A man of vision, passion, and unwavering faith, Mark Speir enters his ninth season as the head football coach at Western Carolina University in 2020, his second stint with the football program in Cullowhee during his 29-year coaching career.
Speir (pronounced “spear”), a former WCU assistant coach who has spent the bulk of his collegiate coaching career at the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level, was named the 13th head football coach during a press conference held in the Ramsey Center on Dec. 22, 2011.
Since his return to Cullowhee, Speir has been a driving force in the revitalization of the Catamount football program. Among 20 national finalists for the 2014 Eddie Robinson National FCS Coach of the Year award, Speir has guided the Catamounts to a trio of seven-win seasons including in back-to-back seasons in 2014 and 2015, and thrice driven WCU to the doorstep of returning to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs during his tenure. Six different Catamounts have earned postseason All-America honors during his tenure.
Taking over the program in 2012, many have thrived under Speir’s tutelage. A combined 32 players have collected All-Southern Conference first or second-team plaudits, while 23 have earned SoCon All-Freshman selections including quarterback Tyrie Adams, who became just the fourth WCU football player to earn SoCon Freshman of the Year in 2016. Three first-year Catamounts went on to be finalists for the STATS FCS Jerry Rice Award given to the nation’s top freshman performer, including Adams, who finished fourth in the national voting in 2016.
In 2018, WCU saw three players grace the three different STATS FCS national watch lists for awards that honor the top offensive, defensive, and freshman players – a first in program history. Adams, who became just one of 11 NCAA FCS quarterbacks all-time to pass for more than 2,000 yards and rush for more than 1,000 yards in the same season, finished 19th in the national voting for the Walter Payton Award. He finished his career as WCU's all-time leader in several offensive categories including total offense, passing yards, and passing touchdowns. Senior defensive back Marvin Tillman appeared on the Buck Buchanan Award for the top defensive player and Ronald Kent Jr., was on the Rice Award Watch List.
Two Catamounts recruited and coached by Speir and his staff landed with NFL teams following the 2017 season, headlined by rookie defensive back Keion Crossen who gave WCU its first draft pick since 1994 when he was selected in the seventh round by New England. He was joined by a former teammate in running back Detrez Newsome who signed as an undrafted free agent with the Los Angeles Chargers. A two-time All-America selection, Newsome set a WCU school-record as the first player to post three-consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons in 2015-2017. Crossen and Newsome met on opposite sidelines in the 2018 NFL postseason in the divisional round with Crossen becoming WCU’s fourth Super Bowl Champion with New England’s win over the Los Angeles Rams.
WCU’s all-time leader in career punting average, Ian Berryman was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Pittsburgh Steelers after the 2018 season while defensive back John Brannon signed with the Chargers after the 2019 NFL Draft, making the practice squad.
Speir’s successes aren’t just limited to the field as nine players earned CoSIDA Academic All-District honors, with Darius Ramsey becoming just the fourth Catamount football player all-time – and the first since 2003 – to garner Academic All-America status, collecting first-team honors in 2014. WCU has also put six players on the prestigious FCS ADA Academic All-Star team under Speir. As a program, the team was also recognized in the summer of 2019 with the highest APR score in the Southern Conference.
The 2014 season marked WCU’s first winning record in a decade with the 7-5 mark representing just the second finish above .500 since 2001 for the Catamounts. Speir led the Catamounts to a second-place finish in the Southern Conference in 2014, its highest finish in the final standings since 1986 – and just the fourth runner-up finish since joining the league in 1977 – before following it up with a third-place showing in 2015. A school-record tying 14 Catamounts received all-conference plaudits in 2014 with 13 collecting honors following successful 2015 and 2017 campaigns.
Speir guided WCU to its third, seven-win season over the past four years, posting a 7-5 season in 2017 and again moved back into the NCAA FCS playoff picture. Following the 2019 National Signing Day in February 2019, Speir and his coaching staff had compiled the 10th-best recruiting class at the NCAA FCS level, per HERO Sports.
During the off-season following the success of the 2014 season, Speir was granted a four-year contract extension which was approved by the WCU Board of Trustees in February of 2015. A second extension was granted in February of 2019 as the board’s executive committee unanimously approved a five-year contract extension to put him under contract through the summer of 2025.
Speir, who got his coaching career start at Western Carolina under former Catamount head coach Steve Hodgin from 1991-96, returned to Cullowhee in late-2011 came after spending the nine previous seasons at Appalachian State where he was a part of three-consecutive FCS National Championships from 2005-07, serving as the program’s recruiting coordinator from 2004 through 2011 while coaching the inside linebackers prior to the move. He also coached the Mountaineers’ running backs (2003-04), defensive line (2005-08) and defensive ends (2009-10) while on staff at Appalachian State.
In 2009, Speir was tabbed as the NCAA Division I FCS Assistant Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA). The award has been handed out every year since 1997 at the five levels of football including the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), FCS, Division II and III, as well as NAIA levels.
Prior to Appalachian, Speir also made coaching stops at both at Presbyterian (1997-99) while the Blue Hose were a NCAA Division II-member institution, and at Elon (2000-02) the year after the program made the transition to a NCAA Division I school.
A native of Kannapolis, N.C., Speir broke into coaching while an undergraduate at Clemson University, working as a student assistant from 1986 through 1989, helping the Tigers to three Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championships during his four years. Following his graduation with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education in 1990, Speir landed on Hodgin’s staff in Cullowhee, first working with the running backs from 1991-93, then the linebackers in 1994 before coaching the defensive line and serving as the program’s recruiting coordinator from 1995-96.
Throughout his collegiate coaching career, Speir has made a name for himself through the recruiting process. He has held the title of recruiting coordinator at three NCAA FCS institutions (WCU, Elon and App State), organizing the efforts that landed Appalachian State six-consecutive crops of freshmen that have been widely considered to be among the top in NCAA Division I FCS recruiting classes and that helped the Mountaineers to three-straight national titles.
On the field, Speir was a position coach for nine all-conference honorees that earned the distinction 13 times in his nine seasons on staff in Boone. Six of Speir’s position players garnered All-America honors during his tenure at ASU including linebacker Jeremy Kimbrough, who was selected to the second team by The Sports Network. Additionally, defensive ends Jabari Fletcher, Jason Hunter, Marques Murrell and Gary Tharrington and defensive tackle Anthony Williams combined for All-America honors a total of six times.
Speir’s most notable pupils, Hunter and Murrell, tied for the SoCon lead with 13 sacks apiece and accounted for six defensive touchdowns between them in 2005. Murrell also led the nation with 13 sacks in ‘06. Both enjoyed productive NFL careers, with Hunter entering his sixth pro season this year with the Denver Broncos.
Off the field, Speir is involved in many charitable causes. His efforts through Samaritan’s Purse helped raised more than $100,000 to help rebuild the Memorial Christian Hospital in Bangladesh. Part of the fundraising came through his participation in the 2008 Music City Marathon in Nashville, which he finished in 4:01; the 2009 Boston Marathon, which he completed in 3:59; and the 2010 Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati. Most recently, Speir completed the grueling 2015 Boston Marathon alongside his brother.
In 2009, he traveled to Bangladesh to provide much-needed medical supplies and volunteer at the hospital for 10 days. In 2011, Speir turned to organizing and participating in motorcycle tours to continue to raise funds for the worthy cause. After five years of the motorcycle rides, Speir has helped raise $75,000 for Operation Heal Our Patriots, another Samaritan’s Purse initiative. During the summer of 2016, Speir volunteered at the program’s retreat in Alaska.
Speir is married to the former Paige Holt of Pickens, S.C., and the couple has two sons – Zeb, who played collegiately as a quarterback at Appalachian State, and Jackson.
