Barry Odom, new UNLV head football coach, speaks during a news conference at UNLV Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022. Odom, 46, served as the defensive coordinator at Arkansas for the past three years and was the head coach at Missouri from 2016-19.
Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023 | 8:33 p.m.
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Just four days after losing offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino to Texas A&M — before he even coached a game at UNLV — it appears as though the Scarlet and Gray have found their replacement.
According to a report, UNLV is hiring former Texas assistant Brennan Marion to fill Petrino’s role.
Las Vegas fans would probably know Marion best from his stint as the offensive coordinator at Howard, when in his first game as an offensive coordinator he helped guide the HBCU school to an upset win over UNLV at Sam Boyd Stadium as 45-point underdogs in 2017.
Marion, 35, joined Texas in 2022 as the Longhorns’ passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach.
During his time at Howard, Marion developed his “Go-Go” offensive system into one of the nation’s most innovative and productive attacks. After two years he moved on to become the offensive coordinator at William & Mary in 2019. He then became Hawaii’s wide receivers coach in 2020, and then served in the same position at Pitt in 2021.
Like Petrino’s system presumably would have, Marion’s playbook is designed to utilize the quarterback as a dual threat. But as UNLV found out in that 2017 upset, it also features no-huddle principles, multiple running backs and unorthodox formations. Howard ran for 309 yards and scored 43 points that night; freshman quarterback Caylin Newton accounted for 190 of those rushing yards, including two touchdowns (one being a 52-yarder).
UNLV incumbent QB Doug Brumfield has flashed big-play ability with his legs and his arm over parts of two injury-plagued seasons with the Scarlet and Gray. In 2022 he passed for 1,898 yards and 10 touchdowns while running for 261 yards and six scores.
In his playing days, Marion turned in 1,000-yard seasons in both of his Division-I campaigns as a wide receiver at Tulsa in 2007 and 2008.
On Thursday, UNLV announced former Arkansas linebackers coach Mike Scherer as the team's defensive coordinator. New UNLV head coach Barry Odom had been the defensive coordinator at Arkansas the previous three years.
Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.
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