Mark Snyder (born December 30, 1964) is an American football coach. He is the Defensive line and Linebackers coach for the Orlando Guardians of the XFL and previously the linebackers coach for the Houston Gamblers of the United States Football League (USFL). Snyder served as the head football coach at Marshall University from 2005 to 2009 after a four-year tenure as defensive coordinator at Ohio State University.
Playing career
The South Point, Ohio, native is a 1988 graduate of Marshall. Snyder played in 1987 for the football squad, leading the Southern Conference with 10 interceptions and was second on the team with 124 tackles his senior year at Marshall and helped lead the Herd to a landmark come from behind win at Louisville and a berth in Marshall's first-ever national championship game. He captured honorable mention All-America honors and first-team All-Southern Conference honors that season as the Thundering Herd posted a 10-5 overall record and finished as national runners-up to Northeast Louisiana (43-42) in the 1987 Division I-AA National Championship game. Snyder's 10 interceptions in 1987 still stands as the Marshall and Southern Conference single-season record.
Coaching career
Early coaching
After graduating from Marshall, the following fall he began his coaching career as a student assistant coach for the Herd. He moved on to the UCF Knights the following year and spent two seasons there, the first as a graduate assistant and the second coaching linebackers.
In 1991, Snyder joined Jim Tressel at Youngstown State University as the outside linebacker coach. Snyder was given special teams and inside linebacker responsibilities in 1994, and then promoted to defensive coordinator and secondary coach in 1996. During his tenure at Youngstown State, the Penguins won three NCAA Division I-AA national championships and played in four consecutive national championship games, facing Marshall in three of those contests (1991, 1992, and 1993).
Following the 1996 season, Snyder went on to spend four years as the defensive ends coach under Glen Mason at Minnesota. While coaching the Golden Gophers, Minnesota's defense twice set school records for single-season sacks and averaged 40.7 sacks during a three-year span. While at Minnesota, Snyder's best players were Lamanzer Williams, who led the nation in sacks in 1997, and Karon Riley, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in 2000.
Ohio State
Snyder again reunited with Jim Tressel at Ohio State University and was coming off of his first season as the Buckeyes' defensive coordinator. In Snyder's four years at Ohio State, the Buckeyes posted a 40-11 overall record and tallied a 3-1 record in bowl games, including victories in the 2003 and 2004 Tostitos Fiesta Bowls. Snyder helped develop a number of outstanding players at Ohio State, including All-Americans Matt Wilhelm, Cie Grant, and A. J. Hawk. Both Wilhelm and Grant played key roles in Ohio State's 2002 national championship before going on to become NFL draft picks. Hawk led OSU with 141 tackles en route to becoming the No. 5 overall pick by the Green Bay Packers in the 2006 NFL Draft.
Return to Marshall
Marshall University's football program welcomed home one of its own when Mark Snyder was introduced as Marshall's 28th head football coach on April 14, 2005. "I am pleased that Mark decided to return to his alma mater and lead our football program into a new era," Marshall Director of Athletics Bob Marcum said at Snyder's hiring. "He brings a great deal of experience, enthusiasm, and a proven record of success at the highest levels of college football to Marshall."
Snyder was the head coach at Marshall for five seasons (2005–09) and helped lead the Thundering Herd transition from the Mid-American Conference to Conference USA. In Snyder's final year in 2009, Marshall went 6-6 during the regular-season and earned a berth in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl. His program produced 40 all-conference selections, including 2006 Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year Albert McClellan, who had 18.5 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks his sophomore season. Snyder produced a 22-37 overall record at Marshall (17-23 Conference USA).
Under Snyder, running back Ahmad Bradshaw was a two-time All-C-USA pick and ran for 19 touchdowns and 1,523 yards as a junior in 2006 to earn first-team all-league honors. Bradshaw was selected in the seventh round of the 2007 NFL Draft (No. 250 overall) by the New York Giants and won two Super Bowls with the Giants (XLII, XLVI); he is one of just eight running backs in NFL history to be the leading rusher in two Super Bowls.