a career , behind Andre Johnson, Torry Holt, and Marvin Harrison...
) and Hiram Moore breakout. Snyder's second season saw a bit more production, after a loss to West Virginia
West Virginia Mountaineers
The West Virginia Mountaineers are the athletic teams of West Virginia University. The school is a member of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I and the Big East Conference. On July 1, 2012 the Mountaineers will switch conferences, moving from the Big East to the Big 12, becoming...
in the annual rivalry game to start the season. The Herd posted a 5-7 record and a 4-4 conference record. The Herd were 4-1 at home and 1-6 away. The marquee victory of the season was over UTEP, who were led by Jordan Palmer at quarterback. Bradshaw rushed for 261 yards and 5 touchdowns in the conference victory.
To begin Snyder's third season as Marshall head coach, the Herd started the season 0-7, which included a home loss to New Hampshire, a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) school. However, the Herd won their final three home games of the season, including a 26-7 victory over then division-leading East Carolina. The Herd finished the 2007 season with a 3-9 season record. One of the few highlights of the season was sophomore tight end Cody Slate
Cody Slate
Cody Alan Slate is an American football tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. He played college football at Marshall University. He attended Hargrave Military Academy. Slate was considered one of the top tight ends in the nation and a top prospect at the tight end for the 2010 NFL Draft, but was...
earning All-American honors.
In 2009, Snyder came under fire for his losing records in the previous years. Despite returning an experienced team, Snyder struggled early on in the season. In an early game against Bowling Green University, in which the Thundering Herd were losing to their former MAC rivals, the student section turned on Snyder by rhythmically chanting "Fire Snyder." Pressure continued to mount against him when the Herd blew a 13-point lead in the 4th Quarter of their annual contest against the University of Central Florida. With a win over Southern Methodist, Marshall became bowl eligible for the first time since 2004, and for the first time since Snyder became head coach in 2005.
Resignation from Marshall
On Saturday November 28, 2009 the Herd suffered an embarrassing 52-21 loss to UTEP at the Sun Bowl in El Paso Texas, thus finishing the season 6-6. On Sunday November 29, 2009 it was announced that Snyder had resigned as head football coach, effective immediately. The Herd received a bowl bid to the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in Detroit, Michigan. On December 26, 2009, interim coach Rick MinterRick Minter
Rick Minter is an American football coach in the United States. He is currently the co-defensive coordinator at the University of Kentucky...
led them to a 21 - 17 victory over the Ohio University
Ohio University
Ohio University is a public university located in the Midwestern United States in Athens, Ohio, situated on an campus...
Bobcats in Marshall's first bowl game since 2004.
South Florida
On January 18, 2010, Snyder was named the defensive coordinator at South Florida.Personal life
Mark and his wife Beth, who is a native of nearby Ironton, OhioIronton, Ohio
Ironton is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Lawrence County. The municipality is located in southern Ohio along the Ohio River. The population was 11,211 at the 2000 census. Ironton is a part of the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH, Metropolitan Statistical Area . As of the...
and a graduate of the University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
, have three daughters: Chelsea, Lindsay, and Shaylee.