A new coach should be in place soon

Yale is moving forward relatively quickly in naming its next football coach. Multiple sources have said that a new coach could be in place as early as the middle of next week.

Sources have said that Georgetown head coach Kevin Kelly has been interviewed and former UConn defensive coordinator Don Brown is a serious candidate for the job and Yale has been granted permission to interview Brown although I have yet to confirm if he has been in for an interview yet. Tony Reno is another candidate but a source has confirmed that he has yet to come in for an interview. According to the http://www.footballscoop.com/ site, the other candidate is Lehigh offensive coordinator Dave Cecchini.

Both Kelly and Brown fit the criteria of previous head coaching experience that the search committee is looking for in Yale's next coach while Reno and Cecchini are in the mix despite the lack of previous head coaching experience.

With one prominent member of the search committee expected to be out of the state next week, there is a sense that the interviews could be conducted by the end of this week. The weekend of Jan. 13-15 was also circled as a key recruiting weekend before Tom Williams was forced to resign last month over claims that he overstated some of his credentials on his resume. The rest of the staff has remained in place until the new coach determines which of them would be part of the new staff. Having a new coach in place by next week could be invaluable in attempting to salvage the recruiting class.

Brown just completed his first season as UConn's defensive coordinator and has the most head coaching experience among the candidates with stops at Plymouth State, Northeastern and UMass. Brown led UMass to the 2006 FCS national championship game. Brown was one of the early frontrunners for the Yale job back in 2008 before pulling his name out of consideration for the job. He left UMass to become the defensive coordinator at Maryland. Brown was Carm Cozza's defensive coordinator with the Bulldogs from 1987-92.

Kelly has ties to Connecticut as his first college job was as an assistant at Southern Connecticut State in 1984 and 1985. He also has some Ivy League experience as he was on Dartmouth's staff during the Big Green's run to the 1991 Ivy League title. He also coached at Navy, an experience which could prove helpful in dealing with a limited and select player pool in recruiting.

Reno was a member of Jack Siedlecki's staff for six years, five coaching the defensive backs. When Siedlecki was pushed out the door, Reno was the point man for recruiting before Tom Williams was hired. Reno left to join the Harvard staff, in large part because of family considerations since he lived in Sturbridge, Mass. with his wife and children. Reno doesn't have any head coaching experience but he was a defensive coordinator at Worcester State.
Cecchini, a former offensive coordinator at Harvard and Citadel, guided a Mountain Hawks offensive which finished third among Football Championship Subdivision teams in total offense and fifth in passing offense. Among Cecchini's pupils were current NFL players Andre Roberts and Ryan Fitzpatrick. He guided an offense which put up 475 yards in a 37-7 win over Yale on Oct. 1.

On another matter, I did follow up on a couple of comments on my blog saying that nobody from Yale has been in contact with players who have committed to Yale. I spoke with athletic director Tom Beckett last night during Yale's men's basketball game who said he took part in a recruiting meeting with the Yale staff and if that is the case he would like to know that. Beckett would not comment on anything regarding to the search.

I was also told that the players were e-mailed about Williams' resignation before the media was told. I received the e-mail announcing Williams' departure at 8:10 and I was told that the mass e-mail to the players was sent at 8:04. I guess I need to back off some of my criticism of Yale as I suggested the media was told before the players but I still have issues with how it was handled. I understand Yale has more than 100 players but between assistant coaches, people in the sports information department and other athletic department employees there's no reason that Yale couldn't have contacted each player directly by phone or at least text message rather than send out a form letter via e-mail.