Yale

Yale Has High Hopes For Santiago
By John Altavilla - November 18, 2024

When Yale retools for the 2025 season, one of the positions that will require the most work will be wide receiver.

Three of the Bulldogs top players at that position – Dave Pantelis, Joey Felton and Chase Nenad – will have graduated. That will leave Mason Shipp and Jaxton Santiago, who may be one of the Yale’s most heralded first-year players in a very long time.

“We have a young guy (Santiago) who from Day 1 has felt comfortable enough to get himself into the lineup and make big plays. He’s been a big piece for us,” said Tony Reno, Yale’s head coach.

Santiago, who is from Bakersfield, Calif., literally fell into Yale’s lap during the summertime. Although Yale and Princeton were on his original list of potential landing spots, Santiago fell in love with another school.

“I originally committed to Boston College the summer before my senior year. At that time, I had only taken a visit to Boston College. I remained committed all throughout my senior season. After my senior football season, I received a phone call from them saying they were going to head in a different direction and take a kid from the transfer portal. That led me to reopening my recruitment. I reached out to both Yale and Princeton, and eventually took official visits to both schools.

”The coaching staff here was always amazing to me. That made the decision to commit to Boston College the first time around very difficult. After visiting Yale, I knew this was the place I wanted to be. The culture Coach Reno has established was evident immediately. The biggest thing for me was also the relationships. The players here were, and continue to be, extremely genuine and selfless individuals. I am so glad that I came here. I believe this is the place the Lord had chosen for me and that it was always in his plan for me to come here.  

“I do believe that if I would have taken my scheduled official visit with Yale, I would’ve chosen to come here in the first place. Unfortunately, I canceled my official visits with Yale and Princeton after going to Boston College. Upon visiting here, my relationship with the coaches continued to grow. I met Coach (Marcus) Knight (receivers coach) and Coach O (Chris Ostrowsky, Yale’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach) who were both key reasons as to why I came.”

Yale’s was thrilled by the prospect of landing Santiago. At 6-foot-3, he was recruited to play tight end at BC. But Yale had different plans for him.

“Jaxton is a really smart football player that arrived on campus as a very mature freshman. That has completely attributed to his growth as a player. He does all the right things in regard to his overall preparation and his ability to improve. As he grows in the program will be fun to, watch,” said Ostrowsky. “We were convinced that he would have a greater impact as a skilled big wide receiver rather than a smaller tight end.”

Santiago has seen the field much more than many of Yale’s first year players. He has only eight receptions for 117 yards, but Reno has not hesitated to feature him when the opportunities to do so present themselves.

“Jaxton has what I like to call a quiet mind,” said Reno. “Things don’t move too fast for him. He stays in a neutral mindset. We makes plays or drops a pass – he’s the same guy.”

Santiago says he’s greatly benefited from the advice he’s received from his veteran teammates.

“When I came up here in the summer, the senior receivers were all extremely helpful,” said Santiago. “They were quick to give advice on routes and helped me begin to learn the playbook. Without their selflessness and leadership, I would not have been able to grow as a football player.”

Pantelis, Yale’s leading receiver this season, has been very impressed with his young teammate.

“I think he’s going to be a great player,” said Pantelis. “He’s a young kid who is stepping in to fill big shoes and he’s made the most of the opportunities that he’s had. I just think he’s got a lot more to learn. Moving forward he’ll be in a great spot.

Santiago credits the coaching staff for having the faith in him to give him the chance to excel.

“I also give credit to Coach Knight. From the beginning of fall camp he gave everyone an opportunity. He pushes us all equally as hard to be the best that we can. Without him, there is no way I would have been able to develop either,” said Santiago.    

“The most gratifying part of my experience has been the brotherhood here. It might sound cliche, but the culture that has been established is truly built on relationships. From the moment I stepped foot on campus I have been treated like family. It has been a blessing to gain 100+ brothers this year.”

Players of the Game

LB Inumidun Ayo-Durojaiye, Sr., 6-0, 202, Damascus, Md., (Damascus)
It was an interesting day for Yale’s defense. On one hand, it allowed 28 points and 406 yards to Princeton. But it also managed five sacks of quarterback Blaine Hipa, forced one fumble resulting in a touchdown and had one interception. In the middle of it all was Ayo-Durojaiye. He led Yale with nine tackles, had two sacks, forced the second-period fumble resulting in Ejiroghene Egodogbare 8-yard score and stopped the Tigers’ fourth-quarter comeback attempt with an end zone interception.

RB Josh Pitsenberger, Jr., 6-0, 215, Bethesda, Md., (The Avalon School)
The Bulldogs leading rusher had a career day. Fed the ball 25 times, Pitsenberger gained a season-high 159 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns, a 1-yard score in the first quarter and a 4-yard score in the third. He also caught a 5-yard TD pass from Grant Jordan in the second quarter, one of his two receptions on the day.

Reno’s Corner
“There is something that really isn’t seen when you come and watch us play. You see guys put helmets on. They are incredible athletes. They score touchdowns and make tackles. What you don’t see behind the scenes is how close these guys are. This is an incredibly close team and when you have one like that truly plays for each other it’s very special.”


Pantelis And Kamara Have Led Yale
By John Altavilla - November 11, 2024

During Yale’s up and down season this year there’s been little question who the most consistent performers have been on offense and defense.

Senior receiver David Pantelis leads the Bulldogs in receptions and has been there stalwart on punt returns. He established career highs in receptions (12) and yardage (195) in last Saturday’s 56-34 win over Brown.

And sophomore defensive back Abu Kamara not only leads his teams in tackles, but came into the Brown game leading the nation in solo tackles (6.9 per game).

“These two are tough football players,” said Yale head coach Tony Reno. ”They’re not looking for someone to wash their cleats every day.”

One thing Pantelis and Kamara have in common is that Reno was confident enough in both to use them extensively as freshmen.

“It’s on them. We’ve been fortunate during my time here to have freshmen who really come to the forefront,” said Reno.

As a freshman, Pantelis appeared in eight games as a receiver and punt return specialist. In the Brown game that season, a 63-38 Yale victory, he collected 205 all-purpose yards and scored two touchdowns to earn the Ivy League’s Special Teams and Rookie of the Week honors.

Kamara finished his first season with 20 tackles (14 solo, six assisted) and had two pass break ups. His first career interception came in the victory at Brown when he also made a season-high five tackles. His first career sack came in the win over Harvard.

“Both of them were huge pieces in our team’s run to the championship last season,” said Reno. “You saw them last year doing the same things they are doing now.”

Reno said that Yale’s coaching staff immediately identified Pantelis as a prospect in high school.

“David’s ability to make plays in high school really stood out. He was also a good defensive player and kick returner who was playing some high level football (Upper St. Claire in Pittsburgh),” said Reno. “You could see from the film that whenever the ball was in the air on offense or defense that he was around it and then he made people miss. He always looked like he was just cruising. He never looked he was working that hard. And he’s been like that ever since he got here.”

Pantelis said he wasn’t really surprised that he was given an opportunity to play as a freshman.

“They give you opportunities as a freshman and then it’s in your hands to make the most of it,” said Pantelis. “You come here and you get coached right away. There were guys around to help me, like J.P. Shohfi and Reed Klubnik and Mason Tipton, players that had already been in that position and I was very grateful for that.”

Yale’s predicament with Kamara was trying to decide what side of the ball he should play.

Kamara was a first team all-state running back and defensive back at Interboro High (Prospect Park, Pa.). While he held his school’s record for most interceptions holder in interceptions, he was also Delaware County’s single-season touchdown and rushing record holder.

“We watched Abu’s high school film and there are certain guys who tackle and there’s other who really make an impact when they hit someone,” said Reno. “When he hit someone it’s just impactful. He’s super aggressive, moves really well, has the knack of finding the ball in the air and the ball carrier. And he could rush the passer.”

Kamara had no trouble with it when Reno and his coaching staff decided he should play defense.

“That was a part of the recruitment,” said Kamara. “The coaches gave me the option of either offense or defense, but we’re tough-nosed players here (at Yale).  So I chose that side (defense) of the ball.

“I miss it (running the ball) a little but I like hitting people, too.”
In Yale’s victory against Penn this season, Pantelis made two of the most remarkable catches you’ll ever see. The first was made lying flat on his back, he second as he dove through the air.

“It’s a little bit of luck and the mentality that when the ball is in the air you need to go get it. By having that mentality, things sometime happen that way,” said Pantelis.

In the same game, Kamara’s hit on Penn quarterback Aidan Sayin not only forced a fumble, but sent the quarterback to the sidelines for the remainder of the game with an injured elbow.

“My tackling ability is just due to how I was brought up in the game,” said Kamara. “One of the first thing coaches focus on is your aggressiveness and ability to make open field tackles. Coming to Yale, I’ve already taken great pride in it.”

Players Of The Game

QB Grant Jordan, Sr., 6-2, 210, New Orleans (Jesuit)
Sometimes it’s hard to believe Jordan was only making his first start of his career on opening day at Holy Cross. He’s been that outstanding. During last Saturday’s win against Brown, he accounted for seven touchdowns – six passing, one rushing – and threw for 372 yards. It was one of the greatest performances for a QB in program history. Jordan tied Yale’s single-game touchdown passing record held by Kurt Rawlings against Princeton in 2019 and became just the fifth Ivy League quarterback in history to record six passing touchdowns in a single game. Jordan currently has thrown for 18 TDs and rushed for four more this season.

WR David Pantelis, Sr., 5-11, 200, Pittsburgh, Pa. (Upper St. Claire)
With NFL scouts watching at Yale Bowl, Pantelis established career highs in receptions (12) and yardage (195) while scoring three touchdowns – all in the first quarter. He leads Yale with 52 catches for 725 yards and eight TDs this season.

DB Brandon Webster, So., 6-0, 195, Cleveland, Ohio (St. Ignatius)
Injured for most of the season, Webster didn’t play this year until a brief appearance at Columbia. But he impressed his coaches with his progress this week and was plugged into the lineup. He rewarded them by making two of Yale’s three interceptions.

Reno’s Corner:
“Pro scouts come to see us and identify certain kids that they like as younger players and they track them over their sophomore and junior years. It’s the spring before their senior sesson when  it (attention) heats up. It’s just like recruiting you start tracking guys and both David (Pantelis) and Abu (Kamara) are on the (the scouts) list.”


Shipp’s Dedication Impacts On And Off The Field
By John Altavilla - November 4, 2024

If you take the time to look, you’ll find that every student-athlete that’s played football at Yale has his own unique story.

Senior receiver Mason Shipp certainly is no exception. His was all about his willingness to adapt.

“My oldest brother, Miles Shipp, was a star football player at our public school (Monroe Township High in New Jersey). Despite his great success on the field, he was struggling to get much interest at a Division 1 level because many schools (college recruiters) felt Monroe Township didn’t provide enough competition. Because of this, Miles was unable to get a Division 1 scholarship, leading him to play Division 3,” said Shipp.

“So our (the Shipp family) takeaway from this was that the school you go to is everything in regards to recruiting. This led me to transfer from Monroe Township  to the Peddie School, where I went for two years. I absolutely loved this school, and I grew so much as an individual while there. So I was heartbroken when Covid happened and we got news that the (Peddie) football team would not have a season that fall.

“That led me to transfer to the Hun School, which was committed to having a season despite Covid.”

 And that is where Yale finally found a young man who would make so many great contributions to the Bulldogs family on and off the field.
“Mason has left his mark on Yale football and the athletes who will follow him here over the next five to 10 years will strive to attain,” said Yale head coach Tony Reno. “It’s never been work for Mason. Everything he does is at a high level. It’s the standard. You always know that whatever he is doing will be top line. He’s very passionate about what he does and because of that he brings other people with him. He’s done an amazing job.”

During his stay at Yale, Shipp has immersed himself in a number of organizations and projects devoted to community and student service; all the while establishing himself as one of Yale’s most reliable receivers. But he said he wasn’t certain that would be the case when he first arrived on campus.

“When I arrived here as a freshman, I was not developed as a person. I didn’t have my personal values aligned. I didn’t have any long-terms goals after football. But through Yale, I’ve had the opportunity to learn about myself,” said Shipp.

“The top thing for me is football. And the thing about the football family, which makes it unique, is that you grow both as a football player and a person while you’re here.

Here’s just an example of the things Shipp has involved himself with during his Yale career:
He was elected as a nominee for the 2024 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, which recognizes college football athletes for their unwavering commitment to community service and their "good works" off the field. 

He is the Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) Subcommittee Chair for Yale Bulldogs for Change. Yale Bulldogs for Change is the Athletic Department’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion umbrella.

He is Vice Chair of the Ivy League Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) and co-President of Yale Athletics’ Black Student-Athlete Coalition.

“I’m very busy. And sometimes I ask myself am I doing too much now. But I keep pushing that line; how much more can I do to impact varies pockets and parts of the Yale community so I can leave a smile on my face,” said Shipp.

With BSAC, he has worked to organize and develop a new partnership with the New Haven Chapter of the Boys & Girls Club. BSAC members have started volunteering at the club, spending time with kids from the local community playing recreational sports.

“The No. 1 way I’ve been able to connect with the city of New Haven is through the Black Student Athlete Coalition,” said Shipp. “One of my ideas was how do we get involved with younger kids in New Haven to serve as role models for them. From those I’ve spoken with, they tend to look at Yale as something in an alternate universe that is not attainable. But being able to see them once a week at the Boys and Girls Club hopefully helps them understand that their dream is right in front of them.

“I want these kids to understand that  these people (Yale athletes) look like me, they walk the same way, drink water like I do. We’re all one in the same. I feel that everyone needs someone to look up to as a role model. For me, it was my older brother. If I didn’t have him in my life, I might have never know that college football could be a part of my life. I want to serve that role for these kids.”

Shipp was fourth on the team in receptions in 2023 and caught his first career touchdown pass in the victory over Sacred Heart. He was named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District team.

He has followed that up with another strong season. Sharing time with receivers David Pantelis, Joey Felton, Chase Nenad and Jaxton Santiago, Shipp made a career-high seven receptions in Yale’s win over Penn on Oct. 24. He has 32 catches for 335 yards this season.

“All it takes is planning and the willingness to sacrifice,” said Shipp. “Before the season you have a conversation with your girlfriend and family and tell them that you’re about to enter this three-month chase. We have three months to do what I’m most passionate about while at the same time being able to uphold the things I like to do off the field. ..I have to uphold the standard is all of those things. So video games aren’t happening.”

Shipp said he’s planning to go to law school. But before he takes that step he wants to be certain he exhausts every possibility he may have to play pro football.

“Why not?,” said Shipp. “That’s always my answer. I work every single day, to do things to the best of my ability. I go to practice, I want to be the hardest worker on the field every day. I reflect and watch film. Let’s see where that takes me.

“I’m going to put everything I can into the sport and smile when I am done because I’ll understand that.”

Players of the Game

DB Abu Kamara, Soph., 6-1, 208, Prospect Park, Pa. (Interboro)
Kamara came into the Columbia game as the reigning Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week after his performance at Penn. Kamara also was leading the FCS in solo tackles per game (7.2). He has another great game against the Lions, leading Yale with eight tackles. He also recovered a fumble forced by teammate Da’Quan Gonzales in the first quarter.

RB Nathan Denney, Sr., 5-9, 200, Georgetown, Tex. (Georgetown)
After leading Yale’s offense in its season-opening win at Holy Cross with 29 carries for 80 yards and two touchdown, Denney has taken a backseat to Tre Peterson and Josh Pitsenberger, who were both dealing with injuries. But he accounted for Yale’s only touchdown in the loss at Columbia by catching a 24-yard pass from Grant Jordan in the second quarter.

Reno’s Corner
“Give Columbia credit - they made plays in the fourth quarter to gain the victory. We had opportunities throughout the game to add to our lead and close out the game, but unfortunately did not make the plays we needed to get the result we wanted. We will respond from this setback and use it to improve as we prepare this week."


Reno Believes The Best is Yet To Come
By John Altavilla - October 28, 2024

Coming into the Penn game, the start of the final five-game Ivy League stretch, Yale coach Tony Reno was confident better days were ahead.

“The thing I like to say is that we’re not even close to our ceiling, which is really the most exciting thing for me,” said Reno. “For us, there has been a lot of growth, but a lot of reflection on the things we needed to double-down on. We’ve needed to figure out what kind of team we were.”

Perhaps last Friday night was the first sign of that happening as Yale stayed alive in the Ivy League race with its 31-10 win Franklin Field.

It had been an uneven start for the Bulldogs. They opened with a win at Holy Cross, then lost handily at Cornell before opening the home season with a squeaker over Central Connecticut. The bottom of the barrel was the 44-43 loss to Dartmouth at the Yale Bowl on Oct. 12. The Bulldogs were leading 30-7 with 7:33 remaining in the third quarter before collapsing and ultimately losing in overtime. The 23-point blown lead was the largest for Yale, in a game it eventually lost, in the history of the program.

“We’ve had some moments where we’ve needed to learn,” said Reno. “Our guys have responded, which for me is the key to the team. You’ve going to have adversity all through the season long, but do they continued respond and play together. There hasn’t been a day of work with these guys since last November. They’ve been fun to be around.
“The way I look at things like that is there always is a positive, something we need to grow from. If we do it ultimately will make us better.”

Prior to Penn, Yale was last in the Ivy League in the both points allowed (33.4) and yards allowed (435.2). But the defense, playing without standout tackle Alvin Gulley Jr., allowed only 199 yards and 12 first downs to the Quakers.

“It’s always hard to lose. No one likes to lose, but it’s not hard because all it does is give us a chance to grow,” said Joshua Tarver, a sophomore cornerback who has three interceptions this season. “We come into every week with excitement. We love opportunities to do things together.”

Yale’s problems have not been on offense. Yale came to Penn averaging 33 points a game, thanks to the work of senior starting quarterback Grant Jordan, who was injured in the opening series of the Holy Cross win and couldn’t play at Cornell.

“It hasn’t been a surprise. What he (Jordan) did from the spring to the end of the preseason was really incredible,” said Reno. “He took five years of growth and let just it go. He a good point guard right now. That’s what we needed. He’s very bright. He works very hard and he understands our offense very well.”

Jordan’s injury was not the only one Yale has had to deal with this season. Many players have been sidelined, forcing a situation similar to the Lehigh win when Reno said 15 defensive lineman were shuttled in and out of the lineup. The most notable injury on defense was linebacker Dean Shaffer, Yale’s captain, who suffered a season-ending injury against Lehigh.

“Unfortunately I suffered an injury during the Dartmouth game,” said Shaffer. “I fractured my foot during the first drive of the fourth quarter, but managed to continue playing for about 10-12 more plays. Eventually the pain took over and I simply wasn’t capable of running anymore.”

Reno will miss Shaffer’s leadership on the field, but he understands how injuries can disrupt a season. “It’s unfortunately a game that injuries are a part of. You are constantly re-calibrating based on who is still available. You’re looking from where your strengths are; areas where you have a lot of guys with experience and less experience. Every football team has to do that. Our guys are ready for the moments, but you never know when the call is going to come.

“There was a lot of new (players) at the start of the season, maybe experienced players who were playing new roles. We’ve had a lot of supporting players who have moved into positions they may not have thought they’d be at the beginning of the year but are now because they have earned it.”

Reno also said he’s been happy with the play of two first-year performers, wide receiver Jackson Santiago and cornerback Breylan Thompson. “Jackson has played with poise and a quiet mind all season long,” said Reno.

Yale’s players will continue working until they finally are the best versions of themselves.

“Everything we do as a team provides an opportunity to learn to attack the day and then learn and reflect as a group,” said senior receiver Mason Tripp, who had a career-high seven receptions at Penn. “I’d say that over the first  few weeks we were as aligned and connected as we ever have been and that’s because we’ve had opportunities this learn to learn how to be better and improve. Our energy has never faltered and now our performance is beginning align with that. When you have those two pieces you really have the opportunity to chase something.”

Players of the Game

QB Grant Jordan, Sr., 6-2, 210, New Orleans, La. (Jesuit)
Jordan was virtually flawless against Penn, completing 24 of 30 passes for four touchdowns. He completed passes to seven receivers, four of whom (David Pantelis, Chase Nenad, Joey Felton and Luke Foster) scored TDs.

WR David Pantelis, Sr., 5-11, 200, Pittsburgh, Pa. (Upper St. Claire)
Yale’s leading receiver had a magnificent night, leading the Bulldogs with eight catches for a career-high 123 yards and one touchdown. Two of his receptions were of the highlight reel variety; one wile lying on his back, the other with body fully extended into a dive.

DB Abu Kamara, Soph., 6-1, 208, Prospect Park, Pa. (Interboro)
One of Yale’s rising stars, Kamara had another standout day. He again led Yale in tackles (seven), was credited with forcing a fumble and had an interception. The forced fumble came when he struck the throwing arm of Penn’s star quarterback, Aidan Sayin in the first quarter. Sayin was forced from the game and did not return.

Reno’s Corner
“The relationship with my players is why I do it. It holds the most significance with me. It’s the most important thing; to be a vehicle to help them accomplish what they can on and off the field. My job is to try and help them get everything they can out of their ability. Push and support them, put your arm around them and challenge them. You do everything you can do to help the team be the best it can be.”


Jordan Has Taken Advantage Of His Opportunity
By John Altavilla - October 21, 2024

When Grant Jordan was a quarterback in middle school he developed an annoying habit of fumbling. He attributed the problem to  a lack of chemistry with his center.
Good thing for Jordan he had an expert in the house you understood the relationship between centers and quarterbacks. His father played center in college at Tulane.

“One day he got tired to me fumbling so we went outside for an hour and I was just taking snaps from my dad,” Jordan said. ”He’s also told me to respect the guys on the offensive line, that the relationship I would have with them was one of the coolest things about football.”

Jordan has never forgotten about that piece of advice. And after a long and winding road, the fifth-year senior has finally received his chance build that rapport with his own group as Yale’s starting quarterback.

“Grant’s [first year] class was the one that came in when we didn’t play a season (due to Covid in 2020),” said Yale coach Tony Reno. “They came here in the fall, wearing masks, not being able to go to classes. But you could tell right away that despite the little time they could spend together they were a really tight group. It was neat to see them grow despite the limitation.”

Eventually, Yale ordered its first year students to return home. And it was there that he continued to work on his stills in anticipation of contributing to the team. But during that process, Jordan hurt his elbow and required Tommy John surgery.

“Getting hurt my freshman year was difficult,” said Jordan. “You come here and football is the thing you love he most and your excited about getting into the swing of things. That was tough. But because of the situation we inherited when we arrived, I was able to lean on some of my friends to get me through that time.

“I did the best I could to suck it up. But it was just one of those things that continued to linger and I just couldn’t suck it up any longer. It was about a year-and-a-half before I was finally able to rip it.”

By the time he was medically cleared to play, Nolan Grooms, the former Ivy League offensive player of the year, had established himself as one of the greatest ever to play the position at Yale.

“Being able to learn from the side is one of the things I’ve valued the most,” said Jordan. “Learning from Nolan, in particular . … he did so many things so well, I was able to keep mental notes. It’s been a long journey but I wouldn’t trade it for the world because it led me to where I am. I’m grateful for it.

Reno remembers how carefully Jordan was brought along after surgery and what a great teammate he was during his rehabilitation.

“It was a big thing for him just to be able to throw the ball 10 yards. Then there was another complication he had to deal with. But during that time he was an incredible teammate,” said Reno. “Whatever his role was, whether as a backup quarterback or signaling (plays) from the sideline or helping the other quarterbacks becoming the best versions of themselves while he was recovering, he crushed it.”

Once Grooms left following the 2023 season, the Bulldogs needed to find his successor. And Jordan took the opportunity very seriously, competing with three others for the job.
“The goal was to be the starter,” said Jordan. “I tried to focus on doing the things I could do every day, whether it was a workout or just getting a good sleep on the weekend. I was focused on the process of each day and controlling what could control.”

And while he was doing that, the coaching staff began to take notice.

“The quarterbacks spent time hanging out with each other over the summer as friends and teammates,” said Reno. “And then as we started fall practice, Grant began to rise above the rest. He was running our offense at a high rate, getting the ball out of his hands and making good decisions; the things you’d want from your quarterback. He earned his chance. Nothing is given to anyone in our program. Grant flat out earned it.”

So when Yale opened the season September 21 at Holy Cross, it was Jordan under center. But just five plays into Yale’s first drive, he was injured getting tackled after a run. He left the game never to return.

“That obviously is not something you’d hope for,” said Jordan. “I got hit, felt weird getting up and we just needed to take the time to figure out what it was.”

Jordan was replaced by junior Brogan McCaughrey, who led Yale to the win. Yale’s trainers decided Jordan wasn’t well enough to return the following week at Cornell, but when the Bulldogs played for the first time at Yale Bowl, against Central Connecticut, Jordan was cleared to return.

“The best thing for me was to just be out there with my teammates playing,” said Jordan. “The sideline, the locker room, every aspect of the day was special. It was tremendous and it was something I hadn’t experienced since high school.”

Reno said he was never worried about Jordan’s comparative inexperience being a detriment.

“Nolan in 2021 was this young buck. We didn’t know what he was going to do back there. He was so young an inexperienced. Kurt Rawlings, as well. He started as a freshman, young and inexperienced,” said Reno. “With Grant there’s been a steadying calm. He’s a fifth-year senior. He understands the mission and vision of Yale football.”

That was never more apparent than on October 12 when the Bulldogs played Dartmouth at Yale Bowl.

Jordan completed 32 of 47 passes for 412 yards and five touchdowns and added 36 yards and one more touchdown carrying the football. The five TD passes were the most in a game by any Yale quarterback since Rawlings had six against Princeton in 2019.

“He (Jordan) understands the offense at a very high level,” said Reno. “ When you are a young guy coming, you really don’t know the offense, you don’t understand the mission and visions. You’re just rolling out there. Grant’s been through it.”

Players of the Game

RB Tre Peterson, Sr., 5-8, 190, Columbus, Ga. (Columbus)
Injured for most of the season, the veteran broke out in a big way last Saturday by leading Yale’s ground attack with 98 yards on 12 carries including a 57-yard touchdown with 57 seconds to play in the third quarter that gave the Bulldogs a 38-17 lead.

DB Josh Tarver, Jr., 6-3, 210, Richmond, Texas (IMG Academy)
Tarver’s key interception earlier this season helped seal the win over Central Connecticut. But he topped that against Lehigh by making two of Yale’s three interceptions and leading the Bulldogs with eight tackles.

Reno’s Corner
“We had two recruits come in the summer for official visits. They were really good players. But after they left our guys came up to me and said, ‘Hey coach, they really aren’t a good fit for us, not our kind of guys. I always tell recruits that the fit has to be both ways. You have to feel like you fit here, but we also need to feel like you’re a fit for us. We’re looking for the right fits. You don’t create an environment like this without that. It’s not about how much you can bench or how fast you can run, it’s about what kind of person you are and how much you love football.”


Shaffer’s Takes Pride In Yale Captaincy
By John Altavilla - October 14, 2024

If there was any doubt about how tough Dean Shaffer is, he provided the proof during the first game of his senior season at Smithtown East High in Smithfield, N.Y.

“I played linebacker and running back in high school,” said Shaffer, who was a team captain as a junior and senior. “I ended up breaking my wrist in the second quarter. I didn’t think much of it. You can usually tape up a wrist and feel fine. And then in the third quarter, I almost ripped the nose off my face when I was tackling the quarterback. My facemask dug into the turf and my chinstrap slipped off my chin and up my face, taking my nose with it.  But I taped that up and felt fine. I wasn’t very pretty for a couple of weeks.

“I thought that (the nose) was going to be a big issue, but as it turned out, the bone that I broke in the wrist required surgery and unfortunately they wouldn’t let me play any longer. I only played that one game.”

Perhaps that internal fire was the quality that impressed Shaffer’s teammates during his first four seasons at Yale. Perhaps it was the way he communicated with and supported them.
But when Team 151 gathered to select its captain, the choice seemed crystal clear.

“I don’t think who the captain will be is something that we focus on throughout  the previous season,” said Sean Sullivan, a senior offensive lineman. “But Dean is an incredible dude who has natural leadership characteristics which he exhibits. We all saw that in him which made his election a pretty clear cut choice.”

Said Shaffer: “The captain never ends up being someone who seeks out the position. It kind of falls into their lap by virtue of what type of person and teammate they are. Was I shocked (when announced as captain)? Yes, a little bit. But when you live your life for your teammates and you try to do everything for the guys around you, you start to understand the impact you might be having on others.

“My commitment has always been to my teammates. But I had a sense as we drew closer (that he might be named captain) because I had a lot of guys telling me they were going to vote for me. But there are so many capable leaders on this team, in my class. There are so many great players who also have their fingers on the pulse of the team. There are plenty of guys who could do what I do.”
 
Throughout his time at Yale’s head coach, Tony Reno has marveled at the way each of his captains have led. And in Shaffer, Reno sees pieces of those who preceded him.
“Dean has done an extraordinary job,” said Reno. “I look at the examples he’s had since she’s been here, specifically  Nick (Gargiulo) and Wande (Owens). He has a lot of Nick and a sprinkle of Wande. And it’s made him who he is. The thing from day one with Dean; all the great captains I’ve had is it’s never been about them but always about everyone else. I’ve been spoiled in that way. I really have.”

Shaffer agreed with Reno’s assessment of the qualities which have made him such a great captain.

“What coach said is absolutely true,” said Shaffer. “And there was also John Dean in my freshman year. You learn as you observe. The captain is a high profile individual and there are always going to be a lot of eyes on him. I’ve picked up a lot of different things by just watching the captains I’ve had. They were all fantastic leaders and men. I still stay in touch with all of them. I ask for their advice.”

Shaffer has ascended into a starting middle linebacker role on this year’s team. Injuries got in his way in 2023 and in his absence created the opportunity for Joseph Vaughn to develop into one of the top defenders in the Ivy League.

“It’s my turn this year, “ said Shaffer. “Last season I pulled a hamstring in camp and in the last play of Holy Cross game (Yale’s season opener) I pulled an oblique muscle. But I’m doing a lot better now.”

Shaffer’s task as a team leader was put to the test earlier this season when the Bulldogs were upset at Cornell.

“We had our team meeting on Sunday, like we always do,” said Shaffer. “Coach Reno gave his thoughts and I shared mine. After a frustrating and hard loss its human nature to continue to beat a dead horse, be angry. But what we did wrong was apparent.

“We didn’t put out the best product; we didn’t play to the same standard we expect. It was frustrating. The message was we needed to turn the intensity up. Just because we’ve done good things in the off-season or preseason camp doesn’t mean that we deserve to win. So the intensity at practice has increased with the goal of getting back to who we are.”
The message seemed to resonate – for a week. Yale bounced back the following week to beat Central Connecticut in its home opener at Yale Bowl, but then blew a three-touchdown, fourth-quarter lead and lost in overtime to Dartmouth last Saturday at the Bowl.

Shaffer said he and Reno have an open line  of communication. The coach’s door is always open and they talk practically every day, by phone or text. The conversations are often frank, straight to the point. Reno offers his point of view and Shaffer counters with his.
The bottom line is the betterment of the team.

“I am the barrier between the players and the staff,” said Shaffer. “I don’t want to necessarily be an extension of coach Reno. I defend the players. If Coach Reno has a problem, he’ll usually pass it along to me and  I will address it. Fortunately, I haven’t had too many serious conversations with the guys. They’ve been great.

“What got me here was the way that I acted; working hard, doing things the right way. I try to lead by example, but I also have a strong voice. I’m not a quiet guy, I’m opinionated and I have a good sense of the team and the ability to communicate. Naturally, as a middle linebacker you are required to be loud, rally the troops. I’m a consistent guy and I really try to be the same person every day regardless of how I’m doing in my own life or how the team is doing.”

Still, Shaffer refuses to ask things of his teammates that he wouldn’t do himself.

“I’m the last one in the buffet line. That’s how it goes,” said Shaffer. “I make sure the building is clean at the end of the day; we sweep our own locker room, take care of our own stuff. I’m the least important guy in the entire operation.”

Shaffer, a statistics and data science major, isn’t sure yet about where the wind will carry him after graduation. He does admit that he’d definitely like to stay in football, perhaps pursue a career in coaching.

“Football has been my life,” said Shaffer. “It’s going to be hard to stay goodbye to it.”

But that time is still weeks away. Yale’s pursuit of a third-straight Ivy League championship is what takes precedent now. And its captain will remain eternally grateful to his teammates for the opportunity they offered him to lead.

“The Ivy League is the greatest place to play Division I football,” said Shaffer. “Being captain of this team is the greatest honor of my life, and it will be for years to come.”

Reno’s Corner

“When we focus in on ourselves, when we do the little things that are necessary to perform at a high level, we can have success as a group. The question that we all have is, can we take what we did last week and raise it. Can we elevate what we did last week to the next level. That’s the fun of this whole thing. That’s the chase. That’s the thing that brings me to work every day all excited. How good can we get. We pride ourselves around here on getting better every week. That’s been one of the hallmarks of this program and I want to make sure that we continue to do whatever we can to put our players in the best positions to do that.”

Players Of The Game

QB Grant Jordan, Sr., 6-2, 210, New Orleans, La. (Jesuit)
In what essentially was just his second game as Yale’s starting quarterback, Jordan had a spectacular game, completing 32 of 47 passes for 412 yards and five touchdowns. He also added 36 yards on 12 carries and scored another on a 1-yard run in the second quarter.

WR David Pantelis, Sr., 5-11, 200, Pittsburgh, Pa. (Upper St. Clair)
Jordan targeted Pantelis 15 times against Dartmouth, connecting with him for eight catches, 117 yards and three touchdowns - from 62 in the second, 17 in third  and 10 in the fourth.

Anderson Stands Out And Off The Field
By John Altavilla - Week of October 7, 2024

When Bennie Anderson and his three brothers were growing up in suburb of St. Louis, they could always count on advice about life from their parents, especially their father, Bennie Anderson, Sr., who played in the NFL for seven years.

“Everything my Dad and Mom did in their lives was all-out,” said Bennie Jr. “And they instilled that in us from a young age.
“One of the things my father always talks about is that whenever you have the opportunity to be a part of something, to experience something, you want to leave it better than how you found it.”

Of course, there are times when giving everything you’ve got still leaves you a little short of the finish line, like the time he ran for class president when he was a junior in high school.
“I actually lost the election,” said Anderson. “But there’s a funny story behind that. The person I was running against was my girlfriend at the time. Me and my best friend from high school lost. But it was a good lesson. Hopefully, I won’t lose any more elections.”

Running for office in high school shouldn’t have been considered a surprise because immersing himself in diverse activities has always been in Anderson’s DNA.

And while enjoying those experiences, he’s been honing his skill as a football player, which eventually earned the 6-foot-3 offensive guard 31 Division I offers. After talking things over with his family, Anderson boiled the list down to four – Air Force, Brown, Columbia and Yale. He eventually chose Yale.

“When I came to Yale I did so with the mindset that this team was really special,” said Anderson. “I knew that whatever they needed me to do; I just wanted to do it and as fast as I could. All the players I spoke to said the same thing- buy in, buy in, buy in. By me doing exactly that it helped me feel more comfortable about getting involved in the community.”
Anderson is beginning his second year as a key cog along the offensive line He was one of the major components on a team that won a share of its second consecutive Ivy League title in 2023.

“Bennie was one of those guys that was all-in from the moment he arrived. There are differences in how people deal with new situations,” said Yale head coach Tony Reno. “Some come in and feel their way around. Others come in and wait to see how things are going to work out. From Day 1, Bennie was all in to being everything that Yale football is all about; how we operate, what are our standards, how we cultivate relationships, being an incredible individual who is intent on being a good teammate who puts themselves last instead of putting the team first.

“And Bennie has grown so much. Not only as a football player, but as a leader on the team and in the community. His ability to have an impact on and off the field has been unparalleled. He’s done a tremendous job in bringing our younger guys along. To me, the most important thing is when the time it comes to leave here you want to make it better than how you found it. You plant seeds that you’ll never see grow. That’s legacy.”

Off the field, Anderson is a leader on campus and in the community. He served as Yale's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) President in 2023-24. He also was a founding member of Yale's Black Student-Athlete Coalition and served as an Ivy League SAAC member. In addition, he was a featured speaker/panelist at the Black Student Athlete Summit and a Make A Play Foundation fellow from 2021 to 2023. He’s also been a congressional intern and he even worked for the Yale Daily News.

It was recently announced that the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) named Anderson a semifinalist for the 2024 William V. Campbell Trophy. For the last 35 years, the Campbell Trophy has recognized the best football scholar-athlete in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership.

The NFF will announce 12-14 finalists on Oct. 23, each receiving an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a member of the 2024 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class. The finalists will travel to the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas for the 66th NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 10. During the event, the winner be announced and have his postgraduate scholarship increased to $25,000.
 
"These 203 semifinalists reflect not only exceptional academic and athletic talent but also the deep-rooted leadership that shows a commitment to excellence in all aspects of their lives, which is learned on the gridiron," NFF Chairman Archie Manning said in an organizational press release. “The Campbell Trophy continues to represent the pinnacle of what it means to be a scholar-athlete, and this year's candidates exemplify how football builds future leaders who will undoubtedly shape tomorrow's world."
Anderson, an economics major, has truly enjoyed his stay at Yale, a place that has presented him with so many opportunities.
 
“My experience at Yale has been nothing short of extraordinary. Coming from St. Louis, it means a lot to be able to be here and benefit from the love and support I’ve received from my coaches, my professors, my teammates, the entire athletic department,” said Anderson.

“What allows me to be invested in so many things is this unique support we receive from everyone. What I want to do is give whatever I can to this program, this place and in years to come.

“The one thing that’s been paramount in all of this is how much I love this game; I love football. The things that football has done for my entire family. ..there’s no better feeling than going out on the field and executing. I’m grateful for all the doors that its opened for me.

There’s no question that Anderson’s future is bright, but he said he’s in no hurry to figure out what his next step after he graduates.

“Everything is on the backburner right now,” said Anderson. “The most important thing for me right now, and coach always says this, is to be where my feet are. And right now my feet, my heart, are right here with Team 151. Afte that, things will sort out.”

Players of the Game
DB Joshua Tarver, Jr., 6-3, 210, Richmond, Tex. (IMG Academy)
With Yale trailing 22-17, Tarver picked off a pass to end a CCSU drive, returning the ball to the Blue Devils 30. Five plays later, Grant Jordan connected with Luke Foster for the game-winning 19-yard touchdown. It was the first reception in the career of Foster, a senior.

QB Grant Jordan, Sr., 6-2, 210, New Orleans, La. (Jesuit)
After sustaining an injury in Yale’s first series of the season at Holy Cross, Jordan returned to the lineup in grand fashion. He completed 16 of 31 passes for 146 yards, including the TD to Foster. Jordan added 51 yards rushing with one additional TD.

Reno’s Corner
“We believe quite strongly that the response is more important than the event. Our guys responded incredibly well on Sunday (after the Cornell loss). I told the team how proud I was of them. You never know what your team really is until you have some serious adversity. What will the team do with that? You think you know, but every team is different. To this point, this team has responded very well.”


Yale’s Depth Already Paying Dividends
By John Altavilla - Week of September 30

With its ascension into a perennial Ivy League powerhouse, Yale has enjoyed more than a few years of outstanding recruiting. And that has resulted in rosters with the kind of depth that allows them to survive and advance no matter what type of injuries may occur.

Only two games into the 2024 season, Team 151 has already been forced to dip into its reserve pool because of injuries to key components of its offense.

And the Bulldogs have done it by relaying on a second-string quarterback, junior Brogan McCaughey and a reserve halfback, senior Nathan Denney.

McCaughey was pressed into action at Holy Cross on Sept. 21 when senior starter Grant Jordan was injured by a tackle following a run. Although Yale coach Tony Reno would not confirm it, it’s thought Jordan may have suffered a concussion.

“(After Jordan was hurt), I was just hoping that Brogan was loose and ready to go. I knew that at the very least Grant would have to come out of the game for a play. We were driving the field and in a situation where we could have put some points on the board early.

“Our offensive coordinator and quarterback coach did a great job during the preseason. We made sure that all three of the guys (quarterbacks) who were returning this year all got a ton of reps. …The competition was fair and just. Someone had to earn the one, two and three spots.”

McCaughey, a standout high school player from Cincinnati, has played very well in place of Jordan. After completing 18 of 32 passes for 217 yards against Holy Cross, he followed it up during last Saturday’s 47-23 loss at Cornell by going 14 of 21 for 172 yards.

“Brogan won two state championships as a starting quarterback. He’s been in big  games. One of the things we really liked about him during his recruitment was his demeanor. He started at quarterback for his football team, goalie for his hockey team and centerfield on his baseball team. He just moved from season to season. And you could tell (against Holy Cross) that the situation wasn’t too big for him. He was able to make in-game decisions to give us the best chance possible to succeed. He stayed in control of the offense and control of himself.”

There is no telling when Jordan will be ready to return. But Reno wasn’t interested in speculating about who would be his starting quarterback when that happens.
“Those things have a tendency to work themselves out. We’ll see where we are when he (Grant) comes back,” said Reno.

Last Saturday at Cornell, Reno added another layer to the intrigue by giving third-string quarterback Marshall Howe some second-half snaps.

The situation was very similar with Denny. When starter Josh Pitsenberger was unable to play at Holy Cross, Denny stepped right in despite having only 33 carries in his career. He lugged the ball 29 times for 80 yards and two touchdowns against the Crusaders.

“Nate came on really strong for us last year. He made some huge plays in that last game (Harvard) that helped us win the Ivy League championship,” said Reno. “And he followed that up with a great spring and preseason. When our running backs are all healthy we feel we can spread our carries to any of them. By the time the fourth quarter rolls around, defenses will be tackling fresh backs. Nate had some of what we call “dirty runs.” They weren’t clean; hard yards. That was certainly evident in his last one (the 3-yard touchdown that won the Holy Cross game with 12 seconds remaining in the game). He powered right through Denny said he comfortable waiting for his time to play to come.

“I’ve been fortunate here to back up some really great players. Over the years, I wouldn’t say waiting for my turn was the mentality. It was more about us sharing the success of the one on the field. So when I got the ball, nothing changed,” said Denny. “My success was success for the (running back) room. I was prepared for the moment. It was a dream come true to have 29 carries in a game (at Holy Cross). I feel that when our time is called any of us we can go in and make a difference on the field. We’re all ready to go..”

Pitsenberger returned at Cornell with 18 carries for 68 yards and two touchdowns. But Denny added 10 carries for 36 yards and three receptions for additional 36.

Players of the Week

WR David Pantelis, Sr., 5-11, 200, Pittsburgh, Pa. (Upper St. Clair)
Pantelis led the Bulldogs with five receptions for 86 yards, including one for 32 yards. He has 11 catches for 181 yards in the first two games.

RB Joshua Pitsenberger, Jr., 6-0, 215, Bethesda, Md., (The Avalon School)
Yale’s leading halfback returned to action after missing the Holy Cross game and immediately produced, gaining 68 yards on 18 carries and scoring a pair of touchdowns, one from 9 yards in the second quarter and the other from the 1 in the third.

Reno’s Corner
"Give credit to Cornell. They outplayed us in all phases today. We were inconsistent in all areas and made mistakes that keep you from winning football games. We have a lot of work to do this week to improve in all areas."
 

Yale Rebuilds, Aims For Third Straight Championship
By John Altavilla

After paying a respectful amount of time savoring its second straight Ivy League championship last season, Yale quickly recalibrated to focus on its task down the road.

"Coming off two championships, those are great things we have done in the past," Yale senior linebacker and captain Dean Shaffer told the Hearst Newspapers on Ivy League media day. "But that's exactly what they are, great things we've done in the past. What we've done in the past doesn't earn us a single play, doesn't earn us a win in the coming season. So important the thing for Team 151 is we have to make something on our own. We want to build something new and something great."

Yale came into the season the clear favorite to win a third straight title, something the program hasn’t done since 1979-81 under Carm Cozza.

The Bulldogs began the season on Saturday with a pulsating 38-31 win at Holy Cross. And already Yale is ahead of schedule; the Bulldogs began last season with two straight defeats before winning seven of its last eight.

“You look at this as if there’s always room for improvement, but does the team practice well,” said Tony Reno, Yale’s head coach. “You discover that by how the team comes out; if has the energy or want-to. This team has practiced well from the spring until now. They like each other. They enjoy playing with each other and being competitive without being combative. That’s refreshing. This is a team with a lot of players who have played a lot, just not in as prominent of roles as they will this season. That responsibility has to be earned.”

Change comes every season, but Yale’s task this off season was enormous. The Bulldogs had to replace quarterback Nolan Grooms, the two-time Ivy Offensive Player of the Year, receiver Mason Tipton and offensive tackle Kiran Amegadjie, who was taken in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears. Tipton, one the greatest receivers in program history, made the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent. Amegadjie is with the Chicago Bears.
 
“We’re proud of them and it tells you a lot about who we are a program and the level of talent that comes through it,” Reno said.

On defense, linebackers Joseph Vaughn and Hamilton Moore, defensive tackle Clay Patterson and defensive back Wande Owens exhausted their eligibility and moved on to other football programs. Vaughn is at UCLA, Clay Patterson at Stanford, Owens at New Hampshire and Moore is at Lamar.

Reno said the tasks of filling the spots was influenced by the coaching staff determining how to best complement its personnel.

“If you looked at us in 2019 with Kurt Rawlings (Yale’s quarterback at the time) we were slinging the ball all over the field. In 2022 with Nolan, and an offensive line which was adept at gap screening, we ran counter and power until the cows came home. There were games when he might have thrown only 12 or 15 times. Last year, we were a little more balanced.

“On defense, back in 2017, we were a pressure team, one that blitzed all the time. In 2019, we were a zone (defense) and last year we were a pressure team. We change who we are based on the strengths of the team. If you just look at last year’s team, we re-invented ourselves three times on offense.”

The Bulldogs are confident the right players have been slipped into the gaps.

"We have a lot of young guys stepping up and a lot of older guys who have experience that will step into those roles," Yale tight end Ry Yates told the Hearst Newspapers on Ivy League media day. "I think they'll do a phenomenal job. It's a talented group that has gotten to learn and play alongside talented players from the past. All those lessons will translate over to this season."

Reno and his staff continue to be focused on improvement as they prepare for Saturday’s game at Cornell. The Bulldogs were shocked by the Big Red at Yale Bowl last season.

“Our focus is on our execution – our ability to play fast and physical. Play Yale football,” said Reno. “We enjoyed ourselves for a short amount of time [after last season was over) and then begun to prepare for this season. Of all the teams we’ve had in this situation I’d say this one has been the most driven and had the shortest memory of what happened before.”

Players of the Game

RB Nathan Denney, Sr., 5-9, 200, Georgetown, Texas (Georgetown)
Denney rushed for only 69 yards on 13 carries last season but worked his way into a backup role to starter Joshua Pitsenberger this season. And when Pitsenberger could not play at Holy Cross, Denney distinguished himself by gaining 80 yards on 29 carries with two touchdowns, including the game-winner from the 3 with 12 seconds to play.

QB Brogan McCaughey, Jr., 6-1, 205, Cincinnati, Ohio (St. Xavier)
McCaughey did not play last season but won the right to back up starter Grant Jordan this year. And he was ready when Jordan was lost for the game after being tackled on a run in the game’s first series. He completed 18 passes for 32 yards for 217 yards and one touchdown (24 yards to David Pantelis in the third quarter. McCaughey also scored a rushing TD from the 3 in the first quarter.


Shaffer Named Yale’s Next Captain By John Altavilla
Linebacker Dean Shaffer will captain the 2024 Yale football team. The announcement was made at the annual postseason banquet which was held last Sunday
 
"Team 151, I am incredibly honored and humbled to stand here before you as the captain of this remarkable group of men," said Shaffer. "Being selected as captain is both a privilege and a responsibility that I deeply respect. This role is not about me. It is about us. Our strength lies in our resilience and our unwavering support of one another. I am very excited about the journey that lies ahead."
 
Shaffer, of Smithtown, N.Y., has been part of a strong Yale linebacker core in his career. This season had a  season-high three tackles in the win at Brown, including one for a loss. In 2022, Shaffer appeared in seven games and had eight tackles, including five solo stops.
 
"Dean has been a great leader for us as an underclassman," said Tony Reno, Yale’s coach. "There isn't a better person than Dean to bring Team 151 together. I'm excited to see his growth as captain."

In the moments immediately following Yale’s win over Harvard, outgoing captain Wande Owens reflected on his own experience leading the Bulldogs to a share of the Ivy League title.

“It’s been a transformational year for me as a leader, a player and a man, going through the ups and downs of leading and developing a team. Ultimately winding up here with the end goal (winning the title) has just been amazing,” said Owens, whose two pass breakups in the fourth quarter and overtime paved the way for Yale’s critical win at Princeton.

Owens said the key to his successful run was to be true to himself.

“The main thing was just me being me. The authentic me would be the one who could best lead this team,” said Owens. “I was able to do that because the team allowed me to be myself. So we ended up jelling at the right time (by winning seven of their last eight games).”

Owens said Saturday he had a pretty good idea who would be named as his successor, but didn’t want spoil the surprise. But he is anxious to offer Shaffer some advice if he asks for it.

“I’ll tell him how proud I am of him, that he deserved the opportunity to lead,” said Owens. “I believe in him right now to handle business.”

Yale Places Seven On All-Ivy First Team

Quarterback Nolan Grooms, the Ivy’s reigning offensive player of the year, and OT Kiran Amegadije, who has declared himself eligible for the 2024 NFL Draft, highlight Yale’s impressive representation on the 2023 All-Ivy League First Team.

Also selected to the first team were five other seniors, OT Jonathan Mendoza, receiver Mason Tipton, defensive lineman Clay Patterson, linebacker Joseph Vaughn and defensive back Wande Owens, Yale’s captain.

Grooms repeats as a first-team player. He threw for 1,863 yards and 22 touchdowns, which led the league this season. He also was fourth in rushing (588 yards) and scored two touchdowns. He finished his career with 52 TD passes, second all-time in Yale history behind Kurt Rawlings. Grooms is also second to Rawlings in total offense and fifth in passing yardage all time at Yale.

Amegadije, who repeats as a first-team player, missed most of the season with an injury suffered in practice, but his presence on the offensive line could not be denied. According to many NFL scouts, he is projected to be among those selected in the top three rounds in the spring.

Tipton and Grooms combined for the Ivy’s most formidable pass-catch combination. A starter since his freshman season in 2019, he was a unanimous choice to the first team this season after making 52 receptions (third in the Ivy League) for 786 yards (third) and 10 TDs (first). Tipton also added one rushing TD. His biggest game this season was at Brown where he made three TD catches.

Patterson has been one of Yale’s elite defensive linemen for two seasons. The Bulldogs often switched him around from end to tackle this season to enhance his effectiveness. He finished the season with 40 tackles and 41/2 sacks.

Vaughn was Yale’s premier defender this season, a dominating force and a legitimate candidate for the league’s defensive player of the year. His 88 tackles were third in the Ivy League and he added two sacks and three interceptions, one of which he returned for a TD. He was a stalwart in Yale’s win over Harvard with 10 tackles and one interception.

Owens, who also repeats as a first-teamer, led the Bulldogs both on and off the field. He was an outstanding captain who contributed 54 tackles and seven pass breakups. The highlight of his season was at Princeton where he broke up passes in the fourth quarter and second overtime that sealed Yale’s win.

Mendoza, the largest (6-9, 308 pounds) lineman in program history, was the rock on an offensive line that was battered with injuries this season. At one point, Yale was down four lineman, but he helped keep things together while his teammates healed.

Sophomore running back Joshua Pitsenberger and tight end Jackson Hawes were second-team selections.  Sophomore OL Michael Bennett, junior DT Alvin Gulley, junior DB Sean Guyton and senior LB Hamilton Moore were honorable mentions.

Grooms Leaves Yale As One Of The Best

By John Altavilla
One of the great advantages Yale enjoyed during its run of four Ivy League championships in the last six years has been the smooth transition of quarterbacks from Kurt Rawlings to Nolan Grooms. Both should be considered among the top five QBs in the 150-year history of this program.

After taking over for Griffin O’Connor in the middle of his sophomore season in 2021, Grooms quickly adapted to his new role.

“That day against UConn I was kind of a young buck out there. I didn’t know a lot about the playbook,” said Grooms. “I was just relying on athleticism, running around to make things happen. Now, I‘ve been taught the ins and outs of the offense. I’m able to check plays at the line of scrimmage if I see certain coverages or fronts. It’s just a game-changer for me.”

One of the rewards Grooms had as a freshman was being a part of a small quarterback room in 2019 when it was just Rawlings, O’Connor and himself. That gave him a front-row opportunity to learn and watch Rawlings complete perhaps the greatest season any QB has had in Yale’s history.

“I had a lot of time with him (Rawlings),” said Grooms. “I told him after the season how beneficial it was to just sit back and watch how he handled pressure, his teammates and every day just walking around campus.”

Grooms abilities flowered during the 2022 season after which he was named the league’s offensive player of the year.

“He's the best offensive player in the league and he’s been that way for two years.,” said Tony Reno, Yale’s head coach. “He’s been able do things in a variety of different ways against a variety of different teams.

“When he took over the job in 2021, he was an athlete who played quarterback. Now he’s a quarterback who just happens to be an athlete. He’s evolved into one of the best who has ever played here. When you’ve been playing football for 150 years, there’s something to be said about that. He put us into the position we were in because of how hard he worked. His ability to get us into the right play and get the ball to the right people at the right time has been great for us.”

In 2023, Grooms once again led Yale in rushing with 588 yards while throwing for 1,863 yards and 22 TDs, 10 to his favorite receiver, senior Mason Tipton. He completed his career with 52 TD passes, which is second to Rawlings (60) in program history.

“Legacy sort of creeps into your mind sometimes,” said Grooms. “The way I’ve approached it this year is, if you take care of what you need to take care of, legacy will take care of itself. It’s the same way we think about championships. If you do what you’re supposed to do during the year, someone is going to hand you’re a trophy at the end.”

End Of Season Awards

CHARLES LOFTUS AWARD: Donated by the New Haven Gridiron Club and awarded to the most valuable freshman on the team – Osize Daniyan.
 
CHESTER J. LAROCHE AWARD: Given to the senior, who by his character and academic talents, has given the most to Yale – Spencer Alston and Joseph Vaughn.
 
FREDRIC WOODROW “WOODY” KNAPP MEMORIAL TROPHY: In the memory of Lieutenant Frederick Woodrow Knapp, B.A. 1965, Attack Squadron 164 U.S. Navy, who so gallantly gave his life in air combat in the skies over North Vietnam on November 2, 1967.  Awarded to the player who best typifies the cheerful disposition, leadership qualities, and unselfish devotion to others which characterized Woody's life and accomplishments at Yale – Jonathan Mendoza and Aidan Maloney.

GREG DUBINETZ AWARD: Awarded to a lineman who best exemplifies Gregory George Dubinetz’ spirit as a player and qualities as a person – Clay Patterson and Jonathon Durand.
 
JAMES KEPPEL AWARD: Given to the offensive back who best exhibited Jim’s work ethic, pride and dedication to Yale Football, as well as his ability to enrich the lives of his friends and teammates – Mason Tipton.
 
JORDAN OLIVAR AWARD: In honor of Yale's former football coach, its awarded to the senior, other than the captain, who through devotion to Yale football has earned the highest respect of his teammates – Mason Tipton.
 
LEDYARD MITCHELL AWARD: Class of 1904 in honor of Ledyard Mitchell, B.A. 1904.  Awarded for proficiency in kicking – Jack Bosman.
 
NORMAN S. HALL MEMORIAL TROPHY: Established from gifts made in 1937 to a committee of classmates in memory of Hall, class of 1930.  Awarded to a player for outstanding service to Yale football – Jackson Hawes and Hamilton Moore.
 
ROBERT GARDNER ANDERSON ’33 AWARD: Awarded to the player who best exemplified Bob's intense interest in the sport by combination of athletic skill with team spirit and pride in accomplishment – Nolan Grooms.
 
RYAN LoPROTO AWARD: Awarded to the player who best exemplifies Ryan's passion and competitive spirit, skill in the defensive secondary, and devotion to teammates – Dathan Hickey and Wande Owens.
 
TED TURNER AWARD: Awarded to the interior Lineman who displays tough, hardworking, aggressive play while demonstrating outstanding sportsmanship. The Turner Award winner is a true student-athlete and role model – Kiran Amegadije.

HAMMER AWARD: Jermaine Baker
 
YALE FOOTBALL CAPTAINS: Wande Owens
             
SPECIAL TEAMS AWARD: Joey Felton
 
D-LINE AWARD: Clay Patterson
 
EDWIN FOSTER “TED” BLAIR AWARD: Donated by the Yale Club of Madison, Connecticut, and awarded to the most valuable player – Joseph Vaughn

Grooms To Tipton: Yale’s Lethal Combination

By John Altavilla

For nearly the last three seasons, Yale quarterback Nolan Grooms and receiver Mason Tipton have worked to develop the chemistry and trust that always seems to characterize great combinations.

“At this point of my career, Nolan knows where to throw the ball and how fast it’s going to take me to get to that spot,” said Tipton.

We have already seen this many times in Yale coach Tony Reno’s career. In 2014, quarterback Morgan Roberts teamed up with Deon Randall and Grant Wallace for over 2,000 passing yards. And in 2019, the great Kurt Rawlings had his choice between Reed Klubnik and JP Shoffi as the Bulldogs surged to their Ivy League championship.

“The first key is the time spent together doing reps. And the second is trust.,” said Reno. “There are times when I know what play is being called and I know where Nolan is going with the ball. There are other times when we look at what the defense is showing and we check off. And I know where the ball is going. They have worked so much together and they understand each other very well. And that goes the same to all the great combinations we’ve had. “

As Yale prepares for Harvard, and a chance to share in another league championship, a great part of their success has been rooted in the production of Grooms and Tipton, who has started for the Bulldogs since his freshman season in 2019.

Tipton leads Yale with 51 catches for 755 yards and 10 touchdowns. He had a season-high 10 receptions for 130 yards in last Saturday’s 36-28 win at Princeton. And over Yale’s last three games he’s made 25 catches for 363 yards and four TDs, three in the win over Brown on Nov. 4.

“The main thing is that Nolan and I have been working together now for 2½ years. The time on the field is very small compared to what we’ve done off of it to be able to perform and have the trust in the big moments,” said Tipton. “It speaks to the relationship Nolan and I have outside of football. That’s what allows us the play the way we do on Saturdays.

“Nolan had a phenomenal game (against Brown) if you looked at the throws he was making. I know if I can beat my guy the ball is going to be there. It’s very easy to do what I do when Nolan is throwing it.”

Tipton has aspirations to be a doctor, but not before he gives professional football a try. Reno said Tipton has a very good chance to hook up with an NFL team after the 2024 league draft.

“When I came in as a freshman (in 2019) we had a phenomenal team with arguably two of the finest receivers (Shohfi and Klubnik) who have ever played here,” said Tipton. “The think the one thing I gained during my career, that I didn’t think I would, is the realization that (Yale) would be such a leader-built program.

“I grew even more as a man than I did as a player. I learned so much by just being around Coach Reno and so many great guys. The key piece we have in this program is the great people we have on the (coaching) staff and the team. Those moments outshine anything I’ve accomplished on the field. “

Tipton’s 10 receiving touchdowns this season are second in the nation, trailing only Holy Cross's Jalen Coker and ties for the fourth most in a season in school history. Tipton’s 19 career TD receptions are third all-time at Yale.

Grooms' 20 TD throws on the season lead the Ivy League. In his career, Grooms has thrown 50 touchdown passes which is second all-time at Yale, trailing only Kurt Rawlings, who threw 60 from 2016 to 2019. 

Reno’s Corner

“This team responds when I challenge them. It’s a great trait, it shows that they want to be better. We’ve had some challenging times this season, as you do every season. And every time they’ve had the chance to meet or succeed it, they’ve succeeded it.”

Players of the Game

QB Nolan Grooms, Sr., 6-2, 194, Lake Wylie, S.C. (The Taft School)

Grooms completed 23 of 30 passes for 232 yards, including a 12-yard touchdown to Joey Felton in the fourth quarter. He added 66 yards on 13 carries, opening the scoring with a 24-yard burst to end Yale’s first possession.

WR Mason Tipton, Sr., 5-11, 187, Akron, Ohio (Archbishop Hoban)

Tipton’s amazing season continued with 10 catches for 130 yards, including one for 41 yards. He leads the Bulldogs with 51 receptions for 755 yards.

RB Joshua Pitsenberger, So., 6-0, 215, Bethesda, Md. (The Avalon School)

After missing most of the first three weeks after getting injured on Yale’s first drive in its opener against Holy Cross, the halfback has made up for lost time. Against the nation’s top run defense, Pitsenberger gained a career-high 131 yards on 28 carries with three touchdowns, including the game-winner in the second overtime.

DB Wande Owens, Sr., 5-11, 209, Cooksville, Md. (Glenelg)

Yale’s captain saved the best for last by personally breaking up fourth-down passing attempts by Princeton to end the first and second overtimes.

Felton’s Recovery Thrills His Teammates

By John Altavilla

On Sept. 30 at Yale Bowl, with 2:19 remaining in the game against Morgan State, quarterback Nolan Grooms connected with senior receiver Joey Felton for a 23-yard touchdown which gave the Bulldogs a 38-3 lead.

As always, the score was well-received by the team, another accomplishment in a game Yale dominated from start to finish. But this touchdown had a deeper meaning for those aware of what Felton had to do to just get on the field that day.

“I told him [Felton] it took everything I could do to not go tackle him in the end zone. I almost cried tears for the kid,” said Jonathan Mendoza, a senior offensive lineman. “It’s an amazing experience, not only to score your first college touchdown, but to understand what you had to go through…For him to go through the trials and tribulations to not only prove to himself, but everyone else, that you could still do this [play] at the highest possible level was definitely huge.”

Two years ago, Felton, a senior receiver and kick returner from Frederick, Md., was in a much different place, the bedroom of his family home, unable to do much more than get out of bed. He had been told by doctors it was unlikely he’d ever play football again at the same level he’d grown accustomed to.

“I started having pain in my lower back in early stages of 2021,” said Felton. “In February [of 2021] I went out and tried to do a few activities and I found that it was causing excruciating pain down my lower back to the leg and into my calf. I had no idea what was going on. I thought I was having hip problems, so I had a few MRIs. It turned out there was nothing wrong with the hip, but you could see from the imaging that a vertebrae presented some concern.

“The doctor initially didn’t know what was going on, so we had another MRI done on my lower back and it turned out that vertebrae had essentially slipped forward which was causing the nerves be completely pinched and my disc was completely disintegrated.”

Felton was told at that point the best thing he could possibly do was try to rehabilitate the back. So he missed the entirety of spring ball and rolled into the summer thinking he just do the same and eventually get back to the field.

“ I was trying my best to communicate with Coach Reno and my (position coaches) about my situation. But by the beginning of August I wasn’t really able to walk without pain. I couldn’t stand longer than 10 minutes. So I took a leave of absence in the fall. It was tough not being around the team and having the pain. I basically couldn’t do more than lay down around my house.”

By the time November rolled around, Felton’s doctors finally decided the best course of action would be surgery. So Felton submitted to a procedure at Johns Hopkins that all felt would be in his best interest.

“I was in the hospital for a week. I couldn’t bathe by myself for a month. I was basically limited to a walker,” said Felton. “It sucked being 21 and really not being able to walk on my own.”

While this was going on, Yale coach Tony Reno and his staff continued to monitor the situation, more concerned, at that point, for Felton’s long-term health than the possible resumption of his career.

“He’s such a competitor,” said Reno. “Once he found out what the injury really was and had the surgery we just supported him as much as we could. We knew it was going to be a long road. We knew he’d been fine at home because he comes from a great family. We knew he’d be OK. And he was working with a great trainer.”

But there was no guarantee Felton would ever be able to resume his career.

“My doctor told me in the spring of 2021 that it was unlikely that I’d ever be able to play (football) again because no one, perhaps maybe a few players in the NFL, had ever come back from that type of injury,” said Felton. “Actually, it wasn’t that I never could play again, but it was made clear that it would be hard to find success.

“But I wanted to try it just for myself. I began to think of it like it was an ACL injury. I looked at my peers and knew that I lot of guys had returned from it. So why not me?”

And so began months of intense physical and emotional reconditioning aimed at getting Felton back on the field as soon as possible.

“I don’t think the team was fully aware of what he was going through,” said Mendoza. “I’ve been one of his closest friends since we came in as freshmen and I didn’t even understand the entire scenario.”

Felton returned to Yale in the spring of 2022, but wasn’t able to participate in anything until he started running in July. He did that for about a month.

“Once we got him back here (to campus), things moved very slowly. There was only so much he could do and I knew he wanted to do more,” said Reno. “He did a great job to stay the course. In the summer, we were concerned about him doing too much too fast. The hardest thing for us was trying to prevent him from going too fast. And then we saw a real change. We saw his speed return. His ability to separate (from defensive backs) was back. He was doing the things he’d done before the injury.”

Said Felton: “It was a lot of struggle. When I completed the conditioning tests. I knew that was a sign (that he was OK). I was just not as fast as I used to be. It was tough knowing what I looked like now as opposed to what it used to be like.

“What it came down was confidence. I was away from football for two years. Our receivers are very skilled. There’s a lot of ability in our room. It was about feeling the confidence that I could play with them. And that takes some time.”

It wasn’t until the 2022 season was underway that Felton finally felt well enough to be cleared to return to the field. He played in eight games, returning 12 kickoffs for an average of 20.3 yards. But while he was whole again physically, there was another mountain to climb, one just as important.

“I felt myself thinking about (reinjuring himself) a little,” said Felton. “I found myself not wanting to catch the ball across the middle. And it wasn’t until I convinced myself to let loose and take the hits that that I was really back. I have to admit it was a little scary at times.

“When I scored my first touchdown here against Morgan State that was a cool moment because the whole team celebrated with me. I’m just happy being back with my best friends and feeling like a normal college student.

“You don’t really love something until you’ve lost it. And I lost football for two years.”

Players Of The Game
QB Nolan Grooms, Sr., 6-2, 194, Lake Wylie, S.C. (The Taft School)
The reigning Ivy League offensive player of the week had another good day, throwing for 220 yards and tying his career-high with four touchdown passes. Bur he also threw two interceptions, one of which returned for a 35-yard TD in the third quarter. Grooms also led the Bulldogs with 102 yards rushing. Grooms has 19 TD passes this season.

WR Mason Tipton, Sr., 5-11, 187, Akron, Ohio (Archbishop Hoban)
Yale’s leading receiver was once again on centerstage. Tipton was targeted 13 times by Grooms. He ended with seven receptions for 123 yards and a career-high three touchdowns; a 41-yarder in the second quarter and third-quarter scores from 35 and 9 yards. Tipton has 10 TD receptions this season.

KR Joey Felton, Sr., 5-9, 183, Frederick, Md. (Linganore)
The speedster had a great day returning kickoffs. He averaged 43.0 yards on three returns, including one for 47 yards.

Reno’s Corner
“Keeping a team’s spirit up starts in the offseason. It’s about the culture. Were so process based. Our team is really tight. The internal fire burns. The reality is we’re a tradition rich program. We’ve got players on this team that have been a part of championship teams. They understand how things are supposed to look, how it supposed to be. They are a driven team. Some schools go into a season hoping to have a good year. Our goal is to be an elite team. When you are chasing something that high, it’s tough, it isn’t easy. You have to expect to have moments of adversity. How to respond is the most important thing.”

Bosman Has Earned The Respect Of His Teammates

By John Altavilla
Every Thursday during the season, Yale’s football team lets off steam at the end of practice by putting the heat on kicker Jack Bosman. To be specific, the drill it runs is called “The Funnel.”

“The person who orchestrates the whole thing is Coach (Tony) Reno,” said Steven Vashel, Yale’s special teams coach. “It requires Jack to go through his process in a very distracting environment. It’s fun and a bit humorous as the team attempts to distract Jack, his holder Shamus Florio and snapper Ben Mann. But it’s also a great way to give the team confidence in Jack to perform under pressure.”

Bosman truly enjoys the tradition and looks forward to it every week.

“We go through this routine where the ball gets placed somewhere on the field by [Florio] and the whole team comes around. It gets loud,” said Bosman. “If you make it (the kick), you’re (the team) done for the day and if you miss, you run a few sprints. It’s good practice each week to replicate some of the intensity from the game.

“Is it more pressure than a game-winning kick? Likely not.”

Ever since Bosman arrived at Yale in 2019, after a tremendous high school career at Santa Fe Christian High in San Diego, his teammates have relied on his three-pronged ability as a kickoff specialist, punter and placekicker.

“I like both skills (kicking and punting) equally,” said Bosman. “They both serve their purposes in a game. Both can be equally necessary in a game situation. So it’s not a situation where one beats out the other.”

Yale’s coaching staff identified Bosman as a high-priority recruit at a summer prospect kicking camp in 2018.

“We were looking for a kicking specialist who was academically strong, athletic and competent in all three phases – placekicking, kicking off and, most importantly, punting as we were attempting to fill the shoes of (punter) Alex Galland,” said Vashel.

“He did really well and the rest is history,” said Reno. ”When he was a freshman, we had Sam Tuckerman (placekicker) here. He was a great kicker for us. But we knew Jack would compete.”

Bosman knew he wanted to be a kicker from his days in middle school.

“I started kicking in 8^th grade and it continued into my freshman year in high school,” said Bosman. “I always played soccer, but I knew I wanted to play football and that (soccer) provided a natural bridge. When I was a freshman in high school, our senior was Jake Bailey, who currently kicks for the Patriots. He went to Stanford and I recognized kicking and punting as a path to that.”

Bosman’s career at Yale began exclusively as a punter. But after the lost pandemic season of 2020, he returned by initially handling all three jobs for the Bulldogs.

“We’ve done it a few times,” said Reno of tasking one player to do all the kicking. “It’s all about putting the best players on the field in their best spots. Last year, Jack handled all three. This year, Shamus Florio has really taken a step forward (as a kickoff specialist) which is important because kickoffs take a lot out of a kicker’s leg. If you take that away from a kicker, it allows him to get really good at the other two things.”

Bosman said he’s worked with his coaches over the years to design a routine to help him maximize practice time without stressing his leg.

“We’ve really perfected it in a way,” said Bosman. “It’s all about how to get better at your craft without taking a swing with your leg.

“And it’s also realizing how to optimize the times when you are using your leg because you know they are going to be limited. A lot of that depends on having a routine. A use a lot of visualization; it’s how do you take reps without really taking them. That’s the name of the game at this point.”

Bosman has truly excelled during his career. He was named to the Ivy League’s second team as a sophomore before earning first team honors last season after making 13 of 17 field goals and 36 of 37 extra points.

“He’s been instrumental in a lot of our success over the last few years,” said Reno. “I put Boz in some really hard situations. I’m not at all concerned about how he’ll handle it for both punting and placekicking. If you look back to last season, I put him into a lot of difficult situations and he was able to come through. A kicker is like a quarterback. You need to be able to handle adversity and move on to your next kick.”

This season, Bosman has already been named the Ivy League’s weekly honor roll for his performance in Yale’s 31-3 win over Sacred Heart on Oct. 14.

A great reason for his success has been Bosman’s ability to put mind over matter, an ability his coaches greatly admire.

“The goal is to have student-athletes who perform with a quiet mind and regardless of outcome and ger oneself on to the next play, said Vashel. “A process is very critical for a kicking specialist. Their skills are very specific. Having a routine gives one  a mechanism to block out distractions when it’s time to lock in and perform.”

And that’s what has made Bosman such an integral member of the Bulldogs during his career. Whether its punting into the wind or rain, or being asked to make a game-winning field goal or extra point, he has figured out a way to get the job done.

 “I follow a routine [when under pressure]. For placekicking, its starts off by focusing on your breathing on the sideline. You figure out what the situation is on the field; what hash are you on, where the wind is,” said Bosman. “A lot of that is actually determined in pregame, especially when it comes down to the wind. Once you get on the field, you pick your target line. And when you take your steps back and to the side you focus on your breathing.

“Then I use a key word as I get ready to go. For me, it’s been ‘showtime’. I worked on that for a while. It’s something that calms me down and gets me ready to perform. You don’t want a lot of technical stuff swirling around in your head. And then, you go out and execute.”

Reno’s Corner

“We continue to improve and get better every week. Some of the tangibles I’d point to is our ability to give great effort on the field and have an incredible presence on the sideline when things don’t go well. We a resiliency that’s really needed to win critical games at this time of the years. These are the trademarks that this team has put together.”

Players Of The Game

QB Nolan Grooms, Sr., 6-2, 194, Lake Wiley, S.C. (Taft School)
Yale’s offensive focal point had another great day.  He completed 26 of 32 passes for 234 yards and one touchdown, a 23-yard strike to his favorite receiver, Mason Tipton in the second quarter. Grooms also led Yale in rushing with 89 yards on 14 carries, including a 13-yard score early in the fourth quarter.

WR Mason Tipton, Sr., 5-11, 187, Akron, Ohio (Archbishop Hoban)
Yale’s leading receiver caught another eight passes for 114 yards, including that touchdown pass from Grooms. Tipton’s longest reception of the day was for 39 yards. He now has 34 catches for 502 yards and seven touchdowns.

RB Joshua Pitsenberger, So., 6-0, 215, Bethesda, MD (The Avalon School)
Pitsenberger’s season got off to a slow start after he was injured during the first series of the first quarter of Yale’s opener against Holy Cross. His efforts to reacclimate himself were rewarded on Saturday by gaining 63 yards on 15 carries and scoring a pair of touchdowns (1 and 3 yards) in the first half.

Alston's Return Proves his Perseverance

By John Altavilla
There was a ton of excitement surrounding running back Spencer Alston heading into the 2022 season after being named as an Ivy League honorable mention the year before.

Alston led Yale with 446 yards rushing yards and eight touchdowns in 2021, so Yale head coach Tony Reno was depending on him to play a major role in last season’s offense. But Alston never had the chance. He injured his collarbone during preseason training camp and was forced to miss the entire season.

“Before he got hurt we were hoping for a continuation of what he accomplished the year before. He had a great season. We were excited about having him come back,” said Reno. “What his role would have been last year would have been determined by the competition in the [running back] room. But he came into the season as our starting halfback.”

Alston said he was originally unconcerned about the injury because he wasn’t experiencing a lot of pain.

“It was weird. When I first was hurt, I still was able to do a lot of things without any thought that too much was going on,” said Alston. “I’d previously injured my AC joint and I thought it [the collarbone injury] was just a residual of that. But one day during the summer [of 2022], the pain lingered longer than it previously had. We had it x-rayed and it [the injury] was caught. If I had gone into the season with it, it could have been a lot worse.”

Understanding that his season was lost, Alston busied himself with rehab and school work, preparing to build upon his previous success this season.

“The idea that I had lost the entire season was a tougher pill to swallow because it would have been a chance to share the field with the senior class I came here with,” said Alston. “That was tough. But the process [of recovery] taught me a lot and helped me keep things in perspective.”

And yet, that would not be the end of Alston’s disappointment. He injured his hamstring in preseason camp, sidelining him for two months and causing him to miss the season opener against Holy Cross.

“He did a great job working through what was a tough injury to get himself back,” said Reno. “And then he did a really nice job in the spring and summer. We were able to get him going and then we had a hiccup when he injured his hamstring.”

Alston returned to the lineup against Cornell on Sept. 23 with eight carries for 57 yards, including a 27-yard burst that excited his teammates.

“It was great to get Spencer back on the field,” said senior receiver Mason Tipton. “It was unfortunate that he had to miss last season and then he got banged up again during preseason camp. We all know what he can do when he get the ball in his hands. I’m really excited for him, and us, that he’s back.”

Reno said he was proud of Alston for all the hard work and perseverance it required to get him back on the field.

“His growth as a person and player since he got here has been incredible,” said Reno. “To go through what he has is just unfair, but he’s handled it with grace, dignity and resolve. He never once been anything but a great teammate.”

Said Alston: “I’m definitely a more mature person who takes things for what they are and concentrates on controlling the controllables. You learn a lot of lessons, like how to respond when you get punched in the mouth. I’ve grown up a lot. I understand that none of us are near to being perfect.”

Now sharing the work load with senior Tre Peterson and sophomore Joshua Pitsenberger, Alston has continued to get stronger and quicker.

“He’s a game-changer and it’s exciting to get him back,” said senior linebacker Joseph Vaughn.

After limited work against Morgan State and Dartmouth, Alston brought back memories against Sacred Heart on Oct. 14 by ripping off a 57-yard run in the fourth quarter of Yale’s 31-3 win. It’s the longest run from scrimmage for the program this season.

“It felt good to get the ball back in my hands, but there’s still a lot of work to do in learning to stay patient and trusting  my blocks,” said Alston, who has 129 yards on 21 carries this season. It’s been two years since I had the chance to play at full game speed. Football will humble you.”

Yale’s Secondary Has Recovered From Injuries

By John Altavilla

Football can be an  unforgiving game and it’s not unusual for a team to be asked to deal with mounting injuries that impact the depth of a particular position.

Yale’s defensive backfield has been hampered all season by injuries to Brandon Benn, Dathan Hickey and Sean Guyton and that’s forced head coach Tony Reno to dig deep for replacements.
Benn hasn’t played since the opener against Holy Cross. Hickey was hurt against Cornell and Guyton couldn’t play until the Dartmouth game. To replace them, Yale has called on a trio of first year players, free safety Osize Daniyan, cornerback Brandon Webster and strong safety Abu Kamara.

“It’s no question that we’ve had to deal with injuries in the secondary, but Osize and Brandon (Webster) have done a great job being sponges, absorbing as much information as possible,” said Yale’s captain, cornerback Wande Owens. “Whether it’s learning through mistakes or speaking to more experienced players on the side, they’ve done a great job taking criticism and coaching points.”
 
Yale greatly benefitted from the return of Guyton, a junior from Los Angeles who was dealing with a pulled hamstring. He had two interceptions at Dartmouth, the first for a 70-yard touchdown. His second iced the 31-24 win late in the fourth quarter. He was selected as the Ivy League’s defensive player of the week.

“Before the touchdown, they kept running a lot of out routes, so the whole time I was just waiting for it to come, waiting for them to throw it,” said Guyton. “They finally threw it and I jumped in front of it.”
Guyton’s 70-yard interception return was the 10th longest in school history and the longest since 2009, when defensive back Adam Money made a 77-yard return against Brown.

“It was really great,” Guyton said. “At first, it was my first game back, and I was a little nervous. Then as the game went on, it was so amazing to be out there, playing aside my teammates, celebrating with them.”
As you might expect, Yale defense will ultimately benefit from the experience its younger players have received.

“The upperclassmen have been trying to do our best with being great facilitators of information,” said Jermaine Baker, a senior linebacker. “We give them as much information as we can help them with film study. It’s been extremely impressive. I’ve been thinking about how I would have handled it as a freshman and all I can say is ‘wow.’ . … I’m super proud of them.”

 Reno’s corner

“The sense of history surrounding this program is very important to the players. We number our teams for a number of reasons, one of which is build the pride the players have for the team they are playing on. They understand that each team is independent and is a guardian for the rich tradition of Yale football. The idea is to build on that tradition every year. …You don’t rely on it, you build upon it.”
Players of the Game

QB Nolan Grooms, Sr., 6-2, 194, Lake Wylie, S.C. (Taft School)
Grooms was under a lot of pressure all day and was sacked four times for a net loss of 17 yards. But he was also the team’s lone standout on offense, throwing for 121 yards and two touchdowns and adding 61 yards rushing on 12 careers, his longest for 44 yards.

LB Joseph Vaughn, Sr., 6-3, 238, San Jose, Calif. (Archbishop Mitty School)
Penn did a pretty good job of solving Yale’s defense, but Vaughn was all over the field with 12 tackles and one sack.

Passing Game Defines Yale’s Success

By John Altavilla
During Carm Cozza’s era at Yale, offensive football had a much different dynamic. Back then, it was expected games would be won or lost in the trenches where great running attacks were unleashed. And that brought names like Dick Jauron, Calvin Hill, Rich Diana and John Pagliaro into focus.

But that began to change once Cozza retired following the 1996 season. Under the tutelage of Jack Siedlecki, Tom Williams and, most recently, Tony Reno, the Bulldogs took flight.

“The passing game wasn’t a huge piece of football,” said Reno. “Once we came here [in 2012], I really wanted to have a spread offense  It took us some time to get there, in terms of personnel. We started recruiting receivers who could do things. We’re at that point now where we’ll be able recruit really good quarterbacks and receivers to help the passing game move forward.”

Watching Yale’s offense is knowing that the Bulldogs really love to throw the ball. And during his time at Yale, Reno has been blessed with quarterbacks capable of doing so – Morgan Roberts, Kurt Rawlings and now Nolan Grooms.

“It makes driving the field so much easier,” said Reno. “It’s hard to do that when you are doing it three plays at a time for 10 yards. Picking up chunks of yardage really helps you score points. And we feel you need to score points to succeed in this league.

Yale’s Ivy League championship team in 2022 led the league in both points (303) and offensive yardage (4,125). This season, after consecutive losses to Holy Cross and Cornell kicked off the year, Yale began to shift its sights on the things it does best.

“We really opened up the pass game against Morgan State {a 45-3 win],” said Reno. “We felt we needed to do that to be the best version of ourselves. I feel really confident in our receivers, and Nolan as well, to make the right decision and make plays in space. Mason Tipton, Ryan Lindley, Chase Nenad and Mason Shipp are as good as it gets in this league. They’ve done it for a long time. They were huge parts of our championship team last year. Getting the ball to them and allowing them to make plays in space is a big part our success.”

Reno’s impact on Yale’s passing attack is clear once you thumb through the record book. In just 12 seasons, four of the Bulldogs’  top 10 receivers in terms of career yardage have played for him – Reed Klubnik (2,627 yards) is first followed by JP Shohfi (2,501). Deon Randall, who made 219 catches in his career, is fourth (2,320) and Grant Wallace (1,923) is sixth.

“We look for the ability to make contested catches,” said Reno in terms of what his staff looks for in receivers. “A lot of guys can make plays when no one is there – it’s a lot like making a free throw. But how good are they at the break point? There’s a of guys that are really fast, but struggle to make breaks [in pass routes] and develop into a one trick pony. The other point is how they catch the ball. A lot of players are body catchers. And if they are, do they also show the ability to catch with their hands.”

This season, Yale features a corps of special receivers, led by seniors Mason Tipton and Ryan Lindley.  Lindley leads the Bulldogs with 25 catches for 260 yards and three touchdowns. Lindley caught seven passes for a career-high 128 yards at Dartmouth., including a game-winning 69-yard pitch and catch with Grooms.

“Having the ball in my hands in a privilege,” said Lindley. “The main thing we preach here is ball security. Once that’s accounted for, then get as many yards as you can. Coach Reno allows us to do that. To some fun with the ball in your hands is the beauty of it.”
 
Mason Tipton has 23 catches for 292 yards. Tipton’s 40-yard touchdown reception ended Yale’s first drive in last Saturday’s 31-3 win over Sacred Heart. It was his team-leading sixth TD catch of the season.
 
“The depth of our room is what sets us apart. Each guy plays a key role,” said Tipton. “Players like Mason Shipp and Chase Nenad play huge roles and both are phenomenal playmakers on the outside. Ryan and Joey Felton are both explosive guys that find their success in the slot position. Our depth allows us to play fast and give it our all every down. 
 
“Ryan's success on the inside [slot] plays an instrumental part in spreading the field. When he has big games, it tells defenses that they have to be aware of where he is on the field, which allows me to see more single coverage. He and I play off of each other. When we are both able to have single coverage, the sky is the limit.”
 
Tipton was a freshman in 2019 when Rawlings, without question the greatest quarterback in program history, teamed with Klubnik and Shohfi to set records. He even had four touchdown receptions that season.
 
“I was able to be a part of team 147 and play alongside Shofhi, Klubnik, and Rawlings,” said Tipton. “ Similar to how I view Lindley, it was key that JP and Reed spread the defense so that the opposition couldn't key on one particular player. Kurt had a tremendous amount of trust in those two and it shined on gameday. Similarly, I'm fortunate enough to play alongside Nolan, who can do everything the QB position asks for. The success he's seen in this league speaks for itself. Having a player such as himself at QB makes my job much easier.”
 
Grooms, the Ivy League’s reigning offensive player of the year, is off to another outstanding start with 966 passing yards for 12 touchdowns in Yale’s first five games.
 
“Throughout my career here I have been super blessed to play with outstanding receivers who are able to stretch the field both horizontally and vertically,” said Grooms. “ You look at Melvin Rouse and Darion Carrington; the list goes on and on.  This year in particular we have a stable of guys that we feel really confident in.”
 
“Mason Tipton has been a four-year starter, we came in together within the same recruiting class, and he possesses the ability to score anytime he touches the ball. We feel like anytime we have him in a situation where he is isolated, he is going to win and win big. 
 
“ Lindley is a player who has really come on for us within the last calendar year.   He possesses a certain twitch that is extremely rare for a receiver to have, and is one of the most knowledgeable players I have played with when it comes to finding space, getting his guy turned around, and making people miss when he does possess the ball.  Mason Shipp, Joey Felton, and Chase Nenad are all players that have extremely high ceilings as well, and who continue to make plays for us on a weekly basis.”
 
Reno’s Corner
 
“Things happen in time during the season. You really can’t predict when something will happen that you can grab onto or it might pass. The Dartmouth game was a situation the team decided on hold onto. It pushed the team forward and enabled it to chase what it is we want to do, which is win every week. There’s a lot of momentum with the team, but we still have a lot of work to do.”
 
Players of the Game
 
QB Nolan Grooms, Sr., 6-2, 194, Lake Wylie, S.C. (Taft School)
It wasn’t a typical day for Yale’s alpha male. He completed only 10 passes for 123 yards with one interception while adding just 28 yards rushing. But three of his completions were for touchdowns.
 
WR Mason Tipton, Sr., 5-11, 187, Akron, Ohio (Archbishop Hoban)
Tipton and Ryan Lindley led Yale with just three receptions each. But Tipton scored a pair of touchdowns on 40-yard pass from Grooms on Yale’s first possession and a 15-yard run in the second quarter.
 

TEAM 150 KNEW OWENS WOULD BE THE PERFECT CAPTAIN By John Altavilla
When the underclassmen debated about who would captain Yale’s 150^th team in 2023, the group was reminded of a teammate who seemingly stood out in the crowd from the day he walked onto campus.

That’s the type of impact defensive back Wande Owens has had on the football program

“I knew I was one of the candidate towards the end of last year,” said Owens. “I did have some inkling. There was some casual conversations about it; people were joking around about it. But I finally began to realize that it really could happen.”

Those who have known Owens since their freshman season were particularly partial to him.

“Ever since we came here as freshman, Wande has been a model of what a Yale football player is,” said senior quarterback Nolan Grooms. “He was light years ahead of us in terms of maturity. He’s a great role model for the kids coming in this season. He’s done a great job and I’m excited to see where it all leads this year.”

Yale coach Tony Reno has learned over the years not to play favorites when it comes to who his captain will be. The great Carm Cozza, Yale’s legendary former head coach, assured him that the players always manage to make the right pick.

“I’m so focused on the season,” said Reno. “We finished our last game [at Harvard] at about 4 o’clock. I wasn’t even thinking about the captain’s vote until they came to me and told me who it was. I trust the guys [the players]. Among the great leaders we have in this [senior] class, Wande is an exceptional choice. I just wait for the white smoke. And then we go from there.”

As a football player, Owens has excelled at Yale. Last season, he was a first team All-Ivy selection at cornerback along with being named to the New England Football Writers Association’s All-New England team. He tied for the team lead with 63 tackles, including six for a loss to go with his one sack. This was a great follow-up to the 2021 season when he was named to the Ivy’s second team.

“What’s my vision? The goal is to work hard to become an elite team,” said Owens. “My job obliviously is to lead the team, but it’s also my responsibility to develop other leaders. The idea is bring everyone around to help us accomplish a common goal.”

Owens had a standout high school career as a running back at Glenelg High in Maryland. He was a two-time Howard County offensive player of the year and by the time he graduated had accumulated 6,381 yards rushing with 82 touchdowns. But once he arrived at Yale, Reno and his staff determined his skill set best suited the defense.

“We knew he had skills on the offensive side, but we quickly came to realize that he could be a defensive back,” said Reno.
After some initial disappointment about the decision, Owens focused his attention on more important things.

“I just wanted to play college football,” said Owens. “I admit I was a little bummed out about the transition, but I quickly got used to it.”

Reno said that once Owens acclimated himself to the position, he quickly worked his way up the depth chart, never again tempted to look behind.

“I consider myself and my captain just small pieces of the whole,” said Reno. “Our job is to help others become better leaders and foster leadership on the team and he has done a great job with that. He’s someone who knows how to pull on the levers of other players. Remember, we’re talking about 120 different guys representing four different classes that all have different personalities. The more guys who can develop to have position impression on the team, the better off you are.”

As you might suspect from someone with Owens’ character, he has immersed himself in a number of activities on and off the field. He’s a computer science major and over the last two summers he interned for GoDaddy, where he helped develop web applications.

This season, he was selected as Yale’s nominee for the William V. Campbell Award, which honors college football’s top student-athlete. Last summer, he worked as an office assistant in Yale’s athletic department where he helped raise funds for the school’s football association.

“He holds himself to an unimaginable standard. If you knew the standard he holds himself to you might think he was crazy,” said senior halfback Tre Peterson. “It’s the grind, the expectation that you will give it your all on every single play. It’s the idea that you will do your job on every single play whatever the circumstances are and whomever may be watching. But that’s him. And that’s what the remainder of the team will follow. It’s about doing all you can do to bringing the guys behind you along with you while being a student of the game.”

Owens said his dream is to play in the NFL, and with the number of scouts who watch film and regularly turn out to see the Bulldogs play, there’s no reason to believe that someone with his dedication and drive wouldn’t get at least the chance.

“When as a class you look at who should be the captain, you chose the person you respect the most, one who embodies the standard of Yale football the most,” said senior defensive lineman Clay Patterson. “From the beginning, he’s been the same guy. He never misses anything, he’s never had any issues. He’s performed on the field and he’s always disciplined. He gained the respect from everyone and as the new classes arrived, they noticed the same thing.”

Reno’s Corner:
“We’re a small piece of 150 years of great tradition. Sometimes, things go fast in life. You embrace moments like these. You take the time to cherish the place we’re at. Our job is to continue to build upon this incredible tradition and legacy.”

Players of the Game
DB Sean Guyton, Jr., 5-11, 193, Los Angeles, Calif. (Choate Rosemary Hall)
Playing for the first time this season, Guyton carried the Bulldogs to victory with a pair of interceptions, the first for a 70-yard touchdown in the first quarter, the second to seal the win late in the fourth.
LB Joseph Vaughn, Sr., 6-3, 238, San Jose, Calif. (Archbishop Mitty School)
On a day when the Bulldogs had some problems getting Dartmouth off the field, Yale’s leading tackler on the season had another amazing day with a game-high 15 stops.
WR Ryan Lindley, Sr., 5-10, 185, Austin, Texas (Westlake)
Yale had just 275 yards of offense against Dartmouth, but don’t blame Lindley (seven catches, 128 yards) who had one catch for 38 and another for a 69-yard touchdown that proved to be the game-winner.


YALE DIDN'T LET ADVERSITY AFFECT IT

By John Altavilla

It certainly would have been more convenient for Yale’s football team had it not started its season with two losses, including its disappointing defeat against Cornell in its Ivy League opener on Sept. 23 at Yale Bowl.

Losing to the Big Red for the first time in five years not only knocked the program a bit off-kilter, it put an immediate crimp in its goal to repeat as Ivy League champions. Rarely does a team with two conference losses compete for the title.

“The Ivy League championship is the last thing on my mind right now,” said Yale coach Tony Reno. “Every year I look at it like if you do everything right someone will give you a trophy at the end. We’ll see what happens in November.”

Instead of moping around, the Bulldogs got back to business in the days leading up to last Saturday’s game against Morgan State. And the way the team has responded has excited their coach.

“The team was coming off a tough loss [against Cornell), but we’re really excited about how our team responded to a loss and where we are,” said Reno. “I feel really good about where we’re headed. It’s a long season…I think the most important thing is to focus on ourselves and our improvement individually as players and coaches, but also collectively as one. We’re looking forward to forming our identity over the course of last eight weeks.”

The players came to work last week in the proper frame of mind, replacing whatever negatives remained with a positive framework.

“The energy was very good,” said senior receiver Mason Tipton, who had nine receptions for 136 yards and one touchdown in the 45-3 win over Morgan State. “The team was in great spirits. We were ready to roll. We turned the page. We’re on the same page. It’s tough coming off a day like that, especially against Cornell, against who we felt we could come out with the win. We had to learn a lesson, but we’re focused on taking it day by day.”

Reno understands there had been problem areas – missed defensive assignments and scoring opportunities and ill-timed penalties.

“I think we were frustrated that we weren’t taking care of what we needed to take care of, the standard on the offense we weren’t meeting [against Cornell),” said Tipton.

 But Reno considered all of Yale’s issues as fixable and it showed in the overwhelming performance against Jackson State.

“The most important thing for me was to understand who we are and what we need to do to move forward. We talk about the concept of 90-10. Ninety percent of time we focus on solving a problem. And the last 10 percent is spent on the problem itself. I think we did a little bit of both on Sunday [after the Cornell game] and I felt good about where we are when I came out the meeting,” said Reno. “We had one of the best Sunday practices we’ve had from an energy perspective. Our guys made a decision to play football at Yale. We have a target on our back every week, which is why you come here to play. You want to be a team that chases elite every year. But with that comes responsibility and obligation to play together as a unit. We need to earn it every week.”

“We have a very good team that hasn’t hit where we need to be yet. We haven’t even come close to our ceiling … We need to close the circle and focus on ourselves and not worry about any of the outside noise, and when we do that, we’ll have a chance to be really good.”  

There’s no question many positives came from the Jackson State game. And now the Bulldogs can prepare for Dartmouth this week with a sense of satisfaction.

“Getting back to who we are is the most important thing right now and taking it one day at a time and one game at a time,” said senior linebacker Joseph Vaughn. “[It’s] not being discouraged by looking too far in the future or too far in the past, but focusing on the now…What benefits us in situations like these is we have a lot of guys that are capable of leading. Nobody’s shoulders are too heavy.”

Yale-Morgan State: A Celebration

 As Calvin Hill walked around the Yale campus last weekend, he was trying to remember the last time he’d been to New Haven. He thought maybe it was in 2017 when the university offered him an honorary degree.

But once he began touring the place again, especially when he stepped foot in the Yale Bowl last Saturday, the memories came rushing back.

“There are so many [memories],” said Hill, who spoke to the football team after its 45-3 win over Morgan State. “Just driving around the campus I started to think about the people, the professors, exams. All the things that are a part of the college experience.

“When I first arrived to play football, the big emphasis was to become a Yale man. That’s what I wanted to do. In football, you fall down, get knocked down, then you pick yourself up. The same thing happens in lots of other areas, socially, academically. …I just think back to the great four years and the lessons I learned from failing and winning and the people who were associated with that.”

The NAACP Harmony Classic lured many dignitaries to Yale Bowl. Hill, an All-American at Yale in 1968 and a two-time first team All-Ivy selection, served as the Bulldogs’ honorary captain. Mark Washington, a 1970 Morgan State graduate who played with Hill on the Dallas Cowboys for five seasons, was the honorary captain for the Bears.

“Having Calvin Hill and Mark Washington here wasn’t a part of the original conversation,” admitted Yale coach Tony Reno. “I was at an alumni event in Washington, D.C. and saw Calvin and Mark, who were there together as friends. Calvin and I have developed a great relationship and we started talking. He mentioned to me that Mark had played at Morgan State. I told Calvin that it would be great to have them come up for the game.”

Yale also took the time to honor the memory of Levi Jackson, who in 1949 not only became the first black captain for the Bulldogs, but the first black man to captain any varsity sport in the Ivy League. Jackson attended Hillhouse High in New Haven.

“I never met Levi,” said Hill. “But I was certainly inspired by him. I knew whose shoulders I was standing on. I can imagine how difficult it was for him, given the time and period of American history. He didn’t give up.”

The idea to honor Jackson came from of Yale’s current players.

“Bennie Anderson, one of our offensive lineman, came up to me during the offseason to ask if there had been any discussions about trying to have some events take place around our games,” said Reno. “He brought the idea of honoring Levi Jackson. I thought it was a great idea. Benny worked with his teammates and we were able to invite one of his daughters to the game. It’s a great thing for Yale football.”

Hill said he felt great happiness for the 150^th Yale football team.

“They are part of a great tradition; not just the stars, but everyone who has suited up,” said Hill. “They have made Yale football what it is.”

Reno’s Corner

“We’re very familiar with playing gritty football. We’re kind of, as you say, gritty not pretty. We like the muck, that’s who we are. We like the muck and that’s how we play. That’s how we do things, we love adversity.”

Players Of The Game

QB Nolan Grooms, Sr., 6-2, 194, Lake Wylie, S.C. (Taft School)

The Ivy League’s reigning offensive player of the year had a tremendous game against Morgan State. He threw for a career-high 363 yards and four touchdowns in just three quarters of action. He also led the Bulldogs with 87 yards rushing, including a 23-yard gain.

WR Mason Tipton, Sr., 5-11, 187, Akron, Ohio (Archbishop Hoban)

Following a solid performance against Cornell, Tipton caught a career-high nine passes for 136 yards, including a spectacular leaping catch for a 33-yard touchdown in the third quarter. He now has 15 catches for 248 yards and three TDs this season.

WR Ryan Lindley, Sr., 5-10, 185, Austin, Tex. (Westlake)

Yale had nine players catch at least one pass against Morgan State and Lindley tied Tipton with nine receptions and one touchdown, a 31-yarder with 17 seconds to play in the first half. He also led the receivers with 62 yards after the catch.

GROOMS WANTS TO REACH GREATER HEIGHTS

By John Altavilla
Not long after Yale’s disappointing loss to Holy Cross, Yale coach Tony Reno didn’t have to wait long to hear from his starting quarterback Nolan Grooms.

“Our guys are so driven to be successful for each other,” said Reno. “After the Holy Cross game, the first thing he said to me was about the four plays he missed. That’s what makes him so good. Our players are always chasing the elite status.”

No player in the Ivy League approached elite status in 2022 more than Grooms, Yale accomplished senior quarterback. He won the Asa S. Bushnell Cup as the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year after earning first team All-Ivy recognition after helping lead the Bulldogs to an outright Ivy League championship.

 Grooms finished second in the league in rushing with 726 yards while throwing for 1,660 yards. He accounted for 20 total touchdowns - 14 through the air and six on the ground. His top rushing performance came against Princeton when he carried 20 times for 152 yards. His top passing game came against Columbia when he threw for 346 yards and four touchdowns.

“Remember, I coached Kurt Rawlings and neither of those guys (Grooms included) minded getting hit,” said Reno about Grooms’ affinity for scrambling for yardage. “That’s what makes Nolan who he is. You have to let him play his game. He’s smart. He’s taking fewer hits. He’s diving for additional yards. And he’s a really good runner.”

The son of a coach, Grooms is one of the most competitive players on the Bulldogs. Despite his fantastic season, he stayed in New Haven over the summer with about 80 of his teammates and worked every day to make himself a better player.

“Obviously we had a great year, especially on offense, but going back and watching some of the games I felt like we missed out on a ton of things, too,” said Grooms. “I feel our intermediate short passing game wasn’t what it should have been,  I was a step late on some throws. That was one of my main focuses during the fall, spring and summer. I needed to get my feet right in anticipation of making throws. If we can take that step as an offense, we’ll be so much better.”

Grooms began the season named the preseason watch list for the 2023 Walter Payton Award which is given annually to the national offensive player of the year in Division I FCS college football.

You’ll recall that Grooms took over as Yale’s starting quarterback as a sophomore in 2021 when he replaced starter Griffin O’Connor to begin the third quarter of the Bulldogs game at UConn. O’Connor, who had been sitting behind Rawlings, the Ivy League’s offensive player of the year in 2020, was coming off a season during which he set a school record for most passing yards in a game.

Up to that point, Reno was getting Grooms into games by designing specific players to take advantage of his rushing skills, much in the same way former New Orleans Saints coach used Taysom Hill to complement his star, Drew Brees.

“I felt when we recruited him that we would get to the point where he’d be able to run our team. Like all of our best quarterbacks, Nolan had the ‘it factor.’ He’s super competitive,” said Reno. “He and I get into it every so often because we are both so competitive. But that’s a good thing. It’s way I am with my two sons, especially my oldest one. It’s great. What makes Nolan such a great player is that he plays with an edge.”

Grooms celebrated his first career start against Penn by accounting for four total touchdowns, earning himself recognition as the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week. Grooms finished the game with 283 passing yards, two touchdowns, and just the one interception. He added a team high 113 rushing yards and two touchdowns.

“I really pride myself on being a passer first,” said Grooms that day. “But then, once stuff breaks down, you gotta be able to move a little bit, so I got to be decisive … I got to keep working, gotta keep my eyes downfield as a passer, but as soon as I personally pass the line of scrimmage, it’s time to go.”

Even though he’s evolved into one of the finest quarterbacks in Yale history, Grooms admits that he’s had some problems along the way,

”It hasn’t always been easy. Even at the beginning of last year, I had my troubles for a bit. But it’s easier when you know you have 100 of your closest friends there beside you. Last year, I lived with eight other football players and this year I’m with five. To be able to go home and be with those guys has really helped me out a ton,” Grooms said.

Even though Yale is 0-2, Grooms has performed well even though you might conclude that opponents now know what to expect from him.

“I got my first start with five games remaining in my sophomore year and we had a lot of success,” admitted Grooms. “The Ivy League had tape on me, they knew the type of player I had the potential to be. I’m sure I’ll  get some different looks this year. I don’t necessarily believe I was under the radar last season.”

Reno knows that his quarterback will spend his senior season trying to reach new heights in terms of his performance.

“After he has so much success last season it was not so much about what I told Nolan as it was about what Nolan told me,” said Reno. “We both knew there was room for improvement, a higher ceiling to achieve. Give Nolan credit for being the one who has chased it. He’s done a great job of improving. From a passing point of view, he’s at a level that he’s never been at before.”

Players Of The Game
QB Nolan Grooms, Sr., 6-2, 194, Lake Wiley, S.C. (Taft School): The reigning Ivy League offensive player of the year threw for 129 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 76 yards. The touchdown passes went to Chase Nenad (48 yards) and Mason Tipton (30 yards).
LB Joseph Vaughn, Sr., 6-3, 238, San Jose, Calif. (Archbishop Mitty School): On day when Cornell controlled the ball for 38:41, Vaughn was a highlight reel. He led the Bulldogs with 12 tackles, two for losses and had one forced fumble and one sack.

TEAM 150 HAS A STRONG CORE

By John Altavilla
Not long after Yale wrapped up its Ivy League championship by beating Harvard last November, the program immediately shifted into its next phase – getting Team 150 ready for its title defense.
“The team has done a great job, beginning from last November, to get itself to this point,” Yale head coach Tony Reno said. “We’ve had a chance to work together as a team and work to develop relationships. Our freshman arrived over the summer to join the group and have done an excellent job of acclimating themselves to our culture and environment. The team is in a good place right now. We truly believe that we play a game against ourselves every week. That hasn’t changed. So it remains - how can we do our best to play Yale football.”
Yale’s championship left an indelible impression, not only on their league opponents, but on the 16 media representatives who voted this year in the Ivy’s preseason poll. The Bulldogs were picked to finish first, receiving 13 first-place votes and 122 points. Princeton, Harvard and Columbia each received one first-place vote.
The reason is clear. Yale, which led the league in rushing and total offense, returns a strong core of veteran players, 22 fifth-year seniors who have helped facilitate the ascension of the program. And there are five 2022 first-team players who return – defensive back Wande Owens, kicker Jack Bosman, offensive lineman Kiran Amegadjie, quarterback Nolan Grooms and rising sophomore running back, Joshua Pitsenberger, who made such an outstanding impression as a freshman.
“It very nice when people recognize the players you have. A lot of those polls are based on how you did the year before. But it’s nice that people think so highly of you,” said Reno. “But the most important thing for us is what we do on the field. We’re focused on ourselves and putting the best product out there every day.
Perhaps Yale’s top players this season will be Grooms, Yale’s starting quarterback since the middle of his sophomore season, and Amegadjie, its massive (6-5, 318) offensive tackle.
Amegadjie has been selected to The Watch List for the 2024 Senior Bowl, college football premier all-star game in Mobile, Ala. If he’s ultimately selected to play in the game he will be further evaluated by the coaches, scouts and front office personnel from all 32 NFL teams. Why is this important? Since 2021, over 40 percent of the league’s entire draft class participated in the Senior Bowl.
Amegadjie has also was named a preseason All-American by Stats Perform and analyst Phil Steele, who selected him as the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year. One national scouting service even ranked him as the top prospect in the FCS.
Joining Amegadjie on Steele's preseason first team are: Grooms, Pitsenberger, halfback Tre Petersen, wide receiver Mason Tipton, offensive lineman Jonathan Mendoza, defensive lineman Clay Paterson, linebacker Hamilton Moore, defensive back Wande Owens (Yale’s captain) and Bosman, who was selected as both the first team placekicker and punter.
“My vision [for the team] is this pyramid of who we are and everything we do,” said Owens. “At the top it says ‘150 being an elite team,’ and that’s the goal we’re working towards.”
Grooms, the Ivy League’s Offensive Player of the year in 2022, has been named to the preseason watch list for the 2023 Walter Payton Award, given annually to the national offensive player of the year in Division I FCS college football.
What’s clear is that Grooms, will have a number of talented teammates on the offense. His only problem may be giving each of his receivers and running backs equal time to show their talents.
Yale returns halfbacks Peterson (72.4) and Pitsenberger and Spencer Alston, who scored nine touchdowns in 2021, returns after missing all of last season due to injury. Yale’s top two receivers, David Pantelis and Tipton, also return.
“It’s hard,” said Grooms. “There’s only one ball to go around. But what’s made us so successful is that we’ve been able be so physical off the ball. We have big offensive linemen. Our offensive tackles are both 6-5, 300 plus. You look at our running back room. We feel we have five or six guys who can get the job done. That right there is the identity of our offense. When you have something like that it makes it a lot easier on me.”
And if all that wasn’t enough, Yale’s 10-game schedule this season is highlighted by seven home games, including Harvard.
“It’s great to be able to play at home and one of the things I enjoy the most is that everyone [in the program] gets to be on the sidelines. We’’ll have the whole family with us to support us,” said Owens.



SENIOR CLASS LED BY EXAMPLE
By John Altavilla
During his time as the head football coach at Yale, Tony Reno has leaned on a number of axioms to inspire his players.
 
One of his favorites reminds his Bulldogs they’re expected to plant trees they likely will never see grow.
 
“Another thing coach likes to say is “Leave the jersey better than you found it,” said Elliott McElwain, Yale’s senior halfback. “Whatever you can do to accomplish that we’ll be your legacy.”
 
At Yale, preparing for the future is just as important as producing in the present. And to accomplish this, Reno always turns to his seniors to provide leadership and guidance to his younger players.
 
“They are my brothers,” said Kyle Ellis, a senior defensive back. “The thing I’m going to remember the most is the bond I have with them.”
 
As proud as he is about the accomplishments of Yale’s Team 149, the Ivy League champions, Reno says he’s even more appreciative of the off-the-field efforts his seniors have made to bring along the Bulldogs younger players.
 
“The senior class has personified the adage about planting trees you might never see grow. They understand how important it is to build relationships even before you can begin to lead people,” said Reno. “It’s hard to lead people without a relationship. Then it becomes about doing something because you have to other than because you want to. There’s a genuine feeling [on this team] that you want to do something for them.
 
“This class has an incredible understanding of who we are and what we want to be moving forward. It’s up to each team to honor that and help it grow. I guarantee you that a year or two from now people will be talking about the kind of impact people like Reid Nickerson and Nick Gargiulo (Yale’s captain) have had on them.”
 
When he was a freshman, Yale sophomore receiver David Pantelis was looking for some guidance, someone to answer questions he had about how best to assimilate himself into the culture of the historic campus. He found a friend in a senior receiver named Melvin Rouse.
 
“Coming into the program, one of the players in front of me (on the depth chart) was Melvin. He was a mentor for me throughout the entire season. He was a vocal leader and anything he said I just kind of absorbed like a sponge,” said Pantelis, who is now one of Yale’s stalwarts. “He was the guy who helped me get to the point where I am now. He helped me with my playbook. He was one of the guys off the field who helped me with what classes I should be taking.
 
“Melvin was a great balance of off- and on-the-field character. That’s kind of why I was able to pick up as much as I did last year. He taught me how to be a Yale football player, how to be a student-athlete. It was a great experience and I thank him a lot for what he did. He’s a great friend who was there when I needed him. He was someone I could trust.”
 
This senior class is filled with players like Rouse; always willing to lend a helpful hand or a word of encouragement. But it’s also a class with its share of star players. The most accomplished player among the seniors is defensive lineman Oso Ifesinachukwu, who is considered an NFL prospect.
 
Oso has been named a finalist for the 2022 William V. Campbell Trophy, college football's premier scholar-athlete award that annually recognizes an individual as the absolute best in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership. Yale has only had 13 nominees for this award in its history.
 
A leader on and off the field, Ifesinachukwu’s goal has been to inspire people through his hard work, football skills and his art. A biomedical engineering major, Ifesinachukwu boasts a 3.67 GPA and is interested in pursuing a medical degree with a focus on oncology. Before he suffered a season-ending knee injury against Bucknell, he was leading Yale with four sacks and five tackles for loss.
 
 
In 2019, when he was a freshman, Ifesinachukwu helped guide Yale to a share of the Ivy League title while recording 28 tackles, seven tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks. Ifesinachukwu was limited to six games in 2021 due to an injury but posted a career-high seven tackles against Holy Cross. He has recorded 62 tackles, 15 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks in his Yale career.
 
 
Even players like Ifesinachukwu, a legitimate star, make it a habit to help their younger teammates.
 
 
“The biggest impact the senior class has had on me is its ability to be in a leadership and do the right things and still maintaining close friendship regardless of your age,” said junior defensive lineman Clay Patterson. “It’s not about being hard or critical or judgmental. It’s more about being a peer even though they are older than you. You respect their leadership. They mesh well with everyone.
 
 
“Perhaps across the country, with a lot of programs, you might say it is a little intimidating to interact with the seniors when you are a freshman. Here our upper classmen and seniors do a great job integrating the freshmen.”
 
McElwain said that’s been the plan all along.
 
“They ask us about what classes to take all the time, where to go to eat, how do get on the field – there’s all types of questions,” he said. “One of the things we talked about as a senior class was to make sure this would be the easiest transition freshmen have ever had since we’ve been here. Guys (seniors) have stepped up in front of the team.
 
“It’s about doing whatever you can to make sure the younger guys are buying in and following along. And you do that by providing a good example. What you need to do to bring them along, you do it.”
 
It’s hard for Reno to contain his enthusiasm when he’s asked about his seniors. And what makes him the proudest is knowing none of them needed to coaxed to do what they could to make the program better.
 
“My wife says all the time that they are on auto pilot. They are so good, you only need to help them with a little guidance. We are a player-led team, but that doesn’t happen just by saying it. We work on leadership from the time the players are freshmen,” said Reno. “These guys have been working their craft since the time they arrived. They are great leaders. They understand the mission and the vision and how important it is to bring Yale football forward. When they come back [to visit] they take pride in the players they helped influence.”
 
Yale alumni can take pride in knowing that this group of seniors honored its duty by planting trees it would never see grow, by leaving the jersey better than they found it.
 
“I’ve had so much fun coaching. You know, in life you’re going to have success and learning opportunities,” said Reno. “But the day in and day out with this team has been pretty amazing. This class is leaving Yale football better than they found it. And that’s no small thing when you’ve been doing it for 149 years.”

OWENS NAMED CAPTAIN
One day after capturing the outright Ivy League championship, Yale selected defensive back Wande Owens of  Cooksville, Md., as its next captain.
 
"I am honored and humbled to be elected captain," said Owens after the selection was announced at the team banquet. "It's a new page and a new mission. We have an incredible opportunity to come back and do the same thing again."
 
Owens appeared in all 10 games this fall and tied for the team lead with 63 tackles. He also added one sack and six tackles for loss. In 2021, Owens was a second-team All-Ivy selection after placing third on the team with 26 solo tackles. He also had eight pass breakups and two interceptions.
  
"Wande is going to do an amazing job," said Yale coach Tony Reno. "He's had a great example in Nick (Gargiulo, the outgoing captain) and this year's senior class, who really raised the standard of leadership at Yale. Wande understands how important it is to have incorporative leadership, and he will do an outstanding job."

YALE ANNOUNCES TEAM AWARDS
Team 149 gathered at the Schwarzman Center last Sunday for its annual postseason banquet. The Bulldogs honored their senior class, while celebrating the program’s third Ivy title in the last five years. Among the many special guests was Yale President Peter Salovey.
 
In addition, 16 team awards were handed out:
 
Greg Dubinetz Award
Awarded to a lineman on the Yale football team who best exemplifies Gregory George Dubniez' spirit as a player and qualities as a person.
Honorees: Cubby Schuller, Tate Goodyear
 
Hammer Award
Awarded to members on the team who has displayed exceptional physical contact.
Honorees: Pat Nauert, Noah Pope
 
Charles Loftus Award
Donated by the New Haven Gridiron Club, this award recognizes the most valuable First Year player on the team.
Honoree: Joshua Pitsenberger
 
James Keppel Award
Given to the offensive back who best exhibited Jim's work ethic, pride and dedication to Yale Football, as well as his ability to enrich the lives of his friends and teammates.
Honorees: Elliott McElwain, Jaylan Sandifer
 
Special Teams Award
Awarded to a member on the team who has displayed exceptional ability in the area of Special Teams.
Honoree: Garry Raymond
 
Ledyard Mitchell Award
Class of 1904 dedicated the award in honor of Ledyard Mitchell. Awarded to a specialist for proficiency in kicking, punting, or long snapping.
Honorees:  Shane Frommer, Kennedy Kosmalski
 
D-Line Award
Awarded to a member on the team who has displayed exceptional ability on the Defensive Line.
Honorees:  Osorachukwu Ifesinachukwu, Reid Nickerson
 
Norman S. Hall Memorial Trophy
Established from gifts made in 1937 to a committee of classmates in memory of Norman S Hall, class of 1930. Awarded to a player for outstanding service to Yale Football.
Honoree: Miles Oldacre
 
Chester J. Laroche Award
Given to the senior on the squad, who by his character and academic talents, has given the most to Yale.
Honoree:  Osorachukwu Ifesinachukwu
 
Fredric Woodrow "Woody" Knapp Memorial Trophy
To the memory of Lieutenant Frederick Woodrow Knapp, Attack Squadron 164 U.S. Navy, who so gallantly gave his life in air combat in the skies over North Vietnam on November 2, 1967. Awarded to the outstanding member of the Yale football team who best typifies the cheerful disposition, leadership qualities, and unselfish devotion to others that characterized Woody's life and accomplishments at Yale.
Honoree: Adam Raine
 
Robert Gardner Anderson Award
Awarded to the player who best exemplifies Bob's intense interest in the sport by a combination of athletic skill with team spirit and pride in accomplishment.
Honorees: Reid Nickerson
 
Ryan LoProto Award
Awarded to the player who best exemplifies Ryan's passion and competitive spirit, skill in the defensive secondary, and devotion to teammates.
Honorees: Kyle Ellis
 
Ted Turner Award
Awarded to the Yale interior lineman who displays tough, hardworking, aggressive play while demonstrating outstanding sportsmanship. The Turner Award is a true student-athlete and role model.
Honorees: Nick Gargiulo
 
Yale Football Captain Award
Awarded to the Yale Football Captain to recognize his leadership, dedication, and service to the Yale Football Program.
Honoree: Nick Gargiulo
 
Jordan Olivar Award
Voted on by fellow teammates, awarded to the senior on the squad, other than the captain, who through devotion to Yale Football has earned the highest respect of his teammates.
Honoree: Adam Raine
 
Edwin Foster ("Ted") Blair Award
Voted on by fellow teammates, awarded to Yale Football Team 149's Most Valuable Player.
Honoree: Reid Nickerson


BULLDOGS CONFIDENCE IS SOARING

By John Altavilla
 
Yale has renewed self-confidence after defeating Columbia, Brown and Princeton over the last three weeks
 
It does because of the soul searching it went through after its disappointing 20-13 loss at Penn on Oct. 22, a game during which it managed only 11 first downs.
 
That defeat resonated in the meeting rooms and on the practice field because the Bulldogs felt their performance was substandard.
 
“I told the team after the Penn loss that we would learn more from it than we would have had we won,” said Yale coach Tony Reno. “And that it would help us exponentially over the rest of the season if we handled it the right way. Sometimes teams may not be able to do that. But this one did.”

Yale responded with resounding wins. They drubbed Columbia 41-16, annihilated Brown 69-17 - scoring the most points of any Yale team since 1929 – and then handed Princeton its first loss of the season last Saturday.
 
“It’s (the team) has grown immensely in so many ways. We went from a team that was trying to find its way to one that had found its way. We’ve demonstrated that. We’ve grown a lot; our intentionality, our ability to go out on a daily basis and do the things that are necessary for us to have the most success. We’re playing more freely as a team,” said Reno.
 
“We like to say that we do a lot of work during the week so we can go out on Saturday and play freely. We’re playing fast, which gives us the best chance possible to have success. A team finds itself during different times of the season. In 2019, it happened at halftime of the Richmond game. The team made the decision that it was going to find a way to win games and took off from there.”
 
Yale’s offense and running game both lead the Ivy League. But as significant as that is, it was the performance of its defense prior to Princeton that really stood out.
 
“Speaking defensively, we put together six great quarters starting from halftime at Columbia (through the Brown game), said Wande Owens, a senior defensive back. “We’re starting to recognize things faster, which allows us to play faster. The defensive line was staying home, the linebackers were filling their gaps which made it easier for us (the secondary). In general, we just started to do what we do a lot better.
 
“There’s something special going on and we all feel it. We had a team barbeque after the Columbia game and you could feel the energy. The guys came together. We love each other so much and we want to play hard for each other.”
 
Although every Bulldog has grown in their own way, it would be impossible to overlook the renaissance junior quarterback Nolan Grooms has undergone since throwing four interceptions in a win over Bucknell on Oct. 15 and following that up by completing only 11 passes for 125 yards with one interception at Penn.
 
Since then, Grooms had completed 37 of 68 passes for 616 yards with only one interception and eight touchdowns. He is also third in rushing yards (75.8 per game) in the league.
 
“After Penn week, as a unit we understood that 13 points isn’t going to win a lot of games,” said Grooms. “We had had good performances up to that point, but we had to look into the mirror and make the decision to carry our own weight. That started the week in practice leading into Columbia. We did some new things schematically. The whole outlooked changed. You saw that at Columbia; we made the plays we needed to make. We’re continuing to build on it. Our chemistry is way better. And I think we’re going to continue to rise, get better and better.”
 
Grooms said his growth hasn’t been limited to statistical performance. He had other adjustments to make that might have been even more critical.
 
“All season we’ve known what our potential was offensively. But after Penn, no one was satisfied about where we were offensively. I’m the quarterback so that’s on me,” said Grooms. “Just keeping a calm demeanor, my presence on the sideline, has been a big focus for me. Instead of getting frustrated after a three-and-out, I’ve been rallying them, trying to keep them up. If I’m in a bad mood, everyone is going to be in a bad mood. And the last weeks have been awesome. After a drive, we’re laughing and smiling on the sideline. It’s been a big change culturally on the offense. I’m a perfectionist when it comes to football. I want things to be perfect.”
 
Reno said he wasn’t surprised that Grooms felt that way. During his time at Yale, he’s noted that all of his quarterbacks, at one point or another, was forced to learn from their mistakes.
 
“All the great quarterbacks I’ve coached have had to go through that process and you can’t predict when it’s going to happen. …You work through the adversity of it all and come out better on the other end,” said Reno.
 
“The collective growth of the team is one of the challenges for all of us. There’s a lot of things even I could do better. Then it’s about how you act on it. We’ve worked on that and we continue to work on that. What you’ve seen is the team dynamic has risen because we were in a situation where we felt we could have done better and we didn’t.”



IFESINACHUKWU'S YALE CAREER ENDED BY INJURY AND IVY RULE
By John Altavilla
At the start of the season, Yale’s confidence in its defense was bolstered by its veteran front four of Reid Nickerson, Clay Patterson, Adam Raine and Oso Ifesinachukwu.

But as often happens during the course of a long season, injuries have a way of messing things up. And during Yale’s game against Bucknell on October 15, Ifesinachukwu, a senior, suffered a season-ending knee injury.

Under most circumstances, a player in his position would rehabilitate and take advantage of a fifth post-graduate year of eligibility and return to the team. But Ifesinachukwu will not be able to do that at Yale because of an Ivy League rule.

“At the end of the day, Oso is going to have the same opportunity [to impress NFL scouts] next season as he would have this season. His ACL will be fully recovered,” said Yale coach Tony Reno. “But he’ll have to play next year as a graduate transfer because he doesn’t have any Yale eligibility remaining. He’s exhausted his Ivy League eligibility.

“We wanted him to be able to return here next year, but unfortunately he’d already played in too many games this season [five] to qualify. I’m excited for him. I would have loved to have him back with us for another year, but when it couldn’t happen I’m grateful that we can make it happen somewhere else.”

If the injury had occurred prior to Yale’s fourth game of the season, Ifesinachukwu would have been able to return to the Bulldogs in 2023. Now Reno and his coaching staff will do what they can to find their star player a new home.
Ifesinachukwu is a finalist for the 2022 William V. Campbell Trophy, college football's premier scholar-athlete award that annually recognizes an individual as the absolute best in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership. Yale has only had 13 nominees for this award in its history. He is also a legitimate NFL prospect.

“We have three players on NFL active rosters right now. Dieter Eiselen played for the Bears on Sunday and Foye Oluokon and Rodney Thomas are both starting (for the Jaguars and Colts),” said Reno. “The last time Yale had three players on active rosters was 2006 – Chris Hetherington, Eric Johnson and Nate Lawrie. I’m really proud of that because it’s been a while.”
 
Reno said senior defensive back Dathan Hickey, who is also out for the season with a knee injury, and Yale’s captain, center Nick Gargiulo, are also considered pro prosects.
 
“Other guys like Kyle Ellis (a sophomore defensive back) have done a really good job of getting in front of the scouts,” said Reno. “We’ll see how they do for the remainder of the season.”
 
Another player to keep an eye on is junior offensive lineman Kiran Amegadjie of Hinsdale, Ill.
 
“’I’m proud of the work I’ve put in for the last two years,” said Amegadje. “I’m more excited that I get to work with my teammates. I know everyone of this team supports me. All the defensive linemen push me every day. It’s a healthy combination aimed at making everyone on the team better.”

Amegadje said the offensive line was dissatisfied with its performance during Yale’s 5-5 season in 2021.

“As a group, after last year, we had the mentality that we left a lot on the field. I thought we might have been one of the weaker links on the team. We’d watch film on Sunday and the same mistakes were showing up. We really took it to heart. We didn’t want to be that group anymore,” said Amegadje.

“We worked hard in the weight room and watching film. Most of us were here the whole summer working out together. We carried the mentality that no one can really stop us into this season. Whenever a play is called in, we [the offensive linemen] want it to be a run. We want the responsibility to carry the offense. It’s about us doing our job to the best of our ability. Whatever play is called, whomever we are playing, whatever we are facing [from the defense], as long we do our job to the best of our ability and execute at a high level and play fast and physical no one can stop us.”

That mentality has directly led to Yale’s running attack (226.1 average) being ranked first in the Ivy League. It added another 340 yards in last Saturday’s epic 69-17 takedown of Brown.

Tre Peterson, who gained 108 yards and scored two touchdowns against the Bears, is second among rushers (76.6). Quarterback Nolan Grooms (66.3) is fourth and freshman Josh Pitsenberger (59.6) is ranked seventh.

Yale also leads the Ivy in total offense, averaging 425.0 yards per game. They had 558 yards against Brown.

“Nolan’s success is based on the RPO (run-pass option that Yale uses),” said Reno. “He extended plays in the pass games if the pocket breaks down. He’ll get some carries that way. The nature of it (the RPO), as Nolan begins to read it out, he may find himself in situation where keeping the ball is the most advantageous read. That’s where it’s at and that’s why he’s in the situation he’s in rushing-wise."

“We do have plays [for Nolan to run]. We have the ability to read the situation and make the calls where he’s the primary guy. But very seldom do we call plays where it’s just a run [a Grooms carry] unless it’s a special situation. But Nolan is Nolan. If he gets the chance, he’s going to run. It’s just a part of who he is as a player.”

Yale-Harvard Set For ESPNU
The 138th playing of The Game between Yale and Harvard is set for a noon EST start on Nov. 19. This year's edition will take place at Harvard Stadium and will mark the first time the rivalry game has been played in Cambridge since 2016. The game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.

RESEARCH HELPED REINVIGORATE YALE'S RUNNING GAME

By John Altavilla
As you might expect, Yale examined every facet of its program after its 5-5 season in 2021. The year fell short of expectations and the offseason presented the Bulldogs coaching staff an opportunity to take a closer look at everything it was doing.
 
One of the areas head coach Tony Reno was especially interested in upgrading was the running game. And to do it, he dispatched his offensive assistants to do a deep drive into what made some NFL and college teams successful at moving the ball on the ground.
 
“We concluded that we could be better at it (running the ball),” admitted Reno. “It came down to how do we begin to research how we would go about it. So we looked at a lot of good teams to see how they ran the football. We went back and forth between the Baltimore Ravens and Arizona Cardinals and Oklahoma and Ohio State. We spent a lot of time on it. We tried to understand how what we learned from that would fit our personnel. Our offense staff did a great job researching all of this.”
 
The results following the research have been greater than Reno could have even imagined.
 
After the first seven games, Yale’s running game was ranked first in the Ivy League with 1,469 yards (209.9 average) and 14 touchdowns. And the Bulldogs featured three of the league’s Top 10 rushers –  junior Nolan Grooms (second), junior Tre Peterson (third) and freshman Josh Pitsenberger (eighth).
 
Peterson’s performance has been especially outstanding. He gained 173 yards in the victory over Dartmouth and 144 in the win over Howard.
 
“We developed a plan and implemented it,” said Reno. “The players did an amazing job all the way through the spring and summer of being able to execute it with work from the conditioning point of view and the schematic point of view. I’ve been very happy with the way we’ve been able to grow with it. What we’re doing is sustainable; we’ll be able to recruit it. And it’s something that will allow us to build out from a run point of view, play action point of view and RPO (run-pass option) point of view.”
 
Yale’s aspirations absorbed an early blow when their top halfback, Spencer Alston, a preseason All-Ivy League selection, suffered a season-ending injury during the offseason.
 
“When we lost Spencer, we understood we still had a lot of talent in the room. It was just a matter of giving the guys a chance to mature. …We did know that the guys were ready because they’d done it [exceled] in the spring at a high level. I won’t say we felt great about the situation, but we felt good. We just didn’t know how long it was going to take,” said Reno.
 
What Reno was also relying on was a team effort from his core of running backs.
 
“At the beginning of the season, our goal was to have the best [running back] room in the Ivy League,” senior Elliott McElwain said. “It wasn’t going to be about one individual. It was about how would we as a room be great, along with our offensive line and tight ends that do a great job of blocking. We’re pursuing that goal and we’re getting better at it every day.”
 
Reno admitted that they’re have been times in the past when personal goals got in the way of team pursuits.
 
“I’ve coached teams where everybody wants the ball, everyone wants carries, where everyone is keeping track of their touches,” said Reno. “This running back room is only concerned about how do we do it (succeed) as a group and help the team.
 
“That’s the selfless mentality. And we’ve been able to use a lot of different guys in different roles. Obviously, we lost Spencer for the season, but guys like Elliott, Tre, Josh, Nate Denney and Jake Saffold have all done a great deal for us.”


PATTERSON'S PATIENCE HELPED TURN HIM INTO A STAR

By John Altavilla
Clay Patterson came to Yale in 2019 intent on making his mark on the football program. But he also understood the need to be patient, that his first step in achieving that goal would require time and discipline.

“Like every college football player when they begin their careers, they just want to get on the field,” said Patterson, a native of Frisco, Texas. “The way I was going to do that was obviously special teams. I did the best I could to learn as much as I could and ended up being on three of the four main ones (as a freshman).  I tried to do my role, do my job and good things happened.”

Patterson, a junior who now has played three of the four positions on Yale’s defensive line, was not singled out in terms of his progression. In most cases, working their way up is what is asked of freshmen.

“We knew what a heck of player we knew he was going to be,” said Yale coach Tony Reno. “He was in a situation that when he came in there was a pretty stacked defensive line room, older guys who had played a lot of football and he was a younger guy trying to learn the schemes. We saw he was dominating on special teams and that it would transition to the defensive line. To his credit, he’s done an amazing job physically and mentally and made himself into a strong and dominating player.”

After spending the 2020 COVID-19 season training in the garage of his home, Patterson returned to Yale with a bang as a sophomore, attracting the attention of the Ivy League.
Patterson picked up two sacks in Yale’s Ivy League opener against Cornell. But it was against Lehigh that he star really began to rise. Patterson had a game-high nine solo tackles and four sacks to earn the Ivy League’s Defensive Player of the Week award.

“He’s got the strength that allows him to excel inside, but he’s also super athletic,” said Reno. “That shows up when people try to block him one on one.”

By the time the season ended, Patterson had the nation watching. He led the Bulldogs and was second in the Ivy League with 13 tackles for loss and finished the year with 44 tackles, one interception and a blocked kick. Patterson also led the Ivy League with 11.5 sacks and ranked fifth nationally with 1.15 sacks per game. 

“It was not a surprise. I worked hard over the summer and offseason,” said Patterson. “But I’m not concerned about my performance because the season didn’t go the way we wanted it to go.

Yale finished the 2022 season 5-5.

Reno said that Patterson’s ascension into a star player is due, in part, to his ability to successfully compartmentalize the various responsibilities that Ivy League players must take upon themselves.

“It depends on the guy. It all depends on how fast they handle things. Being a player at Yale is different,” said Reno. “It’s not only about playing Division I football, but it’s about academics and being able to balance both through the midterm period. It’s about being able to handle the physical demands on the field and they’ll end up contributing more and more as the season moves along.”

Patterson has continued his fine play during the first six weeks on the 2022 season. He shares the team lead in sacks with four. He says he hasn’t noticed anything different in how opponents are approaching his presence this season.

“I haven’t noticed any difference in how I’m being treated (by offensive lines),” said Patterson. “I just know the defensive line has been playing very well.

“Early on, I patterned my game after J.J. Watt in high school. And once I transitioned inside, it became more about Aaron Donald. He has the explosiveness that I’ve tried to emulate. It doesn’t matter whether I play the edge or inside although I do like some of the mismatches (playing inside) creates with the guards.”

Reno said Yale does its best to put Patterson into situations that will help him succeed. That ability will become even more crucial after an injury suffered against Bucknell sidelined defensive lineman Oso Ifesinachukwu. Ifesinachukwu did not play at Penn and Patterson registered a half sack.

 “I don’t think it’s up to me alone to pick up the slack. It’s more of us as a unit,” said Patterson. “We have two great ends behind Oso if he can’t come back. If anything, we’re going to have to elevate our game together. It’s not just going to be up to one guy.

Patterson is an economics major who wants to pursue “entrepreneurial ambitions” when he graduates.

“I just hope to be in a place where I am happy and feel fulfilled and am able to have the ideas I have in my head play out,” said Patterson, who was also selected last season to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District team for his success both on the gridiron and in the classroom.


GROOMS WELL AWARE OF YALE QB HISTORY

By Rich Marazzi

Yale QB Nolan Grooms has a keen sense of Yale’s storied football history from Camp to Rawlings.

“Playing quarterback at Yale is an honor as is playing in the Yale Bowl, the birthplace of college football,” said Grooms. 

He is well aware of former Bulldog quarterback legends like Brian Dowling, Kelly Ryan, Kurt Rawlings and many more.

“People have told me that I remind them of Dowling,” stated Grooms.

That’s high praise.

When Grooms arrived at Yale, he was no stranger to the historic Bowl having attended a prospects camp after his sophomore year at the Taft School in Watertown, Conn.

 “At the camp I immediately had good chemistry with coach (Tony Reno),” he said. “He is the same type of coach as my father who coached high school football in North Carolina and Georgia.”

Grooms has football in his DNA. His father, Jody, coached high school football for 25 years.

“I’ve been going to football games every Friday night since I was like 2, 3 years old,” he recalled. “I remember running out with the team when I was like 3 and 4 years old. I take pride in the fact I  never missed a game on Friday night that he coached. So, it’s been pretty cool to grow up around that environment.”

At Taft his career was legendary. He passed for 7,400 yards, threw 65 TD passes, rushed for 2,314 yards, and had 31 rushing scores. He did everything but sell tickets.  In 2018 he led his team to the Todd Marble Bowl championship when the Rhinos defeated St. Sebastian’s  from Needham, Mass., 35-34. In that game, Grooms completed 20-of-26 passes for 288 yards and a TD. He also ran for 111 yards scoring three touchdowns.

During his freshman 2019 season at Yale, the fledgling QB had a front row seat watching Rawlings, Yale’s all-time leader in total offense (8,824 yards), passing yards (8,138) and TD throws (60).

 “I watched how much time he put in the film room and how he carried himself around campus,” said Grooms. 

The left-handed junior has had a boatload of thrills in his Yale career, but his greatest came on Oct. 25, 2021, when he got his first start replacing senior Griffin O’Connor after coming off the bench the first five games of the season.  In the Bowl that day were his parents. Calm, cool, and collected, he led the Bulldogs to a 42-28 win over Penn. He passed for 283 yards and rushed for 113.

“I looked up in the stands and saw my parents,” Grooms said proudly. “I’ll never forget that.”

 It also happened to be Reno’s 50^th career win at Yale.

For his deeds against Penn, Grooms was named the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week, his first of two such awards last season. Two weeks later he took his act to Brown where he helped the Bulldogs dismantle their opponent 63-38 win. In the blowout he accounted for a career-high 330 total yards that included three TDs on 18-for-26 passing. He also improved to 3-0 as a starter.

In only five starts last season, Grooms led the Bulldogs with 1,569 passing yards and 14 TD tosses. Against Harvard he fired three TD passes for 262 yards in a losing cause.
Yale opponents will tell you that he is a load to deal with. He plays with daring bravado. He can beat you with his arm and his legs. He has transformed from a passer to a double threat.

“Growing up I always had long legs,” Grooms explained. “Until I grew up into my body, I looked at myself as a passer. Then I considered myself an athlete. Last year I was an athlete/quarterback. Now I am a quarterback who is a good athlete.”

 “He has the ability to do both (run and throw),” said Reno. “He can hurt you. He has grown as a player. Nolan understands the game at a really high level.”

This season the economics major continues to put up good numbers. In Yale’s first five games, he has passed for 775 yards and run for 428. Against Dartmouth he had his most efficient game completing 19 of 22 passes with one TD toss. He also rushed for 90 yards on 16 carries averaging 5.6 yards per carry.
It might be a tad early, but it would not surprise anyone that when Grooms’ career ends, he will be in the pantheon of the elite Yale quarterbacks.


BULLDOGS WEAR COMMEMORATIVE UNIFORM
By Rich Marazzi
The Yale athletic department paid homage to Walter Camp, the high priest of Yale football by wearing commemorative uniforms modeled after those worn by Camp in the 19^th century. The idea was the brainchild of Associate Athletic Director Broc Hazlet.  

Camp, an 1880 graduate, captained the 1878 and 1879 teams.  He also played in ’81 and ’82 as post-graduates were allowed to play at the time.  He was elected captain again in 1881 but had to suspend playing because of his medical school studies.

 “Sir Walter” was responsible for reshaping the doctrines of English rugby into American football. He became a member of the Intercollegiate Football Association. From 1880 this ruling body accepted various innovations proposed by Camp: the 11-man team, the quarterback position, the scrimmage line, offensive signal calling, and the requirement that a team give up the ball after failing to advance a specified yardage in a certain number of downs (plays from scrimmage). In 1883 he secured the adoption of a scale of numerical values for scoring by touchdown, point after touchdown, field goal, and safety. He was the engine that drove the soccer/rugby game into what we now know as football.

 Although he was chairman of the Board of Directors of the New Haven Clock Co.  since 1883, Camp coached the Yale football team from 1888 through 1892.  His teams piled up wins like cordwood, winning 67 while losing only 2.
Camp was lionized by John Heisman the legendary football player and coach who the Heisman Trophy is named after. 

“What Washington was to his country, Camp was to American football-the friend, the founder and the father,” exclaimed Heisman.

YALE-DARTMOUTH TIMELINE
 
Yale and Dartmouth met for the 105^th time on Saturday. The Bulldogs hold a 55-44-6 advantage over the Big Green. At the Yale Bowl, the Bulldogs have the edge 38-30-5. 
 
From 2003-2011 Yale won nine in a row, but Dartmouth has owned the Blue the past nine seasons winning 8 of the 9 games played. Since the inception of the Ivy League in 1956, Dartmouth holds a 33-31-2 advantage over Yale.  
 
Oct. 31, 1931:   Despite Albie Booth’s heroics of scoring three touchdowns, Yale blew a 23-point lead, its biggest margin in the history of the storied Yale football program as the Elis and Dartmouth played to a 33-33 tie. Booth’s touchdowns came on a 94-yard kickoff return, a 22-yard pass and a 53-yard run. Dartmouth rallied from a 33-10 deficit in the third quarter thanks to the Indians’ Wild Bill McCall who scored on runs of 76, 92 and 60 yards. Trailing 33-30, Dartmouth tied the game on a third down field goal by Bill Morton from the Yale 23.
 
Nov. 2, 1935:  Dartmouth, in one of their signature victories, beat Yale 14-6 for the first time in 19 tries dating back to 1884. With little time remaining in the game, Dartmouth students tore down both goal posts in the Bowl. The two teams finished the game with the odd site of a football field without goal posts.
 
Oct. 30, 1937:  Yale, ranked No. 5 by the AP poll hosted No. 9 Dartmouth and the teams played to a 9-9 draw before 71,002 fans, the largest Bowl crowd in the decade of the 1930s. It’s the only time two top ten teams have played in the Bowl.

Oct. 31, 1944:  Dartmouth’s best linemen, Len Fusilli, was transferred to Yale in the V-12 officers training program initiated by the United States Navy Dept.  The V-12 program was the engine that kept college football alive during the war years and Yale was one of the 131 college venues that was designated as a V-12 site. 
 
Nov. 4, 1944: Yale edged Dartmouth, 6-0. Wearing a Yale uniform that day was Fusilli, who was a starting Dartmouth guard the week before in Dartmouth’s 14-13 win over Brown. Fusilli oddly appeared in the Dartmouth team photo in the game day program but strangely was listed on the Yale roster. Fusilli was a Marine and since the Marines were part of the U.S. Navy, he was eligible to play college football under the NCAA rules. 
 
Oct. 31, 1953:   Dartmouth upset Yale, 32-0 in the Bowl. The Big Green’s Bill Beagle lit up the Yale defense throwing four touchdown passes. Leo McKenna tossed a fifth. Dartmouth established a school record with six fumbles recovered against the Blue that led to the vexing loss.
 
Nov. 3, 1956:  Denny McGill, Yale’s whirling dervish halfback, ran for a Yale record 93-yard TD run in Yale’s 19-0 win over Dartmouth. The record would last for 57 years when on Nov. 2, 2013, Yale’s Kahlil Keys scored his first career touchdown on a 94-yard run from scrimmage late in the third quarter against Columbia, eclipsing McGill’s mark. 
 
Oct. 31, 1959:  Yale went through its first five games unbeaten, untied and unscored-on, something the Bulldogs had not done since 1909 and a feat no major college team had accomplished since 1943. The Elis were ranked 15^th in the nation tied with Oklahoma when the magic carpet ride ended on this Halloween Day as Dartmouth spoiled Yale’s perfect season with a 12-8 win in the Bowl. Dartmouth QB Bill Gundy tossed two TD passes for the Big Green.
 
Nov. 4, 1967:  The Bulldog was ferocious on this day, devouring Dartmouth with ease, 56-15. Dartmouth was coming off a last-second win over Harvard that kept the Green undefeated. Yale‘s sensational QB Brian Dowling uncorked a 67-yard touchdown pass, ran 30 yards for a score and made it a Yale runaway, 35-2 at the half.
 
Nov. 2, 1968:  Yale vanquished Dartmouth, 47-27. Dowling worked his magic setting two Eli records. He gained 324 yards on total offense, 295 by passing. The masterful QB completed 14 of 22 passes, three good for touchdowns to Calvin Hill (38 yards), Del Marting (15) and Lew Roney (20). Hill, one of Yale’s greatest all around athletes, gained 102 yards rushing and snared five passes for 122 yards. He also completed two of four passes, one for a touchdown to tight end Bruce Weinstein.
 
Oct. 31, 1970:  A crowd of 60,820 packed the Bowl where Dartmouth continued its Halloween jinx by spoiling Yale’s undefeated season, 10-0. Dartmouth coach Bob Blackman’s Big Green shackled Yale’s great running back Dick Jauron to 50 yards on 17 carries. Both teams were ranked in the United Press top 20, the last time two nationally ranked teams from the Ivy League faced each other.
 
Nov. 4, 1972: In what Yale coach Carm Cozza called as close to a flawless performance as he could remember, Yale manhandled Dartmouth 45-14 in the Bowl. Sophomore QB Tom Doyle ran the ball 12 times for 160 yards.
 
Nov. 1, 1975:  In one of the most pulsating finishes in Yale Bowl history, Randy Carter’s 47-yard field goal in the final seconds repelled Dartmouth, 16-14. The Big Green took a 14-13 lead when Harry Wilson nabbed a fumble in Yale’s end zone with 44 seconds left in the game. But Dartmouth penalties for celebrating and an interference call plus a Stone Phillips-to-Al Barker pass positioned Yale for Carter’s walk-off field goal, his third of the day. Phillips went on to an Emmy-award winning career in television.
 
Oct. 13, 1979: Yale’s stingy defense held Dartmouth to three first downs – none in the second half – to subdue the Big Green 3-0 before 26,000 in the Bowl. Dave Schwartz kicked the deciding field goal, a 24-yarder, in the second quarter that was set up by Mike Sullivan’s 36-yard punt return to the Big Green 11. Dave Shula, son of ex Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula was a split end on the Dartmouth team that was quarterbacked by Jeff Kemp, son of Jack Kemp, the former U.S. Senator and vice-presidential candidate and Buffalo Bills QB. 
The defensive unit of sophomores Pat Conran, Fred Leone, Serge Mihaly, Jim Dwyer Dennis Tulsiak, juniors Dave Novosel, Jeff Rohrer and Kevin Czinger , plus seniors Tim Tumpane, Arnie Pinkston and Skip Porter might have been the gold standard during the Cozza years.
 
Nov. 1, 1980: Yale dismantled Dartmouth 35-7 in the Bowl. Rich Diana, Yale’s explosive running back, rolled for 124 yards on the ground.  Leone intercepted a Kemp pass and returned it 39 yards for a TD. Offensive tackle Bob Regan played exceptionally well on the pitch-sweep play. But, the Elis lost Rohrer, the future Dallas Cowboys linebacker with a broken ankle.
 
Oct. 29, 1988:  QB Darin Kehler’s era began in earnest as Yale beat Dartmouth 22-13. With Yale trailing 13-12, Kehler engineered an 89-yard drive from the Yale 11 that concluded with a 24-yard field goal by Scott Walton which gave the Bulldogs a 15-13 lead. Buddy Zachery, who rushed for 174 yards, subsequently ran 57 yards for an insurance TD.
 
Oct. 19, 1991:  Dartmouth led by future NFL QB Jay Fiedler tossed a 10-yard TD pass to Mike Bobo with 23 seconds left in the game to give the Big Green a 28-24 win over Yale.
 
Oct. 17, 1992:   Fiedler continued to haunt the Bulldogs when he passed for a school record 419 yards in Dartmouth’s 39-27 win in Hanover.
 
Oct. 16, 1999: Following nine straight losses to Dartmouth, the Bulldogs levied an assault on Big Green winning, 44-3. Eric Johnson caught nine passes for 117 yards and a touchdown, Rashad Bartholomew ran for 109 yards and a TD, while QB Joe Walland piled up 329 total offensive yards 
 
Oct. 9, 2010: Sophomore Philippe Panico’s 19-yard field goal, his first ever, gave Yale a 23-20 dramatic win over Dartmouth on the road. The drive for the game-winner was set up by Yale senior cornerback Chris Stanley who stripped the ball away from Dartmouth tailback Nick Schwieger at the Dartmouth 47 after he had received a screen pass from QB Connor Kempe.
 
Oct. 8, 2011:  Yale beat-up Dartmouth 30-0 in the historic Bowl on a day the Yale defense limited the 2010 Ivy League co-MVP -- Dartmouth tailback Nick Schwieger -- to 39 yards on 16 carries. The Bulldogs' rushing attack led by the duo of Alex Thomas and Mordecai Cargill stole the show combining for 213 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Thomas’ 74-yard TD run early in the game proved to be the big play of the day.

Oct. 11, 2014: Yale’s 3-0 start to begin the season was halted the second year in a row by Dartmouth as the Big Green defeated the Elis 38-31. Dartmouth quarterback Dalyn Williams dazzled the Bulldogs while passing for 388 yards including three touchdown tosses. Ryan McManus was on the receiving end with 12 catches for 188 yards and a touchdown.

Oct. 10, 2015: Williams passed for a career-high 435 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Big Green past Yale, 35-3.
 
Oct. 8, 2016: In the 100^th meeting between the two schools, Yale defeated the Big Green. The Bulldogs, who entered the game 0-3, trailed 10-0 in the first half before freshman running back Alan Lamar, making his first start in the backfield, ran for a 7-yard TD with 3:09 left in the second quarter. For the day he ran for 180 yards including a 43-yard scoring run with 11:36 to make it 21-13 which proved to be the final score. It would be six years before Yale beat Dartmouth again.

Oct. 7, 2017:  Dartmouth QB  Jack Heneghan threw a 15-yard scoring strike to Drew Hunnicutt on 4th down with 34 seconds left to lift Dartmouth  to a historic 28-27 victory over Yale, thrilling the homecoming crowd of 8,114 at Memorial Field. David Smith added the extra point to break the tie and provide the winning margin as the Big Green, down 21-0 in the second quarter and 24-7 at the half, enjoyed its largest comeback victory in 136 years of varsity football. Conversely, Yale equaled its largest blown lead (21 points) in team history that led to a loss when Princeton upset the Bulldogs, 35-31 in 1981. Midway in the third quarter it appeared that tight end Jaeden Graham caught a TD pass from Kurt Rawlings in the end zone that would have given the Bulldogs a 34-14 lead, but it was waved off by the official, who ruled that Graham’s foot was out of bounds. Replays, however, indicated otherwise. At the time, the Ivy League and the Pioneer League were the only two leagues in the country that did not use the replay system.

Oct. 5, 2018: Dartmouth’s ground game sank Yale under the lights in the Bowl. Led by 6-foot-4, 225-pound QB Jared Gerbino, the Big Green ate-up the Bulldogs, 41-18.


SCHEDULING NON CONFERENCE GAMES TAKES GREAT EFFORT
By John Altavilla
The process of scheduling non-conference games like the one Yale played against Howard at Yale Bowl can be a long one. And it’s often the result of a give-and-take between head football coach Tony Reno and the athletic administration.

“Ever since Vicky (Chun, Yale’s athletic director) arrived she’s been having discussions with Tony and both have been incredibly enthusiastic about scheduling HBCs (Historical Black Colleges),” said Ann-Marie Guglieri, Yale’s chief operating officer of athletics. “It takes a couple of years to get games on the schedule, so we began conversations with Howard back in 2019. They were great to work because it takes a lot of movement to get dates matched up.”

Yale’s 10-game schedule unfurls over a 10-week period. It is comprised of seven Ivy League games and three non-conference contests. The 2022 schedule features games against Holy Cross, Howard and Bucknell.

There is a lot of discussions every year about how to fill out the schedule.

“I wouldn’t call it a wish list,” said Reno. “But we sit down and discuss schedules and schools that give the players a great experience. Playing UConn (2021) was an example of that. So was Army (2014). Great schools. Great programs. Traditional programs.

“The hard part for us is that our schedule starts two weeks later than everyone else. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it changes things because our potential opponents do not have as many open dates and we don’t have a bye week. It’s like trying to find a needle in a big stack of needles. There are a numbers of games that just can’t work out because there aren’t enough games (on the schedule).”

The desire to play as many HBS programs as possible continues in 2023 when Morgan State comes to New Haven. The Bulldogs will also play Holy Cross and Sacred Heart, a rising New England power which defeated Dartmouth in overtime earlier this season.

“We’d love to play as many HBC teams as we can because of what they stand for. Their institutions are incredibly rich in tradition,” Guglieri said. “Available dates and timing drive a lot of the discussions we have with other programs. We have our league schedule,  of course. But our three out-of-conference dates shift a bit. We don’t have a ton of flexibility because we don’t have a bye (week) built in. We have games planned 12 to 14 years out. A lot of things have to align. It’s more of an art than it is a science.

“Tony doesn’t shy away from playing anyone. He wants his players to play at a high level of competition and Howard is an example of that. Once you establish a philosophy for who’d you’d like to schedule, a series of moving parts follow.

Guglieri added that Yale is in discussion to schedule additional in-state rivals. Central Connecticut and future meetings with UConn are likely on that list. Meanwhile, Harvard travels to Howard for a game on Oct. 15.

PITSENBERGER MAKING AN EARLY IMPRESSION

Yale’s intent this season was to start senior Spencer Alston at halfback. But an upper body injury during the summer ended his season before it could begin. And that forced Yale coach Tony Reno and his staff to scan the roster for an alternative.

What Reno discovered during Yale’s 38-14 win at Cornell last week was that the Bulldogs have a lot of options. Five backs had at least two carries for an offense that gained 453 yards.

But it was the performance of freshman Joshua Pitsenberger that stood out. He gained 93 yards rushing and scored two touchdowns and added a third score on a five-yard reception from quarterback Nolan Grooms.

“Josh is great example of what can happen when you establish a great culture (within a program),” said Reno. “When a freshman comes in, they are immediately embraced by everyone and brought along. In a lot of programs, it’s hard for freshmen because it’s difficult for upperclassmen to have trust in them. The nurturing environment just isn’t there. Just like all of our freshmen, Josh came in and was given a great opportunity and  he made the most of it. Give him the credit. He’s a very even-keeled guy. He really doesn’t say a lot. But he plays hard and he’s really helped us in the run game.”

Pitsenberger was selected as the Ivy League’s Rookie of the Week after his performance. He added another 88 yards and a 25-yard touchdown in the Bulldogs 34-26 win over Howard.

The 6-foot, 205-pounder from Bethesda, Md., has a powerful running style that may remind some of former Yale stars Tyler Varga and Zane Dudek. Reno is reluctant to make any comparisons.

“Josh is Josh. He’s going to be his own player,” said Reno. “Whenever you see a physical runner, the tendency might be to compare him to the physical runners we’ve had here in the past. There might be elements of Josh’s game that lend themselves to comparisons. But we don’t do that. He’s stayed true to who he is as a player. He’s allowed the positive traits to come out. He’s a very patient runner and he’s also very decisive when he sees the opportunity.”


YALE EDUCATION EARNS NICKERSON NFL OPPORTUNITY
By John Altavilla
Recruits are not attracted to Yale athletics solely on the promise of playing time. There is another benefit to spending four years at one of the nation’s most prestigious colleges.

“The opportunities our players get thanks to their hard work will be there, but you have to work at it. But if they do, it’s certain they’ll make the most of it,” said Yale football coach Tony Reno. “And I don’t want to give the impression that this is just about football. You can grab any coach you want on campus and they’ll have stories about their players doing amazing, amazing things.”

Coming into his senior season, Yale defensive end Reid Nickerson has an agenda for what he wants to accomplish on the field. An All-Ivy Honorable Mention as a junior, Nickerson’s seven sacks placed him seventh in the league. And he obviously wants to improve upon that as the Bulldogs move through the season.

Off the field his ambitions are just as high. Nickerson wants to work for an NFL team when his college career is over and after he graduates in December he will get his chance when he begins a potentially lucrative internship in the front office of the Houston Texans.

“I have the opportunity to do an internship with the Texans during the 17^th and 18^th game of their season, doing things in their football technology and decision strategy department. I’ll be working on some quality control things and some statistical elements,” said Nickerson.

Nickerson worked hard to get this opportunity and he received help from members of the Yale coaching staff.

“I did mass emailing last year (around the NFL). I was also writing everyone in the Texans’ department,” Nickerson said. “Coach Cahill (Yale’s offensive coordinator Kevin Cahill) had a contact in the Texans front office and Coach Reno called the person who ended up being the guy who hired me. It was about reaching out, networking and my coaches did a great job for me.”

Reno said the he couldn’t have been happier to do his part in helping create a possibility for one of this players to potentially kick start his career.

“Reid shows the drive that many of our players have on and off the field,” said Reno. “It perfectly describes the kind or people we have here at Yale, which I’m very proud of. All I did when I made the call was explain to him (the Texans official) what kind of kid he would be getting in Reid. I knew all he needed was an opportunity. He’s going to be great at it.”

The situation couldn’t have worked out more perfectly for Nickerson. A native of Friendswood, Tex., a suburb of Houston, he grew up a huge fan of the Texans and the Houston Astros.
After he began flooding NFL teams with introductory emails, he was pleased to see that the Texans were one of the organizations who had the decency to write back.

“Luckily the one that got back to me was from my hometown,” said Nickerson. “I’m certainly glad it worked out that way.”

Nickerson said his ultimate dream is to become an NFL general manager and he believes maybe starting his career as a scout would be a good way to begin heading in that direction. Yale currently has a number of graduates and former coaches working in the NFL in coaching, front office and scouting positions.

“The department I will be working In helps by dipping into the technology side and I’ll also be dealing with analytics and stats,” said Nickerson. “Adding a layer of analytics and stats to the team’s practices helps the coaches identify who is performing well. We’ll also quality control other aspects, like making sure the film and stats look good, so when the coaches ask us for cutups, like them wanting all of the third down plays from the week before, we make sure it looks good and that it’s all there.”

Nickerson said he’s been able to lean on a couple of former Yale football players for advice. He’s spoken to Matt Oplinger, who was in training camp with the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals, and Charles Cook, who holds an important job in the scouting department of the Astros.

“The number one thing that’s going to help me [with the Texans] is having the experience of being in a high performance environment,” Nickerson said. “We have certain expectations within our football program that come with each season. I think working as a team, as a unit, to achieve our goals is something that would translate in the NFL, which is a high-pressure, high-expectation environment.”


RENO PLEASED WITH GARGIULO'S LEADERSHIP

By John Altavilla

Among the many lessons Yale football coach Tony Reno took from the legendary Carm Cozza was how best to view the election of his new captain.
“I remember asking Coach Cozza that question sitting in my office. I said, ‘Coach, are you ever worried about [who might be] your captain. And his answer was, ‘The kids know.” So if that was good enough for coach, it’s good enough for me,” Reno said.

Each year, one the day following the Yale-Harvard game, the Bulldogs announce who their captain will be for the following season. The election process is conducted without the intervention of the coaches.

“It’s unique how the captain is elected. We (the coaches) aren’t even in the room to either cast or count a ballot,” Reno said. “Someone just walks in and tells us ‘this is who your captain is,’”

And Reno was very pleased when he found out that his captain for the 2022 season would be center Nick Gargiulo.

“We were very fortunate to get Nick in a class with a bunch of extraordinary leaders,” Reno said.

After starting every game in his sophomore season in 2019, Gargiulo was forced to miss the last six games of the 2021 season after breaking his ankle at Dartmouth.

“So my role changed into more of an off-the-field presence,” Gargiulo said.

Gargiulo said he had no idea how intently his teammates were paying attention to him or how admired he obviously became. But he admitted that he learned a lot about what being a captain was all about by watching John Dean do the job for what turned out to be two seasons after the pandemic forced the cancelation of the 2020 season.

“John Dean was a fantastic captain. He exemplified the position by always putting himself last. . .He was a tremendous leader. The guys loved him. And I certainly took notes about how one should conduct himself,” Gargiulo said. “When I was chosen, I can’t necessarily say that I knew I would be the one. But when it did happen I considered it to be such a tremendous honor. I have such a class of great senior leaders. This idea that this is a powerful position with so much pressure is more spread among 24 other guys who share the responsibility and the ownership of that role.”

Reno said he can already sense the leadership that Gargiulo has brought to the team.

“One of the things he’s done best is he’s made leadership about everyone. There were Saturday mornings in the spring when he was holding meetings with 40 to 50 guys. That demonstrated his leadership ability by bringing in as many guys as possible who can pull an oar in the boat. That credit goes all to him,” Reno said.

An economics and political science major, Gargiulo admits that he life basically revolves around school and football.

“If you are looking for a guy that does it all, well, that’s just not me,” Gargiulo said. “And to be honest, it’s the most fulfilled I’ve ever felt in my life. I love being here.  It’s been the best five years of my life.”

Gargiulo does not take his responsibility lightly. He understands what being Yale’s captain means and he’s ready to do whatever is necessary to help the Bulldogs chase another Ivy League title.

“I’d say the main responsibility of the job is to empower your teammates. And this point in my job, I’d call myself a glorified scheduler. We have expectations here; to be an elite team and win championships,” Gargiulo said. “This is a powerful program and I can tell you that coming off last year’s 5-5 season, there were 106 guys who were not happy with that result. We all the same drive, the same goal, to turn this thing around.”

 
DEAN CAPTAINED YALE THROUGH UNCERTAIN TIMES
11/20/21
By: John Altavilla

During their time together, Carm Cozza often pulled Yale coach Tony Reno aside to sprinkle him with wisdom.
 
For instance, Cozza once told him not to worry whether his team captain would be able to meet expectations.
 
"Coach Cozza told me that you never have to worry about the captain's role because the guys (the players elect the captain) know who belongs there," Reno said.

Following Yale's historic overtime win over Harvard at Yale Bowl in 2019, which wrapped up a share of the Ivy League title, the Bulldogs selected linebacker John Dean of Wrentham, Mass., to be their 2020 captain.
 
Little did anyone know what a challenging time Dean would preside over.
 
"The thing about John is he's done an extraordinary job in a very different situation thanks to what Covid brought," Reno said. "He's been the captain for two years and that's a lot for a sole captain. John's done a great job bringing in others to lead with him."
 
Reno admitted that being Yale's captain can be challenging because of the sheer number of players in the program.
 
"The hard part is that guys are at different levels," Reno said. "There are a few guys at the top level of understanding about leadership who are able to demonstrate it while bringing others along. Some of the guys are just trying to get to places on time, make sure they know their playbook. We refer to this as 'taking care of your own 20 square feet.' Others take care of themselves while being accountable for someone else. …The last level is whether you can influence others. Everyone leads in their own way, but you do so at different levels until you are ready to move on.
 
"John's done a great job from the Sunday after (the 2019 Harvard game) navigating harsh waters. He always makes it about his teammates and not himself. And along with it, John has played incredible football. It's been his best season by far."
 
After the 2020 season was canceled due to the pandemic, the players who would have been seniors that season pledged to put their futures on hold in order return to Yale to play one more time together.
 
"Every champion wants to be able to defend its title," senior Melvin Rouse II said. "Every champion wants to get everyone's best again. No one in our senior class wanted to leave on that kind of note (the cancelation of the 2020 season). The competitiveness of this class, our expectations and goals were high. The only way to reach them is to be able to chase them."
And so the team turned to Dean, depending on him to lead the way.
 
"The experience matched my expectations," Dean said. "We have a team of full leaders, which is extremely fortunate for me as its sole captain. We have 123 leaders, in their own right, on the team. When you have guys like that on the squad its incredibly easy to lead them. I feel like all I really do for them is the coin toss. I didn't have any challenges. We met as a class every week, an effort to align our team, make sure we're headed in the right direction."
 
Like Rouse, Dean said there was nothing that could have convinced him not to return to Yale to play the 2021 season.

"When something matters to you, it's not a sacrifice at all. We would have given anything that it took to be able to play our senior season together," Dean said. "It wasn't a matter of coming back. It was about adapting to the new situation. We had a sense that we'd be able to have a season this fall so it was all about understanding what steps we needed to take to be able do that. In terms of making a sacrifice (to play), I don't think there's anything I'd rather be doing now other than being with this team."
 
And after their careers finally ended with the loss to Harvard, Dean and his senior class could finally look back and realize how their decisions contributed to the legacy of the Yale football program.
 
"To be honest, I haven't really thought about it (playing his final game)," Rouse said. "A few guys asked me about it last week, but honestly all I'm worried about is the legacy me and my boys leave behind.
 
"I was blessed to go to a great high school that had a lot of tradition, many of the same values Yale has. We had core values, like playing for each other. They don't remember me for the touchdowns I scored or the ones I gave up. They just remember me as a teammate. So, I just want to finish out strong as a teammate so that when my name is brought up (in the future) it won't be because of how great of a player I was. It will be how great a teammate I was when I was here."

RAWLINGS RETURNS IN NEW CAPACITY

Kurt Rawlings, the most prolific quarterback in Yale history, returned to campus this year to serve the football program as an intern.
 
"Kurt's working with the team with an eye on getting into coaching. He's working in all the different areas like recruiting and helping players learn the ropes," Yale coach Tony Reno said. "It's been great having him around, particularly at practice working with Nolan (Grooms) to grow into that position (quarterback). I'm very grateful the athletic department allowed us to have interns with the program. It's a steppingstone to bigger and better things."
 
The intern program is well-known around the college ranks and there is a lot of competition for positions because the payoff is very attractive.
 
"We place our interns into graduate assistant jobs every year. We have interns that are all over the FBS and in the NFL. Because it's been such a great program there are so many people interested in it when the opportunity arises," Reno said. "Kurt and I talked a lot about it, and he felt it was time for him to move forward. I think it speaks volumes about the culture the players have that he wanted to come back and give back to his teammates, which is really amazing. He has an amazing future."
 

 

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UNDERCLASSMEN MAKING HUGE IMPACT

11/13/21
By: John Altavilla

One of the most encouraging aspects of another entertaining Yale football season has been the emergence of a strong crew of underclassmen who have distinguished themselves for Coach Tony Reno.

Now in his ninth season, Reno has never been hesitant about giving younger players their opportunity to play major roles. For instance, the Bulldogs have been bolstered in 2021 by the play of underclassmen such as sophomore quarterback Nolan Grooms, who led the offense to a renaissance after becoming the starter in the second half of the UConn game on Oct. 16.

"Everything that we do here is earned, so the guys who are playing have earned the right with their performance in practice and in games," Reno said. "We feel very strongly in our recruiting. We feel really strongly in our development. We've had our share of injuries this year, and one of the things that's really great for me as a coach is we've had a lot of guys step into roles where at the beginning of the year they might not quite have been in. Now they're in and they're doing really well in those roles."

Grooms, who began the season backing up junior Griffin O'Connor, attributes the solid play of the underclassmen to the leadership they've received from the seniors.

"All great teams have great senior leadership. Without that, I don't think it's possible to be a great team. Every day we trying to reach for greatness and the seniors have done a great job leading the rest of us along. Now we have freshmen all over the field making big plays for us," Grooms said.

One of those freshmen, receiver David Pantelis, not only was the Ivy League's Freshman of the Week and Special Teams Player of the Week following the win over Brown, but he was the selected as the nation's top freshman for the week.

"At first, the process was pretty difficult, but moving forward, we have a great group of leaders ahead of us," Pantelis said. "Guys (at wide receiver) like Melvin Rouse, who has been teaching me everything that he knows while helping me along with the playbook. I have to give credit to him because he's been a great role model, giving a helping hand with running routes. Even when the coaches aren't there, during the summer, he was there helping me get the playbook into my head, teaching me what I needed to do to be successful. So when my turn came, I was able to be as best prepared as I could."

Pantelis said one of the most important lessons he learned from the seniors was how to proceed academically once the fall semester began.

"I set myself up to take the lightest course load as possible during the season. I took summer classes to help me out in the fall and it's been a lot easier moving forward," Pantelis said. "The older players advised me about what to do, what classes I should be taking just so my work load wouldn't be as hard. I followed those footsteps, so I've been able to basically focus on the football aspect. But come the spring, I think I'll ramp it up and take as many classes as possible."

Reno knows how difficult the transition is to become a Yale football player straight out of high school or prep school.

"What we see a lot in guys is their ability. But there are two forces you can't control when a player comes to Yale," Reno said. "The first is the academic side, just getting used to the environment, which is no small thing. The other is picking up the playbook with the speed necessary to allow your athletic ability to go. What happens sometimes, without even thinking about it, is that guys tend to play a lot slower and as they begin to understand things at a higher, deeper level they execute things at a 200 level, not a 100 level."

OLUKON'S NFL STARDOM MAKES YALE PROUD

There are probably a thousand reasons why Tony Reno believes he has one of the best jobs in the world.

One of them relates to the sales pitch he gets to give recruits.

"When you come to Yale, one of the easiest things about my job is telling them they have a chance to play in the NFL," Reno said. "But if that door shuts, the other that opens is just as great. My players have won the lottery. They'll walk out of here (Yale) with a degree and a chance to go to an NFL training camp."

During the 2021 season, Reno has taken great pride watching one of his former players, Foyesade Olukon, develop into one of the best young linebackers in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons.

Selected by the Falcons in the sixth round (200^th overall) in the 2018 draft, Olukon has made steady progression considering he began his college career as a cornerback, moved to safety as a sophomore and didn't even move to outside linebacker until his senior season.

"Foye is just an incredibly driven person. We can speak for hours about what he does, the mental preparation he puts himself through to push himself to be elite in all areas," Reno said. "The success he's had is a testimony to how hard he works combined with the great ability he's developed. He's a very smart player. When you watch him you can tell how in tune he is to what needs to be done to be successful. It's been a lot of fun to watch him go."

Olukon's commitment to making himself a better player, and his affection for Yale, were on display earlier this season when he returned to New Haven during the Falcons bye week in October to see Reno and work out with his former position coach.

"He was at our UConn game and he'll be back for the one against the team from the north (Harvard). He's very grounded, which is very difficult for some guys who make it to that level," Reno said.

Olukon is one of four Reno players to have made it to the NFL, joining RB Tyler Varga (Colts), TE Jaedan Graham (Falcons) and OL Dieter Eiselen (Bears).

"I hate to use the word all, but most of the guys who come to Yale, part of the recruiting process, is to give them the opportunity to play in the NFL," Reno said. "Every (NFL) team will come through here before the end of the season; some twice, to look at the entire roster, even the freshmen as they (the scouts) start to project the guys out. And what happens is, over the course of their careers, their ability develops into guys who have the opportunity. It's exciting to see them take their next step."

Reno said Rouse, LB Rodney Thomas II, TE JJ Howland, Dean, LB Micah Awodiran and RB Zane Dudek have received extra attention from NFL scouts who believe one or more of them may be good fits for their organizations.

 

PATTERSON ON BUCHANAN LIST

Stats Perform FCS announced the addition of Patterson to the watch list for the 2021 Buck Buchanan Award, presented annually to the national defensive player of the year. Patterson is one of 11 additions to the original 35-man team announced in the preseason.
 
The Buchanan Award is named for the Hall of Fame defensive lineman. Past recipients include two-time winner Dexter Coakley, Rashean Mathis and Jared Allen.
 
Patterson came into the Princeton game leading the Ivy League and ranking second in the nation with 1.44 sacks per game. He is also 10^th in the country with 1.6 tackles for loss per game. He'd also totaled 13 sacks for 75 yards lost and 11.5 tackles for loss and 72 yards and was fifth on the Bulldogs with 37 tackles and has a forced fumble.
 
His play has allowed the Yale defense to lead the nation in third down conversion percentage (.234). As a unit, the Bulldogs rank ninth in the country and 10^th in sacks and tackles for loss, respectively.

 

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BULLDOGS BUILDING PATIENTLY INTO WINNERS

11/06/21
By: John Altavilla

Yale football teams do not coalesce overnight. That would be unrealistic. They take their time to mature, beginning the process immediately after the previous season completes.

"I have a weird way of thinking about things sometimes, but in my opinion, there is a process to everything in life," Yale coach Tony Reno said. "I've never had a team succeed that didn't reach that point (of complete evolution). Perhaps it did in a particular game, but not a season. The best teams we've had here have found a way to progress through a season."

There is a new captain and a new chemistry. But for Reno, there is also a time-tested progression that involves an evolution into the team he wants to take the field each week.

"We talk a lot about wanting to be an elite team. Being an elite team encompasses a lot of things, how you act off and on the field. It's how you play together, how you value your teammates. It's about putting yourself last in all you do. The last piece of it is how you play on the field. Can you find a way as a team to get the outcomes that you want? That builds. And we'll reflect on that at the end of the season," Reno said.

Yale came into Brown week emboldened after staging a huge second-half comeback to defeat Columbia at Yale Bowl on Oct. 30. At one point, the Bulldogs trailed by 11 before rallying for a 37-30 win. That made Reno proud.

"I think from our perspective, there's statement games," Reno said. "It was an opportunity for us. We were behind the 8-ball a little bit. Our guys did the things we preach all of the time, our core values, our creed. It's about believing and believing in each other, playing for each other. You put the last play behind you and focus on the moment and not the outcome. They did that.

"That's how we were able to climb out of the hole we were in and respond the way we did. I knew it was going to take us a few weeks in the season to get going. I told the staff; it's going to take us three or four weeks. I knew from preseason that we had a lot of pieces. We just need to bring them together. I'm really proud of how this team has developed. How they have really been intentional in their preparation and how they're really showing it in their performance."

According to Reno, what has alluded Yale to this point in the season has been executing a perfect 60 minutes across all three phases. Yet, he has seen positive signs, signals that the team is headed in that direction. And he has seen resilience, the capability to deal with an increasing number of injuries by putting their best foot forward.

"When the last whistle is blown you look back to see if we had done all of those things to become and elite team," Reno said. "The big thing for us right now it to put 60 minutes together. It's never going to be perfect. It never will. If you are chasing that, I think you are chasing something that is unattainable. Can you truly play sound football and not put yourself in situations where you are allowing your opponent to have success by your own lack of execution? You want your opponent to have to execute [to succeed]. That's what we're looking at. That's where we are progressing the next few weeks.

"There's still a lot to do. We haven't played the complete game yet. That's what we're chasing right now. To play a complete game in all three phases by starting fast and finishing strong. We have a pretty high ceiling here and we really haven't come close to it yet. I know my players feel the same way. There's a lot more still out there. There's a burning sensation inside to be better."

OFFENSE HAS GROWN UNDER GROOMS 

There's no question Yale's offense has taken a big step forward since sophomore Nolan Grooms became the starting quarterback to begin the second half of the Bulldogs loss at UConn on Oct. 16.

After amassing only 318 total yards of offense at UConn, Yale bounced back with 444 yards against Penn and 421 against Columbia, wins that kept the Bulldogs in the hunt for at least a share of a second straight Ivy League title.

But the production was even greater in Yale's 63-38 win over Brown on Saturday. Led by 330 yards passing and three touchdowns from Grooms, Yale churned out a season-high 527 yards.

Wide receiver Melvin Rouse II, the Ivy's Special Teams Player of the Week following the Columbia win, said the reason has to do with a refreshed point of view about what needed to be done.

"Nolan does make a difference, but overall it's just the mindset of going out there and wanting to dominate somebody. We're very young and very inexperienced beginning games. As much as we love Nolan and what he brings to the table, it's more of a case of the entire offense making the decision in our minds that we have to be better for the team," Rouse said.

"We needed to go out and start taking the things we wanted to take. It's like 50-50 balls becoming 80-20 balls (receptions). It's watching the line pancake people become the standard.

Once we starting living to that standard, living up to what we can do as an offense, it will help us."

Yale offense has also shown its depth this season. Reno said that seven different offensive lines had started in the Bulldogs first seven games. And against Columbia, Spencer Alston was so impressive (three touchdowns, 116 yards rushing) playing in place of the injured Zane Dudek, that the Ivy League named him its Offensive Player of the Week.

"It's understanding what we're capable of and being able to start off strong and fast, taking what's in front of us," Alston said. "It's obviously been a long road, we've all been frustrated, we all feel like we should have been able to put up more points. That's why we have practice and film work. We learn from those things. The coaches push us every week. It's not so much that things have changed. I don't think there's any difference having Griffin (O'Connor) or Nolan back there. It's about the offense being on the same page, executing, playing hard and doing our jobs and believing in the guy next to you."

Alston gained another 84 yards and scored two touchdowns in the win over Brown. And Rouse led Yale receivers with five catches for 119 yards and one 61-yard touchdown.
 

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YALE GROOMS ITS OFFENSE FOR SUCCESS
10/30/21
By: John Altavilla

If you ask Yale coach Tony Reno about sophomore quarterback Nolan Grooms, one of the first things he'll tell you is that he's the son of coach. Reno values the importance the sport has in the life of kids like Grooms.
 
"My dad was a high school football coach for 24 or 25 years," Grooms said. "I've been going to high school football games on Friday nights since I was 2 or 3 years old. I can remember running out with the team. It's been pretty cool to grow up in that environment."
 
And as this Yale football season has progressed, Reno has also grown fond of how Grooms' instinct for the game and his position has sharpened. Of all the quarterbacks in Yale's program right now, no one has the consummate ability to run an offense like Grooms does.
 
"I know how he (Grooms) was raised," Reno said. " If he makes a mistake, he's ready to bounce back with the next play. He demonstrated that ability [against Penn]."
 
Yale offense benefits from having a quarterback such as Grooms. His ability to run puts constant pressure on opposing defenses. And it even helps the Bulldogs defense prepare whatever challenges are in store.
 
"Nolan is a problem [in practice] and he's been causing us [the defense] problems ever since he came here," defensive lineman Reid Nickerson said. "We'll get right up next to a sack and he'll outrun us by 20 yards. He provides us a great look at mobile quarterbacks. We feel like there's no QB in the league that can really shock us with how they move because we see Nolan every day."
 
Grooms arrival has poured Yale's offensive coaches back into the playbook looking for plays that best suit his abilities.
 
"Our playbook has a lot of options in it. We look at it every year to figure out what pieces we have there to fit the personnel," Reno said. "You'd love to have a quarterback that can run and throw. We've had a lot of success with that, especially with Kurt (Rawlings). You'd like your quarterback to be able to run enough that an opponent needs to respect the run game. We tailor a lot of what we do offensively to where we are as an offense by trying to find things that fit Nolan's skill set really well."
 
Since Grooms became Yale's starting quarterback in the second half of the UConn game on Oct. 16, the Bulldogs offense has taken flight.
 
In last week's win over Penn, Grooms ran for 113 yards and threw for 283, accounting for four touchdowns.  And then during Saturday's 37-30 win over Columbia, he added another 279 yards passing and two TDs.
 
"That was a big part coming into (the Penn game)… we've got to establish an identity. The defense has been playing great all year. We just had to go out there and do our part. I felt like we had a pretty good showing," Grooms said.
 
"As a quarterback, you need to have a good sense about what a defense is trying to do to you, especially pre-snap. I was looking at the stats the other day [from the Penn game} and I noticed I had 16 rushing attempts. I think seven or eight of them were scrambles. I pride myself on being a passer first. But once stuff breaks down, you need to be able to move a little bit. It's about being decisive and I've been working on that."
 
After the UConn game, Reno gave Grooms and previous starter Griffin O'Connor the practice week to compete for the job. It was after that when Reno made the decision to move forward with his lefthander.
 
"After what he did in practice, taking control of the offense the way he did, I had a good feeling he was going to be in a good spot. We looked back at the first five games (prior to Penn) and noticed there were a lot of deep balls [opportunities] that we didn't connect for one reason or another. It's no one's fault. We just didn't connect. We've worked hard in practice. We've emphasized it. And it showed."
 
Reno is counting on the spark Grooms generated to carry the Bulldogs through the remainder of the Ivy League season as Yale continues to chase its second straight championship.
 
"(Nolan) has improved his ability to take things day-by-day. He's very much process-based than outcome based. He's showed that on the practice field and in games," Reno said. "He's got an even-keeled demeanor despite being a very competitive, fiery guy. Whether things go good or bad he's the same guy. That serves him well at his position…and he is very athletic. He's really executing the offense at a much higher level."
 
In the meantime, Reno said he was very happy with the way O'Connor accepted his benching.
 
"Griffin is an extraordinary player and a huge part of this team," Reno said. "We just felt Nolan gave us a better chance to do what we wanted to do offensively. Griffin's an exceptional teammate. I realize that as I competitor this is tough. He's been very supportive and he just wants the team to win. I give him a lot of credit for putting the team before himself."


RENO REACHES FIRST VICTORY MILESTONE

You might recall what transpired when Yale was looking for a head football coach to replace Tom Williams in 2012.
 
The sheer number of qualified candidates led to expected rumors about who would be the university's selection. First, UConn defensive coordinator Don Brown took himself out of the running. And shortly after that, Georgetown coach Kevin Kelly did the same thing.
 
There was also an erroneous story in a state newspaper linking the Yale job to a Lehigh offensive coordinator named Dave Cecchini.
 
The bottom line: Yale finally had the insight to reach out to a former Yale and Harvard assistant, Tony Reno. And for the last nine years, the program has benefitted from its wisdom.
 
Last week's win over Penn was the 50^th of Reno's career. He now has joined Carm Cozza, Jack Siedlecki, Tad Jones, Jordan Olivar and Walter Camp as the only football coaches to reach that milestone.
 
"I had no idea [about the milestone) until it was mentioned to me," Reno said. "I've been very fortunate to have some great players and assistant coaches. They've been such a huge part of the success we've had here. I say all the time that I'm just a small piece in a great organization."
 
By comparison, Cozza won his 50^th game in the 76^th game of his career in his ninth season. Reno's came in his 86^th game in his ninth season. Siedlecki won his 50^th in his 10^th year at Yale.
 
"I'm proud of what we've been able to accomplish and even more excited about where we're going to take it," Reno said. "Looking back at the history of Yale football and what Coach Cozza was able to do – its goal of my to be able to build on it and honor it. I want to keep chasing greatness every week."


 

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RENO TAKES ANOTHER LOOK AT HIS OFFENSE

10/23/21
By: John Altavilla

 From the moment he first appeared at his postgame press conference following Yale's loss at UConn on Oct. 16, you could tell head coach Tony Reno was disappointed with the opportunity lost.
 
"We had scoring opportunities in the first half we let go by," said Reno, whose team punted on five of its first eight possessions. "We had some guys open. We were just missing. We weren't moving the ball the way we wanted to."
 
That's why the work week leading up to Saturday's 42-28 win over Penn at Yale Bowl was filled discussion and analysis pointed at making the Bulldogs offense more efficient.
 
"We're not playing up to our standard on offense right now and obviously it showed up in the score (the 21-15 loss at UConn)," Reno said. "It's a game I felt like we should have won. If we'd played the full 60 minutes, the outcome is completely different. But we played only 30. We left the game to chance and that's what happens when you do. You rely on the last play to take a shot to win the game. To be honest with you, we didn't play well offensively. If we had, the game would have been different."
 
One of the moves Reno considered was making a change at quarterback. Junior Griffin O'Connor had started the first five games for the Bulldogs, but he struggled at UConn (three interceptions). Yale's offense really didn't get moving until sophomore Nolan Grooms came into the game.
 
"We made the decision at halftime to give Nolan the opportunity and lead the team and (Grooms) did a really nice job and brought us back. He put us in position to win the game on the last play," Reno said.
 
 Reno's had been been looking for situations where he could use Grooms to change the pace.
"I think you look at it a couple different ways," Reno said. "One is, what we've been doing with quarterbacks is putting them in different situations. trying to try to use their skill sets the best. ... Some of it is just the feel of the game. We've had some really good offenses here. There's a rhythm to it. Trying to reestablish the rhythm offensively is really the most important thing to me."

The decision to start Grooms paid off in a big way. He threw for 283 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 113 yards and another two scores.

DECISION TO TRY FOOTBALL LED RAINE TO YALE

It occurred to Adam Raine one day that playing soccer was no longer in his best interest.
 
"I played soccer when I was 250 pounds and my knees hurt so bad after 90 minutes that I couldn't walk the next day. At that point, I decided to quit," Raine said.
 
That decision, one of the crossroads of his young life, ultimately brought him from his home in Basingstoke, England to Yale's football program.
 
"I grew up playing cricket and soccer, but I also played football in England. I played in my first game when I was 16," Raine said. "My grandmother was actually born and raised in Texas. Her son, my uncle, is actually just a few years older than me. He played [football]. I was over their house one day and he said it might actually be worth giving it a shot. So I tried it and really enjoyed it."
 
Soon Raine's interest in football brought him greater opportunities to showcase his burgeoning talent.
 
"My brother and I played with a team in England for two years. I played nine-man football and 11-man football there. Eventually, through some contacts who were trying to bring some European talent to the United States, I went to summer camps. Then I went to a year of prep school (Berkshire School in Sheffield, Mass).
 
Reno remembers the first time he saw him on tape.
 
The first time I saw Adam on film was actually in a five-man game. It looked like the game was in a hallway," Reno said. "Anyway, there was this big fullback or tailback. It was Adam. He was running through and around people. I remember thinking, I don't know where he's going to play, but we've got to take a look at this guy. It was pretty impressive."
 
Reno and his coaches ultimately decided that Raine, a junior who is 6-4, 306 pounds, would be best suited as a defensive lineman.
 
"When he came in he was pretty focused on learning. He leaves his heart and soul on the field every day," Reno said. "His intentionality in terms of work ethic is off the charts. He's making plays now that he likely would have to think about when he was younger. He's been a staple for what we've done defensively and he's a lot of fun to watch."
 
Raine is one of two players on Yale's roster from Europe. The other is offensive lineman Teo Falk, who is 6-7, 256 pounds and comes from Stockholm, Sweden.
 
One of the stalwarts of Yale's 2019 Ivy League championship team, offensive lineman Dieter Eiselen, hailed from South Africa.
 
Raine spent nearly a year back in England once the pandemic canceled the 2020 season, but he has grown fond of the United States during his time here.
 
"I really love the United States, the people and the culture," Raine said. "I'm going to try and stay here for as long as I can. I feel that I fit in well."
 
In the meantime, its certain that Yale will continue to mine prospects from football hotbeds overseas.
 
"It's obvious [that England loves American football] because they are selling out 60- and 70-seat stadiums (for NFL games). There is an appetite for it as a spectator sport," Raine said.
 
"Still, it's going to take some time for that to translate into participation, especially when there are sports like soccer, rugby and cricket (to compete with). But there have been major develops just in the time I've been playing American football. The amount of players coming from Europe to play is a lot higher."

 

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UCONN GAME RENEWED LONG RIVALRY
10/16/21
By: John Altavilla

There was a long period of time during Yale's glorious football history when playing UConn was considered a breather.
 
Yale was the brimming national powerhouse. UConn was the upstart state university with a limited recruiting base and substandard talent.
 
In fact, after their first meeting 62 years ago, Yale won the initial 16 matchups in a series that was conducted annually from 1948 to 1998 with only two exceptions, 1951 and 1985, when the game was canceled by a hurricane.
 
And then one day, Yale didn't win.
 
"Coach (Carmen) Cozza told me a story about it (Yale-UConn)," Yale coach Tony Reno said.
 
"Within my first couple of years at Yale, we had the Army game scheduled (in 2014). He was up in the office, watching some film and he began to talk to me about what it was like to play FBS teams. He told me about the time Yale played UConn [in 1965] and they lost for the first time. Carm said was woke up the next morning and said there was a sign on his front lawn that said "Coach, there's a train at 4 p.m. heading out of New Haven. Be under it."
 
For the first time in 22 years - and for the 50^th time overall - Yale and UConn finally played again on Saturday at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Conn. Despite Yale's 21-15 loss, the Bulldogs still lead the all-time series (32-18).
 
As an indication to how common this game once was, consider that Yale is UConn's fifth-most popular opponent behind Rhode Island (95) Maine, (74), Massachusetts (73) and New Hampshire (71).
 
The reunion resulted through a combination of events. Yale has traditionally looked for opportunities to play FBS opponents. And UConn, in its first season as an independent, was looking for fill a slot on its schedule. The Huskies even paid Yale $275,000 for them to come to UConn.
 
"I work for the greatest athletic directors in the country, in Vicki (Chun, Yale's athletic director) and Ann-Marie (Guglieri, a deputy AD)," Reno said. "They are incredible about keeping me in the loop about everything. Ultimately, the decision [of who to schedule} comes down to them, the leaders of our department. Ann-Marie brought this opportunity forward and we looked at it. Things worked out. Like the Army game in 2014, we're very proud to be the only Ivy League team that scheduling FBS schools. It was hard work to schedule this game."
 
UConn came into the game 0-7 and ranked near the bottom of the in the nation among FBS teams. But Reno did not let the Huskies apparent desperation factor into his preparation.
 
"We don't look at it that way [as if UConn is desperate]. We are concerned about ourselves. I know that's boring. But that's how we are. We're so wired into playing a game that's the best version of ourselves."
 
The game took on a special meaning for a number of Yale players who are from Connecticut.

"They (UConn) did recruit me a little bit, but we didn't finish the recruiting process because I determined where I wanted to be early on," junior defensive back Dathan Hickey of Bristol, Ct., said.  "There were a lot of people reaching out asking about tickets. But like I always do, my priority is to take career of my family and friends. My family already had tickets way before the season started, so I was able to take care of some of my friends. And the end of the day, you have to stay true to those who are true to you."
 
The Yale players, many of who were members of its 2019 Ivy League champions, were also excited about having the opportunity to show off their talents against a team like UConn.
 
"It's an exciting game for us on many levels. It's a chance to showcase who we are to a FBS school. A lot of us were recruited by FBS schools and chose this path for a specific reason," senior tight end Patrick Conte of Newtown, Ct., said. "For all of us Connecticut guys, there's a lot of connections with UConn through friends and family. It's a cool opportunity to combine that world with the family we have here as a football team."
 
Although there currently are no further UConn games on any of Yale's future schedules, the possibility of arranging them again is very real.
 
"I think this game is great for the state of Connecticut," Guglieri said. "And I think it's great for our guys to play against this level of a program. Tony is willing to play anyone to give the guys an experience that they will always remember. Long-term, I think it would be a great series to continue. There's a lot that goes into football scheduling, sometimes 10 to 15 years in advance. A lot of things would have to line up. It's a mutual thing. I have a great relationship with David Benedict (UConn's AD), as does Vicky. It makes sense to have a continued conversation."

PANDEMIC BROUGHT YALE'S SENIORS CLOSER

Prior to the official announcement last season, Reno heard that the 2020 season would be canceled because of the pandemic.
 
So one of the first things he did was bring his team together to share the news. He wanted his players to hear about it first directly from him.
 
"We were tipped off early that our season was going to be canceled and I was able to bring this information to the team before the announcement and have conversations with some of the guys about it," Reno said.
 
Although he didn't admit it to the team at that time, Reno was curious about how his players would react to the news, particularly his rising seniors who were now faced with the possibility their careers would be over without proper closure.
 
Along with canceling the season, the Ivy League presidents also announced they would allow players the option of taking a fifth season to return for their final year if they so decided. They simply could take time off from their academic studies and chose not to graduate on time with the Class of 2021 or do so as graduate students.
 
All that remained to be seen was what the players would do. How many would hit pause on their post-graduate life to stick around for the 2021 season?
 
As it turned out, all but one of the rising seniors decided to return to the team.
 
"I was hopeful for that outcome, but there was no way for me to really know because we were in unchartered waters. There was so much uncertainty," Reno said.
 
Conte said the decision wasn't hard to make.
 
"It had everything to do with the relationships we had with each other. There was no specific time when we all sat down as a group to talk about it and lay out a plan. All of us came to our decisions individually and it turned into a collective decision that we all would come back," Conte said.
 
"We wanted to have the ability to finish our careers together and on the note we wanted, as opposed to something [the pandemic] that was imposed on us. Our culture provided us with the grounding to understand that what was best for us was to be together again on the football field."
 
Conte admitted he had no definitive plan for life immediately after graduation, so he was in no hurry to leave Yale.
 
"The entire after college scenario never even entered my mind. My immediate reaction after the 2020 season was canceled was that I was going to return to play football at Yale. I think that's similar to what most of those in my class experienced," Conte said. "Obviously, there were things in the works about what life might be after Yale. But I gave nothing up because always at the top of my list was to play football at Yale as a senior."
 
Reno has said many times that the success of his program is dependent largely on the sense of brotherhood his players share.
 
"It came down to my players wanting to play together. This senior class has enjoyed a lot of success here. They wanted to finish their careers together," Reno said.
 
"One thing we have here at Yale is our belief in legacy. We tell guys all the time that they need to plant trees they'll never see grow. These seniors have done an amazing job of bringing these guys (the underclassmen) along so that within a year of two they will be able to look back at this class and say, 'They taught me the way.' In my opinion, that is how you can sustain success.'"
 

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DUDEK CONTINUES TO BREAK RECORDS
10/09/21
By: John Altavilla

Seldom has a running back debuted at Yale in more spectacular fashion than Zane Dudek did as a freshman in 2017.
 
After his first three games, Dudek was already averaging more than 10 yards per attempt and had scored five touchdowns. By the end of the season, the halfback led the Ivy League in every scoring and rushing category that mattered. He scored 15 touchdowns and gained 1,133 yards on the ground and was named the Ivy League's Rookie of the Year and was a finalist for FCS Rookie of the Year.
 
It appeared Dudek was going to have a legitimate chance to approach Mike McLeod's (4,514 yards) career rushing mark set from 2005-08.
 
However, after getting off to a fast start in his sophomore season, Dudek suffered an injury to his big toe joint that cost him six games and effectively ended his chance to catch McLeod.
"You look at his freshman year. He averaged 9.7 yards a carry. That was pretty amazing. Then he started his (sophomore) season with a 200-yard game against Holy Cross. He was on his way again before he got injured," Yale coach Tony Reno said. "But that season he came back for the last two games. He wasn't concerned about anything more than helping the team win. If he had stayed injury free, I believe he could have been even better than he was (as a freshman)."
 
Dudek said the injury proved very frustrating.
 
"The injury hurt a lot more for the fact that I felt like I was letting the team down by not being able to be out there with them and help them," Dudek told The Yale Daily News in 2019. "All of that season was me trying as hard as I could in the trainer's room to try and play through it for as many weeks as I possibly could. It took a toll on me mentally because I had never had an injury like that to keep me out for a season. I struggled with that immensely, but luckily, I had my trainer to help me out. All offseason was just working back with my toe and getting stronger to be able to help the team again and let them trust me again."
 
Although he hasn't be able to replicate the big yardage games he produced when he was younger, Dudek has continued to be a relevant piece of Yale's offense and he's now a record-setter.
 
Dudek's fourth carry in the win over Lehigh on Oct. 2 gave him 400 career rushes for 2,506 yards - good for a 6.3 yards per rush average. That mark qualified for the highest total in Yale history, passing the great Dick Jauron and his 5.7 average (515 carries, 2,947 yards).
 
Dudek gained another 43 yards at Dartmouth and now has 2,587 career yards, sixth all-time at Yale.
 
"He has been a rock in this program. He's been extraordinary. He's a first team All American back who does everything for us. He blocks well, catches the ball well. He's very football smart kid. We talk a lot here about legacy. And he does a great job being and ancestor in our program," Reno said.
 
Right now, he's as good as he's ever been. And he's doing so many other things right now. … As we move through the season, you'll see a lot more of Zane."
 
Yale senior receiver Melvin Rouse II said Dudek is one of the best teammates he's ever had.
 "That's my guy. We've clicked since day one. He's always been very team-oriented," Rouse said. "He may not have as many 200-yard games as he did when he was younger, but you can see his development and maturity. Not only does he know how to break the big one, he knows how to break a defense down (with physicality).
"His average per rush makes being an offensive coordinator all the easier. He's a great player, but a greater teammate. Our guys love him, teasing him about being an old man. You love to see people like him thrive because he really deserves it."

PATTERSON'S PLAY EARNS IVY ACCOLADE

Yale's 34-0 win over Lehigh was the result of a cumulative effort by its defense. It held the Mountain Hawks to only 146 yards and registered eight sacks, tying for the most in game during Tony Reno's nine years as Yale's head coach.

"Our preparation does try to stay the same regardless of who the opponent is," senior linebacker Micah Awodiran said. "We really just try to hone in on being better at the things that we run. Our execution is usually the number one thing that we're looking for. There might be a couple of wrinkles here and there, schematically, but we're always just trying to max out the potential of each respective side of the ball and special teams." 

No player was more dominant against Lehigh than sophomore defensive tackle Clay Patterson. He had four sacks, twice the amount he had in his career coming into the game. He also had five other solo tackles. The performance led to him being named the Ivy League's Defensive Player of the Week.

"Clay did an amazing job. You can sense him growing every week. He's playing more freely, more confidently. He's a very athletic interior defensive lineman. He has a skill set that's very hard to handle and he's doing a great job with it. …The coaches have done a great job of putting him in position to make plays and he's made the most of his opportunities," Reno said.

"Clay came to Yale as a defensive end, and he had this huge period of time where he really gained a ton of strength. (He's) super-athletic. …He presents a lot of issues for guys, because his athleticism is — not many interior defensive linemen that have that athleticism. A lot of them are bigger, stronger guys but don't have the side to side movement."

Patterson said his success was just the result of perfectly executing the game plan.

"We just wanted to stay focused and execute the game plan. My goal is just to play hard every play. When you do that, good things will happen. For the D line, we do a lot of movement and stuff, especially on third down," Patterson said.

"We have different guys, whether it be the ends or the interior guys, working to get other people open. That person open on the play is going to make the play. That shows the trust the coaches have in us and we have in each other."

AWODIRAN WINS TOP HONOR

The Yale University Council of the Heads of College selected Awodiran as the recipient of the David Everett Chantler '10 Award. Established by Mrs. Frederick J. Robinson in memory of her brother, David Everett Chantler (B.A. 1910), the award is presented in the spring to that graduating member of the senior class who has best-exemplified qualities of courage, strength of character and high moral purpose.
 
"Winning the David Everett Chantler Award is an immense honor. The opportunity to represent my home community and build upon Yale's rich legacy has been invaluable," Awodiran said. "This award is a reflection of the hard work, dedication and guidance of those who've sacrificed so that I may have the chance to achieve greater heights. I dedicate this award to my Mother and sister for all they've done to mold me into who I strive to be every day." 
 
Awordian was selected for his part in last year's Bulldog Ballot Challenge as well as other initiatives within Yale's African American Cultural Center. In addition to a prominent role in the student-athlete group Yale Bulldogs for Change (YBC), Awodiran has been a standout player. 

 

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Yale Enters "Penalty" Phase Of Its Season

10/02/21
By: John Altavilla

One of the recurring themes of Tony Reno's state of the team addresses has always been his desire for his players to play according to program standards. This is the Yale head coach's way of telling his team that a certain level of performance is expected.

"We have a lot of work to do," Reno said after the Bulldogs beat Cornell 23-17 on Sept. 25. "Our level of execution was nowhere near where it needs to be."

At the core of Reno's concern was Yale's propensity to commit penalties in all phases of play.

"We had more penalties than we'd ever say would be accepted, which led to drives being halted, drives being extended," Reno said. "We need to play to Yale football standards. We say all the time that we play against ourselves."

In fact, Yale committed 14 penalties costing it 144 yards against the Big Red, the most costly on a holding penalty on team captain John Dean which resulted in an interception return for touchdown by senior Rodney Thomas II being called back.

During the work week leading up to Saturday's game at Lehigh, the Yale coaching staff devoted a lot of time trying to determine what caused the penalties and how to prevent them from recurring.

"We'll have to look at the film and come with a reason why things were called. If it's a hold, its likely a technique thing, you stop moving your feet, your hands get outside. If you're losing a block, just let it go instead of trying to hold onto it.," Reno said.

"The pass interference and holding? We'll try to see where the eyes of the player might have been, was their technique correct. Those are probably the most egregious ones we'll need to figure out and fix. But I feel very strongly that we'll be able to make those corrections and move on.

"We definitely need to keep our composure. We tell the team what the repercussions are. And the players will grow from that. We've been down this road before."

As the Cornell game progressed, the players became somewhat frustrated with themselves about all the penalties being called against them.

"We talked as a team that we needed to stay united," Yale quarterback Griffin O'Connor said. "A lot of times during a game you can focus on your own personal issues, the ups and downs of the game, get caught up in the moment of what you're doing. For a well-oiled offense to work, we need 11 guys with same vision and alignment."

To their credit, the Bulldogs remained undeterred by it all and eventually closed out their first victory of the season.

Junior offensive lineman Nick Gargiulo said the team is determined to correct whatever was wrong before too much time passes.

"We all had a pretty good idea after the game that is just can't happen," Gargiulo said. "If you want to win big time games against big time opponents, you need to be better. Maybe there are some tangible things we'll be able to work on as an offensive line, a receiving corps, as a defense to make sure these penalties do not happen in the future."

Things improved somewhat in their 34-0 win over Lehigh on Saturday, but the Bulldogs were still called for nine penalties for 83 yards. The most costly was a hold on senior Jaylan Sandifer that caused a 63-yard touchdown pass from O'Connor to Mason Tipton to be called back in the first quarter.

The Bulldogs Hit The Road

Saturday's win at Lehigh began a three-game road trip that will now take Yale to Dartmouth and UConn before it returns to Yale Bowl to play Penn on Oct. 23.

Reno hopes the time away from home will provide his players a chance to bond in a way that maybe isn't possible otherwise.

"We obviously love being home and playing in Yale Bowl in front of our fans and students. But road trips are great opportunities to be together off-campus," Reno said. "One of the hardest things about it is, it's not the entire team. We travel with a group of 60 some odd guys.

"But we'll spend a lot of time together at the hotel, meeting and bonding. There is a lot to be said for that. Plus, it's a chance to go into someone else's stadium and come away with a win. Our expectation is that this team will continue to grow and hopefully this three-week road trip will help that."

Reno said he doesn't plan on straying much from the team's usual schedule. But he will make one big adjustment.

"The one thing we'll do is slightly deviate from the normal routine to make sure the guys get the opportunity to work on a grass field, especially the nuances of being a long-snapper and a kicker. Other than that, we like to keep our itinerary pretty simple and compact," Reno said.

Gargiulo added that the road trips won't put too much stress on the players academically.

"It doesn't impact our studies at all. We have ample time before, during and after road trips to handle all our school work," Gargiulo said. "Like coach said, it gives us some time to isolate ourselves and really focus on the game. While it brings its own challenges,  it's really beneficial in some ways."

Yale was able to get many of its reserves into Saturday's win because of its one-sided nature, including third-string quarterback freshman Austin Tutas.
 
One Team's Trash Is Another Team's Treasure 

There comes a time during every season when a coach discovers his team needs more than the sound of his voice to keep it energized and relaxed.

For this Yale team, entertainment comes in the form of a metal trash can.

"In 2019 we started a 'Turnover Can,'" Reno said. "For me, it's got to be a trash can from back from when I grew up – metal and it clanged when you threw your stuff in it. We went to Home Depot, bought a $9 trash can and painted it (with Team 148)."

The can rests along the Yale sideline during games. A player or two is assigned the task of banging the can before snaps to get the team fired up. And then, there's this:

"Whenever we a get a turnover, we dunk it in the can. That's a sweet sound. Yes, we love our turnover can. Of course, the sound may be annoying to those who don't know the significance and meaning," Reno said.

Yale's defensive players have really grown to love their turnover can.

"We use it in practice as well as on game day," senior linebacker Micah Awodiran said. "When guys force turnovers they might alley-oop or give us their best dunk show (in the trash can). It's just a great way to bring energy to encourage the guys to look for the ball. Every guy on the sidelines loves it. It allows us to commemorate success on the sidelines as a team. It's one of my favorite things the program has been able to institute since I've been here."

Who knows? Maybe the offensive players will come up with something to entertain themselves.

"We've got to get something going," Gargiulo said. "The defense can't have everything, right?

 

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Yale Turns To NFL For A Suggestion

09/25/21
By: John Altavilla

During the downtime created by the cancelation of the 2020 season, Yale coach Tony Reno and his staff scraped the veneer off every aspect of the operation searching for a more productive way to proceed.

One of the ways they did this was by watching NFL games and jotting down things about how the professionals went about their business that intrigued them.

For instance, the Bulldogs knew they would begin the 2021 season with a pair of quarterbacks, Griffin O'Connor and Nolan Grooms, blessed with much different skill sets.

"We looked at our roster and asked ourselves how do we best showcase our players," Reno said.

Watching the New Orleans Saints play lit the bulb in Reno's brain. You might recall how Saints coach Sean Payton occasionally substituted backup quarterback Taysom Hill for veteran Drew Brees.

The idea was to create a different look for defenses. Brees, a certain Hall of Famer, was more of a drop back passer who ran only when it was absolutely necessary. Hill was the one with the mobility. In fact, Payton often lined up in Wildcat formations when Hill was in the game and got center snaps directly to him.

Reno and his coaches liked what they saw. And during last week's opener against Holy Cross, he substituted Grooms for O'Connor when he felt the situation merited it.

"We had a lot of time last fall," Reno said. "And we really studied the Saints, Drew Brees and Taysom Hill. We felt that Nolan [Grooms] was more Taysom Hill and Griffin [O'Connor] is more of Drew Brees. Griff's the starter. Nolan can come in situations and do certain things, we thought the Saints gave a lot of teams a lot of issues doing that so we really modeled ourselves that way."

Grooms was in the game long enough to complete all three of his passing attempts for 18 yards and gain another 25 yards on six carries, including one rush of 21 yards.

You can expect the rotation to continue during the season, although Grooms appeared only briefly in Saturday's 23-17 over Cornell, completing one pass for four yards.

"There's a lot of situational things that go into it (whether or when to insert Grooms),"Reno said. "When we think we're in a situation where Nolan can help us, we'll do it. But we're not going to force it. We know (Grooms) is a heckuva player. Some games you'll see more of him. Some games you'll see less."

Receivers Have Big Shoes To Fill

No aspect of Yale's 2019 Ivy League championship team was more spectacular than its passing attack. But times change and eventually so do the players.

Gone are record-setting quarterback Kurt Rawlings and his two top receivers, Reed Klubnik and JP Shohfi, who was also Yale's captain.

By the time they graduated, Klubnik (fourth) and Shohfi (fifth) were in the Top 10 in receptions in school history and only Eric Johnson (23) ended his career with more touchdown receptions than Klubnik (21).

Yale coach Tony Reno has moved on by installing a quarterback tandem with Griffin O'Connor and Nolan Grooms. And he's named senior Melvin Rouse and sophomore Mason Tipton as his starting wide receivers.

In last Saturday's loss to Holy Cross, Tipton had three receptions for 52 yards, including a 30-yard gain. And Rouse had three catches for 23 yards.

"I learned a lot from both of them (Klubnik and Shohfi)," Tipton said. "They were two of the best receivers to ever come out of Yale. And I can still pick their brains, I have their phone numbers. It's been really resourceful for me to have those guys around. Is it a challenge? Yes, I know I have some big shoes to fill. But at the end of the day, I believe in myself and in what I can do for the team. My interest is in just trying to be myself. And if I do, I believe everything else will work itself out.

Yale's quarterbacks completed 18 of 32 for 252 yards and two touchdowns against Holy Cross. And Reno said the production could have been much greater.

"A lot of offense comes down to timing," Reno said. "There were a lot of plays that were really close to being made, big plays that unfortunately just weren't made. It's very cut and dry. A play is either made or it isn't. It's not like you can say, 'We were close.' We have to get back to work and make sure we can convert in those situations. It's not any one person, it's the collective group." 

During the 2019 season, Tipton was third on the team in receptions with 24 for 325 yards and four touchdowns.

Tipton agrees with Reno that time will help solve the issues which hampered Yale's passing attack in the opener. And that includes becoming accustomed to the different looks and styles of O'Connor, who throws right, and the left-handed Grooms.

"In practice we're able to get comfortable with both quarterbacks," Tipton said. "Both of them are ridiculously talented. It actually helps the flow of the game when you consider what the both of them can do. As a receiver, I know what both of them can accomplish. In time, with more experience, it's going to look a lot better."

In Saturday's win over Cornell, Rouse led the team with five receptions for 61 yards. Jaylan Sandifer had four catches for 29 yards and Darrion Carrington had three catches for 65 yards and one touchdown.
 

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The Wait Is Finally Over For Reno And His Players

09/18/21
By: John Altavilla

During his coaching career, Tony Reno has become accustomed to working on Saturday afternoons.
 
His toil and preparation gets funneled into 10 game days and for guys like Reno, that experience provides a rush that's most likely impossible to match in everyday life.
 
So you can imagine the cavernous void created when the pandemic caused the cancelation of the Ivy League's 2020 season.
 
"Weekends were different. To be honest, I wasn't exactly great to be around on Saturdays," Reno said. "I wouldn't watch college games. I did a lot of yard work, attended a lot of youth games my kids were participating in. But now we're back to playing football. The stars are aligned the way they should be."
That waiting finally ended last Saturday when the Bulldogs lost the 2021 season opener 20-17 to Holy Cross at Yale Bowl.
 
"There a number of great emotions running through me, the staff and the players," Reno said. "It's great to be back together, to finally be able to stand in front of the team again."
 
 The Bulldogs, coming off another Ivy League championship, were picked second in the league's preseason poll. But there is great optimism about this season. Even though record-setting quarterback Kurt Rawlings has graduated, Yale has six of their top seven tacklers returning on defense.
 
Reno said the team's preparation has been spectacular.
 
"Throughout the entire time since we last played a game, the players have been nothing short of amazing," Reno said. "They've paid attention, proven themselves to be able to function in any environment. To see how they've handled it all was inspiring to me. They stared down adversity and found a way to come together."
 
During the time off, Reno's staff trained its energy on evaluating every aspect of how the program operates.
 
"We spent a lot of time together as a staff breaking ourselves down. We had a lot of time to basically study film and look how we could improve ourselves in recruiting, offense, defense, leadership. We did a deep dive in every area," Reno said.
 
And since the players returned to campus in August, the coaching staff has reinforced the principles upon which the program has been built since Reno arrived.
 
According to Yale's captain, linebacker John Dean, the focus has never wavered.
 
"The perspective we have is that our season didn't get canceled. It just got delayed," Dean said during the Ivy League's media day.
 

Dean Encouraged Teammates To Be Creative

Had their 2020 season not been canceled, those Yale players who would have been seniors would be out in the world chasing postgraduate dreams.
 
But because they weren't ready to stop playing football, all but one of them made the necessary adjustments in their academic schedules enabling them to return for the 2021 season.
"What would I have been doing this year (had he graduated)?," Yale captain John Dean said. "That's a great question. I really don't have post-graduate plans now, and I didn't have them a year ago. So I honestly don't have any idea about what I would be doing."
 
Instead, Dean has been focused on doing his part to keep the team pointed in the right direction. Like this: Without being able to use Yale's weight room to enhance conditioning, Dean encouraged the players to get creative.
 
"Guys were throwing hay bales or pushing cars," Yale coach Tony Reno said. "Some guys even went to Home Depot and filled up cement pails so they could do different things."
 
"Some guys that didn't have access to a gym put as many rocks as they could find into a backpack and squatted that (weight)," Dean said.
 
Dean and several of his teammates spent of portion of the summer in Maine, lifting and bonding.
 
"That was a nice experience to be able to quarantine with some teammates and work out hard," Dean said."The team is super excited to be able to compete and play. It's been a long-time coming, but we did a great job staying in the present and focusing on getting better every day as opposed to focusing on something that was eight, 12 or 16 months away.
 
Griffin O'Connor, Yale's junior quarterback, spent a portion of his summer playing catch with his dad.
 
"Those small moments helped build momentum for the season," O'Connor said. "My sister had some great advice for me: She said 'Plow the fields now and the harvest will come. The season is upon us now. And we're excited to enjoy the fruits of our labor."