Marshall football: Joyful Huff, Herd happy to be back on the field

Aug 2, 2023
HUNTINGTON — Charles Huff walked onto the Joan C. Edwards Stadium football field Wednesday like a child ready to try out new toys.
The Marshall University coach was eager to see how the Thundering Herd’s newcomers — 25 transfers, five junior college players and 10 freshmen — meshed with the players returning from last season’s 9-4 team.
“It’s all just the pure excitement of college football when camp opens,” Huff said.
Wednesday was the fun part of Huff’s job. Fundraising, speaking engagements and other events are part of the position, but being on the field with players and assistant coaches doing what he went into coaching to do is different.
“With where we are in college football, there’s a lot going on, and obviously, a lot is business,” Huff said. “When the business gets into it, you can lose that pure joy of playing the game. I think that joy is what you get from everyone on the team on that first day, though. Everybody is excited and everybody is back to being a 5- or 6-year-old kid and playing the game they love. That’s what I’m excited to see.”
Players appeared eager to show what they could do Wednesday. The newcomers wanted to impress the coaches. Veterans were ready to hold off challenges to their positions.
As season preparation took a more serious step with the first day of fall practice, Huff took some time to be lighthearted in his assessment of some of Marshall’s other athletic programs recently making news, particularly with the hiring of softball coach Morgan Zerkle, who plays professionally.
“We hired a new track coach, a new softball coach,” Huff said. “I cannot block or tackle as well as coach Zerkle can hit home runs.”
Huff has another type of hitting in mind as the Thundering Herd readies for its season-opening home game against Albany at 6 p.m. on Sept. 2.
Even as practice began, recruiting was ever-present. After picking up a commitment from Cabell Midland defensive end Michael Lunsford on Sunday, Marshall received pledges from two more high school players Wednesday. MaLik Caswell, a safety from Stockbridge, Georgia, and Kyle Williams, a cornerback from Slidell, Louisiana, said they plan to sign with the Herd.
Caswell picked Marshall over offers from Albany State, Tennessee-Martin and Western Carolina. Williams chose the Herd from among overtures from Louisiana Tech, Mississippi, Southern Miss and Texas State.
If anything was amiss Wednesday, it was the absence of Mark Gale. The former Marshall assistant retired after last season. Wednesday was likely the first time since 1981 Gale wasn’t on a practice field and the first at Marshall since 1990, when he came to the Herd as part of coach Jim Donnan’s initial staff.
“I’d like to extend best of luck to coach Huff, his staff and the entire Herd football team,” Gale said.