New coach hopes to bring stability to football program

DJ Marrs was recently hired as the new head football coach at Quitman. He has served as an assistant coach at Pulaski Robinson for the past seven years.
DJ Marrs was recently hired as the new head football coach at Quitman. He has served as an assistant coach at Pulaski Robinson for the past seven years.

— During the interview process at Pulaski Robinson High School in Little Rock, DJ Marrs told head coach Todd Eskola that one of his goals was to become a head football coach.

“From that day forward, everything he did was to help me achieve that goal,” Marrs said. “He let me sit in meetings, and when certain situations would come up, he would tell me what he would do as a head coach — why he made the decisions he did and how he made them and how they affected him as a head coach. … He started that grooming process as soon as I came on staff.”

Marrs finally achieved that goal when he was recently hired to be the head football coach at Quitman High School.

“We want to be disciplined, from top to bottom,” Marrs said. “We really want that to describe our program.

“We want to be physical, and we want to build a program there.”

It was determination and “want to” that set Marrs apart when he was first hired at Robinson in 2009, Eskola said.

“You don’t ever want a coach on your staff without goals,” Eskola said. “You want everybody to be driven.

“You want to hire assistants that want to be head coaches and want to be coordinators.

“He professed that from day 1, and I tried to put him in a position to capture that goal.

“Couldn’t be happier for him.”

Marrs was hired right out of college by Eskola. Marrs started as a wide-receivers coach and served in that position for two years before taking over at quarterbacks for a season.

For the past four years, he has served as the offensive coordinator for the Senators.

“He’s a hardworking, great offensive man,” Eskola said. “He is going to do a great job for Quitman. He is going to bring a high level of play there.

“He knows his X’s and O’s, and he knows how to motivate kids. He’s ready to be a head coach.”

Marrs, the fourth Quitman head coach in five years, replaces Brian Narretto, who led the Bulldogs to a 7-4 season in his first year. Narretto left to take a job as an assistant coach at Greenbrier High School.

“They have had so many head-coach changes the past few years; they are looking for stability,” Marrs said. “From eighth grade up, they have played for four different coaches, so I hope to create some stability in the program, where the expectations won’t change from year to year.

“It is something the kids want and the community wants. There has been so much instability, and there is no routine at all.”

When Marrs was offensive coordinator at Robinson, the Senators averaged 38.8 points per game and went 11-2 in 2016. They lost to eventual state champion Warren in the quarterfinals of the playoffs.

“Last year, we had over 3,500 yards passing and 2,700 yards rushing and averaged 40 points a game …,” Eskola said. “Even the games against Warren and Nashville, we had 500 yards of offense, but we had two turnovers in the red zone.”

Marrs added that Robinson has been in the top five of most statistics and probably had its first 3,000-yard passer this season in Hunter Eskola, the coach’s son.

“[It’s] probably also the first time the school has had two 1,000-yard receivers,” Marrs said.

“Coach Eskola comes from a long line of coaches,” Marrs said. “His dad was a successful coach at Robinson, and [Eskola’s] Uncle Glenn won a state championship.

“That whole family has done a lot.”

Marrs graduated from Marion High School in 2004 and from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway in 2009 with a degree in kinesiology. He has been married to Lindsey for seven years, and they have two children, Ryan, 4, and Brody, 3.

For two years, Marrs served as a volunteer assistant at Rose Bud High School while he was in college, and during that time, he coached against Quitman twice.

He said the assistant coaches at Quitman have been real helpful in integrating Marrs’ program.

“David Johnson has been there since the program started, and he does a great job with the kids and has been a big help,” Marrs said. “He is from Quitman, and he knows the ins and the outs of it.

“Coach Bill Buckner has been a head coach at several programs and has been in some state-title games. So he is good as a reference but is also someone who is all on board with whatever we decide as a staff.”

Buckner said Marrs is doing “a fine job with the kids in the early goings.”

“There are some hurdles and things that you’ll face, just because you haven’t been a coach before,” Buckner said. “But he’s real sharp, and he has everything you need to be successful.”

Marrs, who played safety and wide receiver in high school, met the players for the first time May 30 and has already started putting in a pretty intense conditioning program.

“The kids are responding well to it,” he said. “We want to push them as far as we can.”

Marrs will run Quitman’s offense out of the Spread, something the team did under Narretto last season.

“He’s young and enthusiastic,” Buckner said of Marrs. “I think that’s important.

“He comes from a good program with Coach Eskola, and he has a good background with a good program and good people. … We are excited to have him.”

Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.

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