West Virginia WR coach Marshall in a new but familiar role

West Virginia has a new wide receivers coach in Bilal Marshall in title but there were plenty of connections to the program that made him an easy choice for the position.

Marshall arrived in Morgantown in 2020 with his coaching mentor Gerad Parker as a graduate assistant and spent two seasons before taking a full-time job at VMI.

But that would end up being a short stay as Marshall would only remain with the Keydets for one season before a familiar name came calling.

It was head coach Neal Brown and he was in need of a wide receivers coach after Tony Washington left Morgantown after a season to take a job at Liberty. It didn’t take Marshall long to accept the post once it was offered and his familiarity wasn’t the only reason for his selection but it certainly helped.

“It’s been about 11-months since I was gone last time and I really feel like not much has changed. I wasn’t gone that long so everything was seamless when I came back in,” Marshall said.

How seamless? Well on his first day back with the program nobody was at the door to the Puskar Center to let him into the building but he was able to call on his previous experiences.

“I know a little secret entrance to get back in so that does help,” he said.

The time away from the West Virginia program helped Marshall to further mature as a coach as he was thrown into a different experience at a military school. The job taught him responsibility and allowed him to take ownership of his position room in a way he hadn’t experienced before in his young coaching career.

Now back with the West Virginia football program Marshall doesn’t need any time to acclimate to the offense because he is already familiar with it during his first stint. There also is an understanding that he already knows how the coaches on staff think and operate which removes that adjustment period, too.

Not to mention the fact that Marshall also already has a relationship with several of the holdovers on the roster in the wide receiver room after previously coaching them in addition to some of the newcomers. How is that the case?

Well, Marshall was actively recruiting players such as Jeremiah Aaron, Cortez Braham and even post-spring enrollee Rodney Gallagher during his first stint.

“They knew exactly who I was before I came back,” he said.

Braham and Aaron are expected to take leaps in their second year with the football program, while North Carolina State wide receiver transfer Devin Carter is expected to be a leader. The Mountaineers position room is one with plenty of questions, but the group is eager to prove where they’re at.

That means developing into dependable threats that can win one-on-one situations and take some of the pressure off the run game by removing defenders from the box. Marshall understands that it’s his job to make sure the room has the techniques available to stretch the field and create plays and it's his primary focus.

“We want to see man coverage because it’s one-on-one and we win and it usually turns into big plays,” Marshall said.

Marshall is new in his role but his understanding of the program and what’s going to be expected out of him have him embracing his biggest coaching challenge yet.

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