Gone are the days of the Marietta Tigers being the high-flying passing team of Washington County on the gridiron.

Enter the days of old-school, smash-mouth football.

The hiring of former Parkersburg Big Red Craig Farnsworth as the new Marietta High School football coach Wednesday night does more than give the Tigers a new coach.

It gives them a new identity after several years of losing.

"Losing is a habit, just like winning is a habit," Farnsworth said. "I think it'll be good to have fresh blood come into the program and into the area."

With that fresh blood comes a new look to both the offense and defense at Marietta.

After years of operating out of a spread offense under former coaches Brian Spicer and Andy Schob the Tigers will move into the wing-T under Farnsworth.

Farnsworth has coached in numerous different offenses, but the roots of his offensive philosophy are based on the principles of the Wing-T.

"I think offensively, starting off with the Wing-T, starting our base from there, it breeds toughness. It brings a team concept to your program. There's not one tailback or one running back. Two, three four people can carry the ball. You can still throw the ball to a wide a receiver, a tight end. You can get your backs out of the backfield," Farnsworth said.

That approach differs greatly from the flashy, finesse game the Tigers have run the past few years but identifies with what Marietta was seeking when the Tigers went in search of a new coach.

"What I thought he would bring to Marietta City Schools was a sense of toughness and also excitement that he would bring simply with being a change," said Marietta Board of Education president Greg Gault.

The head coaching vacancy was created when former coach Schob was hired to become the head coach at county rival Warren on Feb. 8.

Farnsworth is wasting no time on getting started, as it's something he can't afford to do. Already most teams throughout Ohio have gotten started on weight lifting and offseason conditioning that the Tigers couldn't do without a head coach.

Within the next few weeks Farnsworth plans to make numerous trips to Marietta on the weekends to get his coaching staff in place and meet with parents and players.

Farnsworth plans to meet with each of the assistant coaches from last year's team and see who fits his philosophy on where the program is headed. One thing for certain, Farnsworth wants a Tiger on his staff.

"It's real important to me to have Marietta people on the staff. I know it's important to the people to have Marietta Tigers on that staff," Farnsworth said.

While some of the staff may be staying the same, the offense most definitely will not and the defense will be shifting once again as well.

A year ago the Tigers made the transition to an aggressive type of 3-5 defensive scheme, but come this fall they'll be locked down in a traditional 4-3.

In 17 years of coaching experience, primarily as a defensive coordinator, Farnsworth has found a knack for keeping his team in games on the defensive side of the ball and much of that is credited to the 4-3 defense because of it's adaptability to players.

"We will be running a 4-3 defense. I've run the 4-3 every year except one I was the defensive coordinator. I didn't run it that one year because we averaged 165 pounds on defense and we had to do something different," Farnsworth said.

Adaptability is another one of the keys Farnsworth believes in.

"High school coaching is adapting to your personnel. Colleges can go out and recruit personnel so they don't have to change it up," Farnsworth explained. "I don't think at the high school level you can nail yourself down and say this is what we are because year to year that changes."

Farnsworth beat out 30 applicants for the head coaching vacancy at Marietta and had also applied for, but did not get, the head coaching position at Parkersburg.

Todd McCoy of Parkersburg and Bill Cieslewski of Belpre were the other two finalists along with Farnsworth to receive interviews.

Farnsworth's success as the interim head coach at his alma mater of PHS when he guided the Big Reds to a state title in 2001 as well as a state title with Hammond School in Columbia, S.C. all were in his favor when the Tigers began looking at who would best suit their needs.

"First off we were looking for somebody who was going to build a program, somebody who had demonstrated the ability to turn programs around and win, and then also to be organized enough to get something going on a short timeline. I think he's got all that," said Marietta High School Athletic Director Rick Guimond.

Entering the 2010 campaign, Farnsworth likes his new team's chances at competing on the gridiron week in and week out.

"I've researched Marietta and the teams they play. The teams that are on the schedule are about the same size as Marietta, pretty much the same makeup of kids. I think it's a good situation because I think Marietta really supports football. I think they want a winner," Farnsworth said.

Originally Published in the Marietta Times on 4-9-2010