Marlon Anthony Samuel (born November 14, 1955) is an American

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

coach and former player. He served as head football coach at

New Mexico State University New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public, land-grant, research university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1888, it is the state's oldest public institution of higher education, and was the original land-g ...

(NMSU) from 1997 to 2004 and

Southeast Missouri State University Southeast Missouri State University (Southeast or SEMO) is a public university in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. In addition to the main campus, the university has four regional campuses offering full degree programs and a secondary campus housing t ...

(SEMO) from 2005 to 2013, compiling a career

record of 65 wins and 117 losses. Samuel had a 34–57 record at New Mexico State, which puts him at third all-time for wins in program history.

Playing career

Samuel played four years at the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the M ...

and was a member of

Tom Osborne Thomas William Osborne (born February 23, 1937) is an American former football player, coach, college athletics administrator, and politician from Nebraska. He served as head football coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers from 1973 to 1997 (25 sea ...

's first recruiting class. He was a two-year starter at

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

, played in four

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

s and earned honorable mention All-

Big Eight Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored American football, football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate ...

honors as a senior.

Early coaching career

From 1986 to 1996, Samuel coached the outside

linebackers Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the lin ...

and rush ends at Nebraska, his alma mater, for head coach Tom Osborne. He mentored six first-team

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

s and 12 future

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

players, including first-round draft picks Broderick Thomas (1989), Mike Croel (1991), Trev Alberts (1994) and

Grant Wistrom Grant Alden Wistrom (born July 3, 1976) is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons. Wistrom played college football for the Nebraska Cornhuskers and was a t ...

(1998). During Samuel's 11 seasons with the Cornhuskers, they were

national champions National champions are corporations which are technically private businesses but due to governmental policy are ceded a dominant position in a national economy. In this system, these large organizations are expected not only to seek profit but als ...

in 1994 and 1995, captured seven Big Eight or

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

Conference championships, averaged 10 wins per year and played in 11 bowl games.

Head coaching tenures

At New Mexico State from 1997 to 2004 as his contract was not renewed, Samuel compiled a 34–57 record. Their 6–5 record in 1999 was the best since 1992 and a 7–5 record in 2002 was their best record since 1970 until the 2023 season.

Personal life

A native of

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

, Samuel moved to

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

, at the age of 10. He earned his B.S. degree in education from Nebraska in 1981.

Head coaching record

References

External links

UNLV profile

Southeast Missouri State profile (2013)

New Mexico State profile (2004)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel, Tony 1955 births Living people American football defensive ends Georgia State Panthers football coaches Nebraska Cornhuskers football coaches Nebraska Cornhuskers football players New Mexico State Aggies football coaches Purdue Boilermakers football coaches Southeast Missouri State Redhawks football coaches Stanford Cardinal football coaches UNLV Rebels football coaches Western Michigan Broncos football coaches Trinidad and Tobago emigrants to the United States Trinidad and Tobago players of American football