Anthony (Tony) Reno, a former Yale assistant coach, was named the Joel E. Smilow '54 Head Coach of Yale Football on Jan. 12, 2012. The 34th head coach of the Bulldogs has a history of transforming his charges into nationally recognized units.

Reno, the Harvard special teams coordinator and defensive secondary coach from 2009 to 2011, helped engineer last fall's undefeated Ivy League Championship team, which earned a No. 14 Football Championship Subdivision National Ranking. Three of his Crimson special teams units were ranked statistically among the nation's top 20 in 2011.

The 38-year-old Oxford, Mass., native and a 1997 Worcester State College graduate, helped develop 10 All-Ivy players and an All-American over the last two seasons in Boston. His defensive backs enabled the Crimson to lead the league in scoring defense while earning impressive national rankings in numerous categories.

Reno, who spent six years in New Haven and rose to assistant head coach under Jack Siedlecki, helped the Bulldogs win a 2006 Ivy title. He was Yale's wide receivers coach in 2003 and the defensive secondary leader from 2004 to 2008. His 2003 receivers played an integral role in the Blue's No. 2 national ranking in total offense.  When he took over the Eli defensive backs, they helped the defense rise to new heights. The 2007 and 2008 Bulldogs were No. 1 in FCS scoring defense, while 14 of his players earned all-league honors during his Yale tenure.

A 2002 AFLAC/Coach Magazine National Assistant of the Year Award winner, Reno served as Worcester State's defensive coordinator from 1998 to 2002. The Lancers, who made two post-season appearances and went 27-5 with Reno as defensive coordinator, were 2001 ECAC Northeast Champions and made it to the title game the following year.

Reno, whose first job was defensive assistant coach at King's (Pa.) College for the 1997 season, earned a degree in history before completing a master's of science in health education from WSC in 2000. As a player at WSC, Reno was a three-year starter at free safety, and his team was league champion his last two seasons. His 1996 team led the nation in scoring, rushing and pass efficiency defense.

Reno is the first Yale football head coach from Massachusetts since Ted Coy '10 in 1910 and the first who left the Harvard staff to take the job with the Bulldogs. He and his wife, Toni, have three children: Dante, Angelina and Vince.

Joe Conlin is in his first year as Yale’s associate head coach, run game coordinator and offensive line coach. He spent the 2011 season helping Harvard win an Ivy title while setting a school scoring record.

Most of Conlin’s coaching experience was at FCS power New Hampshire, where he helped the Wildcats to seven straight NCAA playoff appearances from 2004 to 2010. During his tenure at UNH, Conlin also worked with the defensive line, safeties and special teams for a program that went 65-25 and won one conference championship.

Conlin, a three-year starter at defensive tackle at the University of Pittsburgh, coached the defensive line at West Virginia Tech in 2003, a year after graduating. His Pittsburgh head coach, Walt Harris, selected him as a game captain four times. Conlin earned a degree in administration of justice.

He also gained coaching experience at Greensburg Central Catholic High School from 2002-03 where he worked with the tight ends and defensive ends while also handling strength and conditioning.

Conlin and his wife, Karen, reside in Milford, Conn.

Yale’s new running backs coach is not new to the position. Larry Ciotti has 18 years of collegiate coaching experience, having worked primarily as the running backs coach for former Yale head coaches Carm Cozza and Jack Siedecki.

Ciotti, who has not coached since the 2008 season, began at Yale in 1991 and served two seasons as the head coach of the freshman squad.  Since then he helped Rashad Bartholomew '01 become Yale’s career rushing leader before he signed with the Tennessee Titans. He also mentored two-time All-Ivy back Robert Carr ’05, who surpassed Bartholomew in the record books. He continued the trend by coaching Ivy MVP and All-American Mike McLeod ’09, who holds every major rushing record at Yale.

Ciotti, who had an 8-4 record coaching the Bullpups, is a Connecticut high school coaching legend. In 19 seasons (1970-88) as the head coach at Daniel Hand in Madison, Conn., he compiled a 141-41-2 record and won five state titles. Ciotti then served as director of athletics at Hand from 1988 to 1992. In 1993, he was inducted into the Connecticut High School Coaches Hall of Fame. Ciotti received the Walter Camp Football Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.

The captain of the 1965 Southern Connecticut State University football team (graduated in '66), Ciotti earned All-New England and All-Eastern League honors as a center/linebacker. He was inducted into the SCSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1998.

His son, Mike '90, was a center for the 1989 Ivy Champion Bulldogs. Ciotti and his wife, Barbara, reside in Madison. They also have three daughters, Susan, Deanna, and Cathryn and 12 grandchildren.

Rick Flanders, who coached his 15th season at Yale in 2011, returns to the job of defensive coordinator, a position he held under former Yale mentor Jack Siedlecki for 12 seasons. He was promoted to associate head coach in 2007, has been on the staffs of the last three Yale head coaches and has 21 years of experience coaching in the Ancient Eight.

Flanders has handled defensive backs and linebackers during his Yale tenure. Under his watch, Yale was ranked No. 1 in the FCS in scoring defense in 2007 and 2008.

He came to Yale from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was secondary coach for five seasons (1992 to 1996), including Ivy titles in 1993 and 1994. Flanders' defensive backs helped the Penn defense rank nationally in both seasons, including No. 1 in pass efficiency defense for 1994.

Before heading to Philadelphia, Flanders was head coach of the undefeated 1991 Dean (Mass.) Junior College team and was the linebacker and special teams coach at Lafayette from 1987 to 1990.

In 1986 he was the defensive coordinator at American International College, after three seasons as linebacker and defensive back coach at SUNY-Albany, where he also served as head lacrosse coach for one year.

Flanders graduated from the University of Maine in 1979 and earned a master’s degree in education from the University at Albany.

A Concord, N.H., native, he and his wife, Wendy, live in Madison and have three children: Ashley, Lindsey and Alexander '14.

Kevin Morris, the former head coach at both the University of Massachusetts (2009 to 2011) and at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (1993 to 1998), brings 26 years of college coaching experience to Yale as its new offensive coordinator. 

Before taking over the Minutemen program in 2009, Morris spent five years - the most successful span in the history of UMass football - as the offensive coordinator. He helped UMass go 43-19, win two conference titles, reach a pair (2006, 2007) of NCAA Tournaments and play in the 2006 national championship contest.

Morris went to UMass from Northeastern University, where he was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for four seasons (2000 to 2003). Morris directed one of the most explosive offensive attacks in the Atlantic 10 Conference, breaking 24 school offensive records in four years. During the 2003 season, the Huskies led the A-10 in total offense (431.8), while ranking second in scoring offense (34.5).

Morris also had assistant coaching jobs at Stony Brook (1999), Union (1991 to 1992), WPI (1988 to 1990) and Albany (1986 to 1987) after graduating from Williams College (1986), where he played quarterback and pitched for the baseball team.

He and his wife, Rebecca, reside in Wallingford with their son, Ryan.

Kevin Cahill, Yale’s new special teams coordinator, spent the last four years as an assistant coach at the University of Maine, the last three working with special teams.

He was a three-year starting quarterback at Springfield (Mass.) College, who led the team to two NCAA Playoff appearances.

Cahill also coached the Black Bears’ running backs and wide receivers while serving as the director of personnel and the NFL liason. He coached two All-Americans (Jared Turcotte, Jhamal Fluellen) and six all-conference players while at Orono.

A two-year assistant at Murray State, Cahill coached the wide receivers, assisted in the passing game and served as recruiting coordinator for the 2007 and 2008 campaigns. He mentored a pair of All-Ohio Valley Conference players.

Before going to Kentucky, Cahill was a wide receivers coach for Tennessee-Martin for 2004 and 2005, helping the program engineer its first winning season in 13 years.

The new Bulldog staff member also spent time coaching at Maine Maritime Academy (2001) and at Springfield (2002, 2003).

Cahill and his wife, Carah, have two sons, Patrick and Thomas, and reside in Wallingford.

Dwayne Wilmot, a former star receiver and football captain at the University of Maine, is Yale’s new defensive line coach after coaching five seasons at his alma mater and then helping Harvard win a 2011 Ivy championship.

Wilmot was the Black Bears’ defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator. His 2006 unit led the nation in rushing defense. Jovan Belcher, a 2008 Colonial Athletic Association Defensive Player-of-the-Year, All-American and Buck Buchanan Award Finalist, was one of three (Mike DeVito, Matt King) Wilmot players to sign as an NFL rookie free agents.

Prior to returning to Orono, Wilmot spent three seasons as the recruiting coordinator and assistant defensive coach at Tennessee-Martin.

A 2001 graduate of Maine with a degree in broadcast journalism, Wilmot finished among the school’s top 10 career leaders for receptions and receiving yards. He was signed by the Indianapolis Colts and played in the Arena Football2 League with the 2002 Charleston Swamp Foxes, leading the team with 80 catches, 1,100 yards and 20 touchdowns.

Dwayne and his wife, Barbie, reside in Hamden with their three daughters: Brianna, Mikaella and Chloe.

Steven Vashel, who has coached football at seven different schools in the Northeast and is a graduate of Springfield College, is Yale’s new defensive backs coach.

Vashel spent three years (2009 to 2011) as the defensive backs coach at the University of Maine, where his charges led the Colonial Athletic Association in pass defense in 2011. Two of his former players, Jerron McMillian (4^th rd draft, Packers) and Trevor Coston (free agent, Bears), were signed by NFL teams.

He worked with the DBs and kickers at Bucknell for three seasons, from 2006 to 2008. The Lewisburg, Pa., work followed a seven-year (1999-2005) stint as defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator at Bates College.

Vashel also worked at King’s College (1995-98), Harvard (1994), Springfield (1992-93) and Trinity (1991), while getting his master’s degree in sports management from Springfield in 1994.

Vashel and his wife, Cathy, have two sons, Ethan and Cole.

Kris Barber ’97, a former Yale quarterback, returns to New Haven as the Bulldogs’ tight ends coach. Barber, who spent the majority (2007-10) of his coaching career as the passing game coordinator (one season) and receivers coach at Colorado School of Mines, helped Harvard win a 2011 Ivy title with the second best scoring offense in the FCS during his one year in Boston.

During his four seasons in Colorado he also served as the Orediggers' video coordinator while working with all the pass catchers. Barber helped run a 2009 offense ranked fifth in passing, 13^th in first downs and 18^th in total offense. The 2010 CSM squad reached the Division II playoffs. He coached eight All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference picks in his three years, including the school’s single-season and career leader in touchdowns, Adam Saur.

Barber, who served as an assistant football coach for the 1997 United States Coast Guard Academy team, was a player/coach for the Oslo Trolls (Oslo, Norway) in 1997 and the 2002 Arlanda Jets (Stockholm, Sweden).

Barber played for college hall of fame head coach Carm Cozza after two seasons at Fort Scott Community College in Fort Scott, Kan.

Barber, who spent seven years in the investment banking industry, was vice president of two Denver companies between 2003 and 2008.

He and his wife, Elizabeth, and their daughter, Avery, live in Branford.

Paul Rice ’10, the captain of the 2009 Yale football team, was named the Bulldogs’ outside linebackers coach in February 2013.

Rice came back to New Haven after a year as an offensive graduate assistant coach at Georgia Tech, where he helped the Yellow Jackets to a 7-7 season and a 2012 Sun Bowl victory over Southern California.

Rice was a four-year Yale starter who began as one of the biggest cornerbacks in the country and finished his collegiate career as a first-team All-Ivy linebacker. He accumulated 196 tackles, six interceptions and numerous big plays with the football in his hands while earning league honors three seasons.

The former Ohio Division III co-defensive player of the year and National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete at University High School in Cleveland Heights helped the Bulldogs lead the nation in scoring defense consecutive seasons.

Rice played one season for the L’Hospitalet Pioners (Barcelona, Spain) in the spring of 2011. He served as a player/coach, competing on both sides of the ball and helping the Pioners to a national championship.

Rice, the former political science major in Silliman College, was a volunteer with the Yale football team in the fall of 2011.

Head Strength Coach for Football, Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse, Women’s Soccer, Men’s and Women’s Golf

Emil Johnson was named Yale’s Head Strength and Conditioning Coach in July 2005.  Johnson oversees a program that includes 35 varsity sports and more than 800 athletes.  Johnson joined the Bulldogs from the University of Hartford, where he had been the director of strength and conditioning from 2001-2005.  Johnson served as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Maine for two years prior to that, and was the men’s basketball strength and conditioning coach at DePaul University in 1998-99. 

Johnson is a 1998 graduate of UMass-Boston with a B.S. in exercise physiology.  He was a captain and three-year starting quarterback for the Beacons in football and also played one year of baseball.  Following graduation he spent a semester as a strength and conditioning intern at Northeastern. 

Johnson is a member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association (C.S.C.S.). 

He resides in Ellington with his wife, Ann, and their four children, Emil, Ayva, Addison and Emerson.

Nick Kray, who was an offensive and special teams assistant at Villanova the last two years, is Yale’s new director of football operations.

Kray went to Villanova from his alma mater, Eastern Illinois University, where he was the defensive ends and defensive quality coach during the 2008 and 2009 seasons. He was part of the Panthers 2009 Ohio Valley Championship and helped coach All-America defensive end Pierre Walters. Kray's other duties at Eastern Illinois included assisting with the special teams, coordinating the scout team, overseeing the scouting and film breakdown of opponents and recruiting the southwest suburbs of Chicago.

Kray, a 2008 EIU graduate, earned a physical education degree with a minor in drivers education and health studies. He was a member of two Ohio Valley Conference championship squads and three FCS playoff teams. He was co-captain in 2006 and team captain in 2007.

Kray is single and resides in New Haven

Chris Gennaro is a 2012 University of Maine graduate with a degree in business administration and a concentration in marketing.  Gennaro was a kicker/punter at Maine for three years and worked as the football operations intern his senior year.  His internship included travel operations, recruiting, alumni relations and special teams preparation. Gennaro was part of the 2008 and 2011 Black Bears’ playoff teams. He is single and resides in New Haven.

Jeff Moore is the video coordinator for Yale football. He is in charge of all video uploading and downloading along with the creation of cutups. Jeff is a former walk-on punter and student assistant at the University of Massachusetts. During the 2011 season, he interned with an Amherst College squad that went undefeated for the fourth time in school history. At Amherst, Moore worked with the wide receivers and was in charge of the kickers and punters, including All-American Matt Rawson. Moore graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in sport management.