Just two days after the conclusion of the annual NFL Draft, in which a former Marshall football star was selected among the first 60 picks, the Thundering Herd are on the clock.
Marshall will not extend its agreement with athletics director Christian Spears, who was tabbed into the role just more than three years ago and will not see an extension to his original four-year pact, multiple sources confirmed to FootballScoop Monday evening. ESPN was first to report the news.
Since his arrival from Pittsburgh in the winter of 2022, Spears has had to replace his school's head coaches atop its top-three most-visible programs: football, as well as men's and women's basketball.
Most famous -- or infamous -- was Spears' reluctance to find or attempt to find a way to extend former head football coach Charles Huff, who led the Thundering Herd to unprecedented FBS on-field success. The Herd defeated then-top 10 Notre Dame on the road in 2022, also defeated Power Conference resident Virginia Tech along the way and posted nine- and 10-win seasons in two of Huff's final three seasons.
His last campaign, 2024, saw Marshall win its first-ever SunBelt Conference Championship -- and after Spears had not extended Huff, the Thundering Herd football team elected to boycott its postseason bowl invitation.
It was a particularly embarrassing development for Marshall, which was fined $100,000 for its inability or unwillingness to compete in the bowl game. The Herd were not the first to do so after a coaching transition, but that group has been a relatively minimal number to include Washington State in 2023.
Spears fired men's basketball coach Dan D'Antoni after the 2023-24 season and then also had to find a new leader for the school's women's basketball program that time when Kim Caldwell departed for the prestigious Tennessee Lady Vols job.
While Marshall will immediately begin its search to replace Spears in the coming weeks, his contract runs through March 2026. If the school finds its replacement before that time, sources said, Spears will exit but be guaranteed his compensation through that term.