Written by Justin Prince.
Earlier this week DowntownHuntington.net reported that sources had confirmed that Southern Mississippi offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson was in town and speculation was he was a front-runner for Marshall’s vacant OC position.
Well, it appears that another man has risen to the top of Doc Holliday’s list and could be named the Herd’s offensive coordinator in the coming days.
Tim Cramsey, the offensive coordinator at FCS level Sam Houston State was also in town the same week that Dawson visited and, according to Keith Morehouse, it is Cramsey who has won over Holliday and the MU administration.
“Sources tell me Marshall is set to hire Sam Houston State offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey,” Morehouse tweeted Tuesday night.
2017 was Cramsey’s first season with the Bearkats after spending the 2016 season as the OC for the Nevada Wolfpack. Prior to his stay in Reno, Cramsey also served as offensive coordinator for Montana State and New Hampshire at the FCS level.
Cramsey is part of the Chip Kelly coaching tree having coached under Kelly when he was New Hampshire’s offensive coordinator as a tight ends and running backs coach. Cramsey was the University of New Hampsire’s quarterback from 1994-1997.
During Cramsey’s lone season at Sam Houston State the Bearkats lead the FCS in total offense averaging 538 yards per game. SHSU was also first in scoring offense averaging a stunning 43.3 points per contest while Bearkats quarterback Jeremiah Briscoe won his second straight Walter Payton Award as the top player in the FCS.
Cramsey’s offenses at Montana State were just as impressive as the Bobcats averaged 475 yards and 37.6 points per game during his three seasons at the school.
The highlight of those came in 2015, his final year with Montana State, when the Bobcats lead the Big Sky Conference in both total offense and scoring offense. Again Cramsey got a stellar performance from the QB position as junior Dakota Prukop was a named a First Team All-American by the Associated Press.
With the Wolfpack at Nevada, Cramsey’s offense averaged 382 yards per game and scored 25.4 points an outing.
Cramsey is somewhat familiar with Conference USA as he was the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator for Florida International in 2012, however, he left the Panthers when the team fired head coach Mario Cristobal. In his only season with FIU the Panthers’ offense ranked 84th nationally in scoring offense averaging 25 points per game.
The Thundering Herd have plenty of returning talent for Cramsey to work with, but he will have to break in a new quarterback as three-year starter Chase Litton left the team with a year of eligibility remaining to declare for the NFL draft.
