Tony Reno was named the Joel E. Smilow ’54 Head Coach of Yale Football on January 12, 2012, and enters his 13th season at the helm in 2025. Under his leadership, the Bulldogs have captured Ivy League championships in four of the last seven seasons (2017, 2019, 2022, and 2023). Reno begins the 2025 campaign with 74 career victories—second only to Carm Cozza (179) in program history.
Reno has coached four players to Asa S. Bushnell Cup honors as Ivy League Player of the Year: two-time winner Nolan Grooms (2023, 2022), Kurt Rawlings (2019), Matthew Oplinger (2017), and Tyler Varga (2014). He has also mentored three Ivy League Rookies of the Year: Joshua Pitsenberger (2022), Griffin O’Connor (2018), and Zane Dudek (2017).
Five Bulldogs have been selected in the NFL Draft over the last seven years: Foyesade Oluokun (sixth round, Atlanta Falcons, 2017), Rodney Thomas II (seventh round, Indianapolis Colts, 2022), Kiran Amegadjie (third round, Chicago Bears, 2024), Nick Gargiulo (seventh round, Denver Broncos, 2024), and Jackson Hawes (fifth round, Buffalo Bills, 2025).
In addition, several other Yale alumni have reached the NFL ranks as undrafted free agents, including Dieter Eiselen (Chicago Bears, Houston Texans), Jaeden Graham (Atlanta Falcons, Philadelphia Eagles), JJ Howland (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Matthew Oplinger (Arizona Cardinals), Wande Owens (Buffalo Bills), Mason Tipton (New Orleans Saints), and Tyler Varga (Indianapolis Colts).
Oluokun led the NFL in tackles in both 2021 and 2022. Amegadjie, Gargiulo, Thomas, Hawes, Owens, and Tipton are currently on active NFL rosters.
In 2024, Reno and the Bulldogs went 5-1 in its final six games of the season, including a triumphant 34-29 victory over Harvard to close the season. Yale finished with a 7-3 overall record. The Bulldogs led the Ivy League in rushing yards per game (181.9).
In 2023, Reno guided Yale to seven wins in its final eight games, including a victory over Harvard, en route to a 7-3 overall record and a share of the Ivy League title—the 18th in program history.
He was named Ivy League Coach of the Year in 2022 after leading Team 149 to an outright Ivy crown with an 8-2 overall mark and 6-1 league record. That season, Yale led the conference in scoring offense (30.5 ppg) and ranked second in scoring defense (19.5 ppg).
In 2019, Reno’s Team 147 finished 9-1, capping the season with a thrilling 50-43 double-overtime victory over Harvard in The Game. Two years earlier, he led Team 145 to Yale’s first outright Ivy championship in 37 years. That 2017 team featured 20 All-Ivy honorees and finished with a No. 24 national ranking, clinching the title in front of 52,000 fans at the Yale Bowl with a dominant 24-3 win over Harvard. Reno was recognized as the New England Football Writers and Gridiron Club of Boston Division I Coach of the Year following the season.
A finalist for the 2014 Eddie Robinson Award (presented to the top head coach in the FCS), Reno led Yale to an 8-2 record that year, including a thrilling overtime win over FBS Army during the Yale Bowl’s 100th anniversary season. That success attracted ESPN’s College GameDay to The Game at Harvard.
Before taking the head coaching role, Reno served on the Yale staff under Jack Siedlecki, eventually becoming assistant head coach. He helped Yale win the 2006 Ivy title as the secondary coach and mentored 14 All-Ivy selections from 2003-2008. From 2009-2011, he was Harvard’s special teams and defensive backs coach, contributing to an undefeated Ivy title season and a No. 14 national ranking in 2011.
A native of Oxford, Massachusetts, Reno is a 1997 graduate of Worcester State College, where he was a three-year starter at free safety and part of two league championship teams. He earned a master’s in health education in 2000 and later served as defensive coordinator at Worcester State from 1998 to 2002. During his tenure, the Lancers went 27–5, appeared in two postseasons, and were 2001 ECAC Northeast Champions. In 2002, Reno was honored as the AFLAC/Coach Magazine National Assistant Coach of the Year.
Reno is the first Yale head coach from Massachusetts since Ted Coy in 1910. He and his wife, Toni, have three children: Dante, Angelina, and Vince.
