Being young certainly has its advantages. For Bilal Marshall, those advantages are being seen early on in his coaching tenure at West Virginia.
When West Virginia head coach Neal Brown decided to bring on Bilal Marshall as the new wide receivers coach for the Mountaineers, it was nothing new to the 29-year-old. Marshall had served as a graduate assistant on Brown’s staff in 2020 and 2021, before heading to VMI to take on the wide receivers coaching position there.
“It’s been awesome. Quite honestly, it’s like I never left,” Marshall said. “Really feel like not much has changed since then. It was awesome when Coach Brown called me, and it was kind of surreal.”
On Marshall’s first day, his familiarity with West Virginia.
“My first day here, nobody was here to let me in the door, and I know a little secret entrance to get in,” Marshall said.
While the Mountaineers are only in their second week of spring camp, Marshall can be seen and heard during practices.
“Both add kind of a jolt of energy,” Brown said of Marshall as well as new tight ends coach Blaine Stewart. “They fly around on the practice field. Both of them are young, so they relate well with the players.”
Marshall agrees with Brown’s assessment saying, his job is about making his room have fun and he does that by bringing energy.
“If you watch me out on that field, I’m always on go,” Marshall said. “I want to have fun, make no mistake about that. Especially at wideout, that’s when we’re at our best, when we’re having fun and when we’re loose. When we’re up tight we don’t play well, that’s just a fact. My personality, my energy, is going to bleed into what they do.”
With wanting to have fun though, Marshall said there is a line between doing your job and having fun, and knows the priority is putting in the work.
“I want [the receivers] to be loose, I want them to have fun, but at the end of the day, hey we do have a job to get done, so there is a time and place for everything,” Marshall said. “But ultimately, I am a guy with a lot of juice, yes I am.”
Marshall has already worked with Brown, along with offensive coordinator Chad Scott before. That familiarity will help bring Marshall along sooner rather than later.
“That definetely does help being around these guys that you’re so familiar with,” Marshall said. “You know what they’re thinking, you know the same language everybody’s talking.”
Marshall is taking on a wide receiver room who lost almost all of its production from last year. Marshall though is familiar through his time at WVU with guys like Jeremiah Aaron, Cortez Braham, as well as incoming freshman Rodney Gallagher. Marshall’s past experience in Morgantown, should help shape his future with the Mountaineers.
“Coach Brown didn’t have to give me this opportunity and he did. That tells me that he trusts me, and he knows what I bring to the table,” Marshall said. “Every morning that I wake up I make sure I know I’m here to make him right in every facet. I know what this responsibility means, I know what this role means to him.”
