With a little bit of a break in my schedule, I was able to sit down with Yale head coach Tony Reno for the first time since the press conference announcing him as the 34th coach in Yale football history. Many of the highlights from the interview are available in this video.
With tomorrow being the one-month anniversary of his official appointment, it seemed to be the perfect time to run a story documenting what it's been like for Reno since getting hired. While I don't intend on rehashing everything that's going to be in the story (since that would defeat the purpose of filing a story), there's some other info that didn't make it into the piece that I can share with you.
First of all, Reno said he has been thrilled with the attitude of the returning players and couldn't say enough good things about the leadership being shown by team captain Will McHale.
Reno said that Yale will line up defensively in a 3-4. The move makes sense since other than Chris Dooley, Yale is left with a lot of unproven players at defensive tackle while the return of McHale, Wes Moyer (who is coming back for a fifth season of eligibility), Brian Leffler, Will Vaughn and Ruan Falbo gives the Bulldogs plenty of options at linebacker.
With three players back who started at offensive tackle (Roy Collins, Wes Gavin and Ben Carbery) and the loss of both starting guards, Reno did not rule out the possibility to moving one of the tackles inside.
The coaching staff is pretty much in place but is not being officially announcement until later this week, according to Reno. Rick Flanders is the only holdover among the assistant coaches and is moving back to being defensive coordinator. Reno also hired Kris Barber, Joe Conlin and Dwayne Wilmot off the Harvard staff he was a part of for the last three years. He addressed the talk that Murphy was a little perturbed with Reno snaring three assistants but Reno said his relationship with Murphy continues to be a good one. Multiple sources have confirmed to me that Larry Ciotti is expected to return to the role of running backs coach he held under Jack Siedlecki.
Finally, spring camp begins on Mar. 28 with the spring game being held on Apr. 21. One change from the Williams' tenure is that the Blue-White game will be exactly that - a game. Williams looked at it as a glorified practice while Reno said the plan will be to have the No. 1 offense and No. 2 defense on one squad and No. 1 defense and No. 2 offense on the other and let the teams go at it.
Thanks for the informative Reno pieces.
ReplyDeleteWhen the dust has settled, it would be great to see a current list of the recruits (and their dimensions) that Tony Reno et al have managed to land. News about fifth years (besides Wes Moyer), if any, and possible transfers would also be welcome.
Truly Blue '59
To my knowledge, Yale's not involved with any potential transfers and am not aware of any other fifth-year players other than Moyer but I'll check when the spring roster comes out.
ReplyDeleteyale football fan walt murray would like to know about yale recruit CALEB GILLIGAN-EVANS FULL BACK FROM NY. GO BIG BLUE
ReplyDeleteBringing back Ciotti is a terrible decision. I know he had success in high school, but he was an awful college football coach. I understand how he is part of the Yale family, but he definitely doesnt deserve any coaching responsibilities. We dont need any of Sid's bad assistants coming back.
ReplyDeleteWho are the candidates to be starting PK next fall? Panico was better last year, but still erratic. I wonder if Kyle Cazzetta, the starting punter, will also compete for the PK job; also if incoming freshmen have a shot.
ReplyDeleteIn response to the RECENT ALUMN... I disagree, bringing back Coach Ciotti the 1st move that Coach Reno should be applauded for! In the past 15(-2yrs past being retired)years, let's look at Yale's RB producton w/ Ciotti, shall we?? Rashad Bartholemew(pretty good?), Robert Carr(Duh?!), Shane Bannon(H-Back, Practice Squad in K.C. Chiefs, not bad?), and?? What were there names? Oh yeah, Mike McLeod(Ivy All-Time Rush Leader) and I will finish w/ Connecticut's ALL TIME RUSHER from Ansonia, Alex Thomas, and many more.
ReplyDeleteDid you lose a bet to say something ridiclously stupid to a newspaper? Kudos to you for not backin down for losing a bet, but, Ciotti has and is doing something right. No? Maybe Eli Manning should sell Hot Dogs instead of QB on Sundays! LOL! And you went Yale?
I'm very curious to know what Tony Reno has to say about recruit Caleb Gilligan-Evans from Stepinac High School.
ReplyDeleteReno can't say anything publicly about Gilligan-Evans and won't comment on the class until it is officially announced.
ReplyDeleteWe've got to land at least one more QB and a couple of those necessary evils who kick the ball.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the words we need to type in order to prove we're not robots are getting very hard to decipher. Especially the first one which looks like a tangle of ink blots.
But maybe that's the idea.