HUNTINGTON -- For more than a month, Doc Holliday worked within his wheelhouse.

It was a frenetic pace, essentially assembling an entire college football recruiting class in a few weeks, but Holliday and his new Marshall University coaching staff delivered with 23 signatures, two student-athletes already enrolled and the transfer of former Clemson University quarterback Willy Korn. Holliday now moves forward in his first tenure as a head coach, turning attention toward the 2010 season.

Days after his December hiring, Holliday modestly conceded that this year's recruiting class might total just 12 to 15 signees because of the 11th-hour circumstance. He was admittedly surprised by signing so many high-profile recruits. Many chose the Thundering Herd over BCS programs.

Despite respect among his peers as one of the nation's elite recruiters, Holliday somewhat deferred credit to the assistants.

"I've been fortunate to be at three great programs and this is the fourth," Holliday said, referencing coaching stints at Florida, North Carolina State and West Virginia. "I can honestly look you in the eye and say this is the best coaching staff I've been with.

"Number one, they're good people and they're going to do a great job in the community. Number two, they're great recruiters and great coaches and they have the same philosophy I have.

"They're going to be very involved in these kids' lives."

Marshall's fan base was energized by three- and four-star recruits signing with the Herd. Holliday, meanwhile, is splitting time with current players and recently-signed recruits.

"The greatest thing is the player-coach relationship when it's done properly," Holliday said. "You get in their homes and you get involved in their lives and you help them and they play their tail off for you. That's what it's all about."

The coming months leading to spring practice are focused on academics and offseason workouts. NCAA rules prohibit head coaches and full-time assistants from overseeing such sessions, leaving workouts to strength and conditioning coach Frank Piraino, hired from the University of Florida by Holliday.

"The offseason will be very, very important to us," Holliday said. "The most important guy I hired on this staff is the strength coach.

"He's the best. There's a reason Florida is the winningest program the last few years. Do they have great players? Yeah, they have great players. But you know what it is? It's what they did in the strength program in the offseason and that's what we have to do here."

Refreshingly blunt, Holliday continued by saying considerable efforts are required to return Marshall to championship form.

"We've got a lot of work to do," Holliday said. "I (asked the players) the first time I met them, 'Raise your hand if you have won a championship?' Do you know how many hands went up? You know the answer -- zero.

"I asked (coaching staff), 'Raise your hand if you've have won a championship?' How many hands went up? All of them, and some of them have won national championships so I told them they better listen to these guys, because they're going to tell you how to win.

"Right now we're in the process of teaching these guys how to win football games. We want to get involved in their lives, get in their dorms, get in their houses and make sure they're doing the right thing in the classroom.

"That's a direct correlation to how they conduct themselves off the field."

Holliday will conduct his first Green-White Game, capping spring practice, on April 24.

Lori Wolfe/The Herald-Dispatch

Marshall University head coach John "Doc" Holliday.