West Virginia WR coach Marshall always looking toward next goal
Bilal Marshall seems to be on the fast track in the coaching profession.
But it’s one he almost didn’t enter.
Marshall didn’t even get into the profession until 2020 when he followed Gerad Parker to Morgantown to work under him as a graduate assistant.
He had previously worked under Parker when he was the wide receivers coach at Purdue and even then his mentor would nudge Marshall toward the business.
“Gerad would tell me I need to coach but I would brush him off,” he recalled.
Marshall was working in sales at the time and did that for three years after he graduated from Purdue. But in 2018 when Parker was coaching at Duke several of his former Boilermakers wide receivers paid their former coach a visit. The goal was to show some of Parker’s new players how to go about practicing and playing and it was during that trip that he got a feeling that perhaps coaching could be for him.
That feeling was confirmed when Duke traveled to Miami later that season when Marshall once again spoke with the players. That was when he realized that coaching is what he wanted to do so when he told Parker that was his plan he got a somewhat unexpected response.
“He told me it’s about damn time,” Marshall recalled.
Marshall would follow Parker to Morgantown and spent two years with the program where he was able to learn under another mentor in head coach Neal Brown. Once his time was up in a graduate assistant role, Marshall received a full-time job as the wide receivers coach at VMI.
And after one season there, Marshall would be welcomed back to Morgantown as the wide receivers coach after the position opened up and Brown decided to go with somebody he trusted.
The West Virginia wide receiver group took a step forward last season despite the fact that the Mountaineers had a room filled mostly with young players. He chalks that up to what he has learned about the job through his time working at the college level under two different coaches.
In the off-season, Marshall has his wide receivers catch over 4,000 balls during an eight-week period in order to help them when it comes to reeling in the football.
“If you don’t plan ahead you’re going to be wrong. You have to plan ahead, have to have something to look forward to, something you’re trying to obtain to continue to get better,” he said.
Marshall has made it a point to follow that mantra and study drill-wise and has even taken some things off social media in order to find more ideas to help instruct his position room. He follows the path that the good ones borrow, the great ones steal and he’s continuing to find ways to improve as a coach.
The goal is to make things as simple as possible for them so they can play fast. And the most important lesson is to be prepared as it allows him to get everything he can out of his players.
“I want to take the next step and learning more football as this goes. I’m still young just turned 30, I’m trying to grow as well in every facet of my life,” he said.
And now in his second year with a more veteran group, Marshall is noticing the differences as he is able to get into more formations, shifts and window dressing with the plays because his position room is more comfortable with the route combinations and where they’re supposed to be.
It’s a much different place than where he found himself in his first two years in the program as the position room wasn’t as together as it is now. So, he’s seen it from both sides.
He also has a trust level with his wide receivers that has allowed him to fully maximize his coaching efforts because they understand where he is coming from.
“They know it’s not from a place of hate or anger, it’s a place of love,” he said. “Because I want to see them get better and they know that. With that too, guys want to play for you. Guys want to go the extra mile for you which I think is a big thing in this day and age.”
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