The seemingly never-ending Sacramento State saga took another turn last week as head coach Brennan Marion announced he would be leaving to take the offensive coordinator position at Colorado. Marion, who only coached the Hornets for one season, led the team to a 7-5 overall record this last fall. For Marion, the job is unquestionably a bump in both pay and prestige but for the school and football program, the news probably could not have come at a worse time. For a team that is on its way out of the Big
Sky with no real future destination (or schedule for that matter), to have to embark on a coaching search now is less than ideal.
How did this all happen?
Sac State has made it very clear over the last year and a half that they have every intention of joining the FBS as soon as possible. In fact, it was essentially a promise that they would if you were to talk to certain members of the university. School president Luke Wood has been very vocal about his thoughts on FCS football and where he thinks his football team fits into that picture (you can find some examples here). The program simply feels as though it has outgrown the subdivision wants to follow in the footsteps of others like Kennesaw State and James Madison.
The Hornets cannot be blamed for having those aspirations, especially seeing how both KSU and JSU just won their respective conference championships on Friday night. More money comes in, the school gets more exposure and success… at least in theory… follows. There’s just one problem; Sac State has not received any interest from an FBS conference. Even after applying for a waiver to jump up as an independent, they were denied. So, instead of waiting for the usual channels for such a move to open up, Wood and the school opted to take matters into their own hands and take the true independent route and leave the Big Sky, an announcement they made prior to this football season.
It’s a bold move if for nothing more than the very obvious hurdle of needing to build an entire schedule from scratch. As of now, the Hornets have just four games scheduled for next fall. Even with that huge gamble, though, the program was still able to wrangle the best recruiting class in the FCS during the early signing period last week… that was until Marion left.
It was Marion and his staff that were able to land notable recruits like three-star quarterback Jackson Presley. In the light of the coaching change, though, Presley has already withdrew his commitment and odds are he won’t be the only one. On top of trying to keep the incoming class, Sac State will also have to worry now when the transfer portal opens up on January 2.
All-around it is very inopportune time to lose your head coach if you’re Sacramento State, especially after just bringing Marion in a year ago. The school has already begun its search for its next head coach but right now it is surely going to be a difficult job to sell seeing as the future of the team is so in flux. This could all domino on the team in a really, really bad way if they aren’t careful. The only sure things for the Hornets right now is that they won’t have Big Sky patches on their jerseys next year and that Marion won’t be running the show. Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess.
