Former WVU defensive assistant, West Virginia native is named new Marshall head coach

Moments ago, Van, W.Va native and former West Virginia defensive coordinator Tony Gibson was named the next Marshall football head coach.

The move comes after Marshall's most recent coach Charles Huff took the opening at Sun Belt rival Southern Miss. It will be Gibson's first-ever collegiate head coaching gig in a 29-year coaching career at the college level.

Gibson served as an assistant under two different West Virginia coaches -- he was the defensive backs coach under Rich Rodriguez from 2001-2007 and served as the safeties coach for Dana Holgorsen in 2013 before spending 2014-2018 as Holgorsen's defensive coordinator. Most recently, Gibson served a six-year stint as the defensive coordinator at NC State.

The Boone County native also spent one season in the 1990s as the defensive backs coach at Division 2 Glenville State and was the defensive coordinator from 1999-2000 at current NAIA program West Virginia Tech. He also led Gilmer County High School as a head coach in 1995, his only head coaching experience to date thus far. He played defensive back at Glenville State from 1991-1994.

Gibson's name was floated as a possibility for the recent WVU opening, but his name quickly fell out of the widely accepted list of candidates as drama surrounding Huff's future at Marshall began to heat up and the Herd began to search for replacements.