The starting quarterback for the Marshall University football team may be unclear to the public as spring football winds down. The man working closest with the quarterbacks and who likely has the best idea of anyone; co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Todd Goebbel. Goebbel has spent two separate tenures with the Thundering Herd and has coached in several different roles, including wide receivers, tight ends and assisting in special teams. However, a former quarterback himself, Goebbel is excited to get to work with the quarterbacks on the football field in the 2017 season.

“Any time that you get the chance to coach the position you played, there’s an excitement about it,” Goebbel said. “I love coaching the tight ends and receivers, but just like anything, you need to go home, so there’s an extra level of excitement with that. I’ve got a good group to work with. Coach (Bill) Legg did a tremendous job with them so I’m just going to keep progressing with the way we’re going and try to get these young men to play on a high level.”

The Herd will likely have three different quarterbacks competing for and with a legitimate chance at the starting quarterback’s position week one against the Miami Redhawks; Chase Litton, Garet Morrell and Xavier Gaines. Litton started 10 of 12 games a season ago after his breakout freshman season the prior year. Morrell started arguably the two toughest games of the year against Louisville and Western Kentucky in the fall. Gaines meanwhile redshirted his freshman season this past fall.

“The biggest thing I want to see out of (the quarterbacks) is for every one of them to act like they’re the starter,” Goebbel said. “There’s a lot of factors that go into that; whether it is carrying yourself like a starter or whether it’s preparing yourself like a starter or whether it’s every rep is a starter rep. As long as that group keeps consistently thinking that way that every one of them is progressing as a starter then I think we’re going to have a good group as a whole.”

Aside from being a coach on the field, Goebbel is also a coach off the field. He maintains a large social media presence, particularly on Twitter. He tweets nearly daily inspirational and motivational tweets, either from himself or from others. On April 19th for example, he tweeted, “The challenge & the fun of playing the QB position is chasing perfection daily! Chase perfection & u will land on greatness! #ProtecttheM”.

“No matter what you do, it all starts with your attitude,” Goebbel said. “If your attitude is right, if your attitude is uplifting and your attitude is positive, then everything else seems to work out. The attitude is crucial, we try to set a good attitude for every day we wake up, and when we go to bed we’ve got to be excited about what we accomplished.”

The name “Goebbel” is synonymous with Marshall University athletics. Todd’s brother Aaron is Marshall’s associate athletic director for external operations. The duo have completely different roles with Marshall athletics. Yet, one commonality remains; they both want the best for Marshall athletics and Marshall football.

“It’s always nice to be able to come full circle in life and work with a sibling,” Aaron
Goebbel said. “I’m the youngest, and he’s the oldest so it’s nice to work with someone you’ve always looked up to. I’ve always appreciated his work ethic. It’s an honor and a pleasure to be on the same team and have the same interests in mind. We both want Marshall athletics and Marshall football to succeed, and doing it together is an honor.”

Patrick O’Leary can be contacted at [email protected].