Lance Guidry Officially Announced as Marshall’s New Defensive Coordinator

Marshall officially completed its new football coaching staff Thursday with the announcement of Lance Guidry as the Thundering Herd’s next defensive coordinator and safeties coach.

Last but not least.

Let's welcome our new Defensive Coordinator, @CoachLGuidry! 🏈🤘#WeAreMarshall pic.twitter.com/Bpu13H1z7L

— Marshall Football (@HerdFB) February 4, 2021

New MU coach Charles Huff introduced every member of the new staff during a live-streamed press conference on Wednesday with the notable absence of a defensive coordinator — which was explained by Huff as being a paperwork issue they expected resolved Thursday. The paperwork went through, and Guidry — most recently the safeties coach at Florida Atlantic — is set to step into one of the best defensive situations in the Group of Five with many players set to return from the Thundering Herd’s 2020 defense that finished No. 2 in the country in overall defense.

Guidry is no stranger to coordinator and defensive play-calling duties and has experience as a head coach. In 2010 he took over as the interim head coach at Miami (Ohio) and helped lead the RedHawks to a GoDaddy.com Bowl win against Middle Tennessee. Following that he was the defensive coordinator at Western Kentucky in 2011 and 2012 and was again tabbed as an interim head coach when Willie Taggert left the Hilltoppers to take over at South Florida.

From 2013 through 2014 Guidry was the defensive coordinator and assistant head coach at FCS McNeese State where he helped the 2015 team to an unbeaten regular season thanks in large part to a statistically impressive defense. He then took over as the head coach at McNeese where he went 6-5, 9-2 and 6-5 in three seasons before his contract was not renewed by the school after the 2018 season. Guidry spent 2019 as FCS Southeastern Louisiana’s defensive coordinator before returning to Conference USA in 2020 at FAU.