The Argument for Charles Huff to be the next VT Football Coach

I'm continuing to drop some posts evaluating guys on my radar who could potentially be the next guy for VT. This is my fifth post. Checkout the previous four:

1. WKU coach Tyson Helton
2. JMU coach Bob Chesney
3. UNLV coach Dan Mullen
4. Iowa State coach Matt Campbell

This week: Charles Huff

Who is Charles Huff?

Charles Huff is the 42-year-old head coach at Southern Miss who's in his first season transforming one of the Sun Belt's worst programs. The Maryland native has built a reputation as one of college football's elite recruiters and running back developers, having worked under Nick Saban at Alabama, coached Saquon Barkley at Penn State, and led Marshall to a Sun Belt championship before taking on the Southern Miss rebuild.

Huff is currently 3-2 at Southern Miss, a remarkable turnaround for a program that went 1-11 just last season. Before arriving in Hattiesburg, he posted a 32-20 record across four seasons at Marshall, culminating with a 31-3 Sun Belt Conference championship victory, which is extra impressive if you know what was going on behind the scenes at the Marshall Athletic Department.

He's built a career winning at programs with dysfunctional athletic departments
If you haven't followed the Marshall/Huff Saga, I'll try my best to summarize:

1. Marshall expects to win the Sun Belt. Huff says "okay, cool, I need more investment" (aka NIL). Marshall leadership says nahhh win with this. Huff says 'I'll see what I can do'
2. Players transfer and Marshall does not win the Sunbelt (shocker)
3. Marshall beat writers, fans, and the administration are upset with good players transferring
4. Huff says (a bit too candidly, during a press conference) that the administration has not provided him with the funding to keep players - The administration is now very butthurt.
5. Huff walks it back publicly, but the damage is done: Administration refuses to extend his contract or fire him, effectively making Huff a lame duck coach.
6. Huff in his final year of his contract wins the conference (actual shocker), leaves for Southern Miss (the worst team in the Sunbelt) before the bowl game. Marshall's entire roster transfers (before the bowl game) and Marshall has to pay a $100k fine for being unable to field a roster for said bowl game.

Most reporting (Godfrey on SZD; paywalled) frames this as a failure of the Marshall administration rather than Huff being an asshole, but most people also agree that Huff should have been a bit softer in his public criticism of the administration.

Epilogue: Marshall's AD Christian Spears was eventually not renewed specifically because he failed to retain Huff, a decision that looks increasingly foolish as Huff transforms Southern Miss LOL

At Southern Miss, Huff walks into another (albeit different type of) dumpster fire: The Golden Eagles went 1-11 in 2024, didn't win a single Sun Belt game, and fired coach Will Hall mid-season. The program had 3 different coaches within an 8ish week span. Since arriving at Southern Miss, Huff has brought in over 70 transfers, has already won 4 games (equal to the total number of wins in the 2023 and 24 seasons combined), and will likely make a bowl game.

For Virginia Tech—a program that's dealt with its own administrative dysfunction and budget constraints—Huff's ability to succeed despite organizational challenges might be exactly what's needed. He's proven he can win when the deck is stacked against him.

He embraced the transfer portal like no other coach

Huff brought amost 70 new players to Southern Miss in his first season, completely rebuilding the roster through the transfer portal. That's not a typo. 54 transfers, 13 new enrollees (and then I round up to the nearest 70 for impact). Seventy new players. About 20 following Huff from Marshall.

According to Claude (aka I didn't double check this) the Southern Miss roster includes 17 former SEC players, nine former Big 12 players, and five former ACC players. Surprisingly none of which are from Virginia Tech. At Sun Belt Media Days, Huff explained his philosophy:

In today's college football, I'm not playing with a 1-11 team. I'm playing with the team that I recruit."

Damn. That's some big dick energy.

His coaching pedigree is elite

Before becoming a head coach, Huff assembled one of the most impressive assistant coaching resumes in college football:

• Penn State (2014-2017): As running backs coach and special teams coordinator, Huff recruited and developed Saquon Barkley, who became a consensus All-American, two-time Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, and the second overall pick in the 2018 NFL DraftHuff flipped Barkley from his initial commitment to Rutgers, even though Barkley wasn't even rated as the top running back in Pennsylvania at the time.
• Mississippi State (2018): In his one season in Starkville, Mississippi State's running backs ran 253 times without losing a fumble once. Unsure if Huff employs the Shane-Beamer-Boxing-Glove^TM, but he maybe he has something better.
• Alabama (2019-2020):As associate head coach and running backs coach, Huff mentored Najee Harris, who won the 2020 Doak Walker Award for the nation's best running back en route to Alabama's 18th National ChampionshipIn 2020, Harris led the nation in total touchdowns (30), rushing touchdowns (26), and points (180)

He's a proven elite recruiter

While at Alabama, Huff gained a reputation as one of the top recruiters in college football. He's worked under James Franklin at Penn State and Maryland, under Nick Saban at Alabama, and has built his own recruiting machine at Marshall and now Southern Miss.

At his introductory press conference at Southern Miss, Huff promised a recruiting weekend "like you have never seen" with "fireworks, helicopters, hot air balloons"—because, in his words, "those kids are that important to what we are trying to build."

For Virginia Tech, which has struggled with recruiting in recent years, bringing in someone who learned from Saban and Franklin while also building his own recruiting infrastructure (at multiple under-resourced programs) could be transformative.

The concerns are real, but manageable

Would I have concerns with a Huff hire? Of course. He's only been a head coach for five seasons (four at Marshall, currently in his first at Southern Miss). His lone season at Southern Miss is still in progress, so we don't have a full body of evidence yet.

I also wonder how his brash personality will play at Virginia Tech. While the situation worked out fine for him, his honesty with Marshall's fans and administration was... not well received. Is this brashness the kick-in-the-ass that VT needs, or is the fan base and administration going to take offense?

Why Huff makes sense for Virginia Tech right now

Virginia Tech needs someone who can:

• Win despite institutional challenges (check)
• Aggressively use the transfer portal to immediately upgrade talent (check)
• Recruit and develop elite skill position players (check)
• Build a program from scratch quickly (check)

Huff is currently making $950,000 annually at Southern Miss, so we can afford him. I think he'd be willing to take on another rebuild, and as a Maryland Native, I think he'd thrive in this region (or at least Steven Godfrey does, and I choose to blindly echo that sentiment).

Would I prefer someone with more sustained head coaching success? Sure? But also, Huff has rebuilt programs, won a conference championship, and recruited at the highest level in the sport. If VT announces Huff as the next head coach, I'd be cautiously optimistic about the future.