NEW HAVEN - The Yale football program is bringing back a familiar face as former assistant coach Tony Reno was named the 34th head coach at Yale on Thursday.


Reno spent six seasons on Jack Siedlecki’s Yale staff from 2003-08 including five years coaching the Bulldogs’ defensive backs. Reno was on the Yale staff in 2006, the last time the Bulldogs won the Ivy League title. He was promoted to assistant head coach in 2007 and in both 2007 and 2008 the Bulldogs were third among Football Championship Subdivision teams in pass defense.

When Siedlecki was pushed out the day after a season-ending loss to Harvard in 2008, Reno assumed the lead on recruiting matters until a new head coach was hired. Shortly after Tom Williams was hired, Reno accepted a job at Harvard. Speaking to the Register shortly after getting hired, Reno said it was primarily done for family reasons since he lived in Sturbridge, Mass. with his wife and kids.

Reno has been the secondary/special teams coordinator at Harvard since 2009 and he was also responsible for recruiting Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee for the Crimson. He also had coaching stints at Kings (Pa.) College and his alma mater Worcester State College, where he was named the AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2002.

Reno was extremely popular with his former Yale players and word is that many of his ex players put in a good word with the search committee.

Reno was one of four candidates known to have interviewed for the job. Former Yale defensive coordinator Don Brown was offered the job earlier this week, according to multiple sources before turning it down. Georgetown coach Kevin Kelly and Lehigh offensive coordinator Dave Cecchini also interviewed for the job which came open last month when Tom Williams was forced to resign following an internal investigation into claims that he overstated his credentials as a Rhodes Scholarship candidate and a member of the San Francisco 49ers practice squad on his resume.

Yale is coming off a 5-5 season including a season-ending 45-7 loss to Harvard. Leading tackler Jordan Haynes, record-breaking quarterback Patrick Witt, top rusher Alex Thomas and three-year defensive starters Jake Stoller, Drew Baldwin and Geoff Dunham are among the players graduating but 29 of the 44 players on the two-deep chart on offense and defense heading into the Harvard game are returning.

Yale opens the 2012 by hosting Georgetown on Sep. 15.