mark snyder

I was going to wait for Rittenberg to post on this out of courtesy but since Dave Birkett put it up it's time to mention it. Tom VanHaaren, via Rittenberg, has confirmed that Michigan did interview former Marshall head coach and Ohio State defensive coordinator Mark Snyder for its vacant assistant coaching position:

Rittenberg told me today that Snyder HAS interviewed for the position. He doesn't know much more yet, but should know more later today. One of their guys is at the coaching conference, and is having lunch with Snyder today.

At first glance, landing Snyder would be something of a coup. It's not often you can get a former HC and Ohio State DC to take a job coaching the linebackers. In the TomVH thread linked above there's some discussion about Snyder pro- and con-; it appears the Wikipedia article is full of lies about Snyder's resume. Wikipedia little box says Snyder was Minnesota's defensive coordinator from 1996 to 2000; his official Marshall bio and the article itself say he coached defensive ends. The little box (of lies!) also says he was Ohio State's DC for four years; he was only DC in 2004.

Snyder's year as OSU DC had some wild swings. Early the Buckeyes gave up 33, 24, and 33 in three consecutive losses against Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Iowa; late no one put up more than 24 and Ohio State strangled Oklahoma State in the Alamo Bowl. The final numbers were good: 30th in total defense, 19th in scoring, 19th in pass efficiency D. The following year OU shot up to 5th in both total and scoring defense, which you can either interpret as a sign Snyder wasn't that good or that he had a young team that year. Survey says these were the Ohio State seniors on defense in '04:

Uniform #	First Name	Last Name	Position	Class	Games Played
37	Dustin	Fox	DB	SR	9
34	Rob	Harley	DB	SR	8
13	Harlen	Jacobs	DB	SR	8
75	Simon	Fraser	DL	SR	12
94	Marcus	Green	DL	SR	11
83	Redgie	Arden	DL	SR	1
51	Anthony	Schlegel	LB	SR	12
1	Thomas	Matthews	LB	SR	9

I think that's four starters (Fox, Fraser, Green, and Schlegel), two of whom were drafted in the third round. So the massive improvement from one year to the next doesn't necessarily say much about Snyder.

At Marshall, Snyder did zero, getting to .500 once in five years—this year's 7-6 season.

Snyder's still young for a former head coach at 45 and has seriously deep ties to Tressel with his stints at Ohio State and Youngstown State. He played safety at Marshall and has coached every position group on defense, FWIW.