Recapping Holy Cross
Not all careers follow a reliable path at Yale. Sometimes injuries get in the way, derailing a promising career for a year, maybe even two. When that happens, it’s up to the player to decide if the wait to play will be worth it.
Take senior wide receiver Nico Brown, for example. Injuries to his wrist and toe essentially wiped out his sophomore and junior seasons putting the brakes on what aspirations he might have had.
But this year is different. Healthy and happy, Brown got his first chance to shine in Yale’s season opener and he made the most of it.
“Super excited,” said Brown. “When my number was called, I was ready to go. Injuries are frustrating. But this has come full circle.
Senior Josh Pitsenberger scored three touchdowns and gained 127 yards and Brown made five catches for 119 yards to lead the Bulldogs to a 28-10 win at Yale Bowl.
"It went as good as it possibly could have," said Pitsenberger said. "The opponent we played had three extra weeks of film, but for us it didn't matter. For us, it is always Y v Y. These past four weeks, we have been stacking days, getting better and focusing on ourselves.”
The three touchdowns by Pitsenberger were his most in a game since he scored three against Princeton in 2023. It was also the first time since 2014 that Yale players gained as much as100 rushing yards and 100 receiving yards in a season opener.
Down 7-0 at the half, the Crusaders cut into the lead with their first drive of the second half. The big play was a 64-yard completion from quarterback Cal Swanson to Joseph Williams to the Yale 13. A few plays later, Luis Palenzuela’s 23-yard field goal made it 7-3.
Then Yale got busy.
A 43-yard completion from freshman quarterback Dante Reno (13 of 18, 166 yards, one TD) to Brown put the ball of Yale’s 1. From there Pitsenberger, Yale’s captain, ran it in with 7:20 to play in the third quarter.
The Reno-Brown vibe resulted in another touchdown on Yale’s next possession, a 29-yard strike to the right corner of the endzone with 3:02 remaining
Finally, Pitsenberger blasted his way through the Holy Cross line for a 10-yard score, his third of the day, to put Yale up 28-3 with 11:49 remaining in the game.
Since 2018, Yale has opened the season against a Holy Cross team that had already played three games. But this year, the Crusaders lost every one of them.
The one big difference this season was who was starting at quarterback for Yale. Reno, the son of Yale’s head coach, transferred to Yale from South Carolina and then won the job in training camp.
The Bulldogs opened the scoring with a touchdown on the first drive. Highlighted by a 37-yard completion from Reno to Brown to the Holy Cross 24, the 12-play, 76-yard drive was capped off by Pitsenberger’s 1-yard run with 9:16 remaining in the quarter.
Yale’s defense did a good job keeping the lead secure through the end of the quarter, first by stopping Holy Cross on a fourth down then ending a second drive with sacks from Phoenix Grant and Mack Johnson.
Abu Kamara added a third sack in the second quarter to help the Bulldogs keep Holy Cross scoreless in the half. The Crusaders managed only 113 yards in the half.
“The goal is to be excellent an elite and we chase that,” said Kamara. “Somehow, some way they didn’t put any points up. We played really well, but there’s stuff we can definitely improve on. Considering that we were three weeks behind (Holy Cross), I think we played very well as a team.”
Pitsenberger led Yale with 48 yards rushing in the half, a total which would have been much greater had a big gain in the second quarter not been wiped out by an illegal formation penalty.
Players of the Game
WR Nico Brown, Sr., 6-0, 185, Huntington Beach, Calif. (Edison)
After missing the majority of the last two seasons with injuries, Brown entered the spotlight in a big way, making seven receptions for 119 yards and one touchdown on a 29-yard pass from freshman quarterback Dante Reno that made the score 21-3.
DB Abu Kamara, Jr., 6-1, 208, Prospect Park, Pa. (Interboro)
Yale’s star defensive back began the 2025 season in high style, making 10 tackles (four solo), two for losses and registering one of the Bulldogs three sacks.
RB Josh Pitsenberger, Sr., 6-0, 220, Bethesda, Md. (The Avalon School)
Yale’s captain got his season going by scoring three touchdowns (a pair from the 1, the other from the 10) and leading the Bulldogs with 127 yards rushing.
Reno’s Corner
"I am really pleased with the effort and resilience the team showed today. Holy Cross is a quality opponent, and they challenged us in a lot of ways. We certainly have some areas for improvement, and we will spend the week addressing those, but I was encouraged by how our players stayed poised throughout the game. For a first week, it was a good step forward, and now it's about building on this performance and continuing to grow as a team."
Ivy League Standings
Brown - 0-0, 1-0
Dartmouth- 0-0, 1-0
Harvard - 0-0, 1-0
Penn - 0-0, 1-0
Yale - 0-0, 1-0
Columbia - 0-0, 0-1
Cornell - 0-0, 0-1
Princeton - 0-0, 0-1
In the National Poll
The Ivy League’s first week of play resulted in four teams getting votes in this week’s FCS Top 25 poll.
Dartmouth led the way with 31 points. Grayson Saunier scored the go-ahead touchdown with under five minutes remaining and D.J. Crowther had 143 yards rushing and Dartmouth defeated New Hampshire 27-20.
Harvard, which had been the only Ivy team receiving points until this week, gathered 16 points. Jaden Craig threw for 208 yards and two touchdowns, and seven different players scored to lead the Crimson to a 59-7 road win over Stetson.
Led three touchdowns by halfback Josh Pitsenberger and five receptions by senior receiver Nico Brown, Yale opened the season with a 28-10 win over Holy Cross which earned it 13 points.
Qwentin Brown ran for two touchdowns and James Murphy threw for two to pace Brown’s over 46-0 win over Georgetown. The Bears were rewarded two points.
Here is this week’s national Top 10
| Rank |
School (1st votes) |
Rec. |
Pts. |
| 1 |
North Dakota St. (25) |
3-0 |
649 |
| 2 |
South Dakota St. (1) |
3-0 |
622 |
| 3 |
Tarleton St. |
5-0 |
598 |
| 4 |
Montana |
3-0 |
552 |
| 5 |
Illinois St. |
3-1 |
546 |
| 6 |
Montana St. |
2-2 |
525 |
| 7 |
Rhode Island |
4-0 |
492 |
| 8 |
UC Davis |
2-1 |
418 |
| 9 |
Lehigh |
4-0 |
402 |
| 10 |
Idaho |
2-2 |
381 |
Others Receiving Votes: Presbyterian, 51; Lamar, 42; Dartmouth, 31; Lafayette, 26; Harvard, 16; Southeastern Louisiana, 14; Yale, 13; Furman, 11; New Hampshire, 9; Stephen F. Austin, 9; North Carolina Central, 7; East Tennessee St., 5; Gardner-Webb, 5; UT-Rio Grande Valley, 5; Richmond, 3; Brown, 2; Chattanooga, 2; Eastern Washington, 1; San Diego, 1; South Carolina St., 1.
Bulldog Bloodlines: Dante Reno Brings His Game to Yale
For as far back as Dante Reno can remember, his father never tried to be his football coach. Baseball and basketball were different, but when it came to Dante’s development as a football player, dad always took a step back and let other coaches take the lead.
Well, things are much different now. Dante, now a 6-foot-2 stud at quarterback, with four years of eligibility in his pocket, makes his debut this season as Yale’s starting quarterback playing for his father, Tony Reno, now considered one of the great head coaches in the history of the program.
“He’s the starting quarterback, he’s earned it,” Tony Reno told WTNH-TV a few weeks ago. “He fits our offense very well and we’re excited to get him going.”
Dante Reno attended Cheshire (Conn.) Academy, where he went 159-for-248 passing as a senior for 2,358 yards and 20 touchdowns with seven interceptions. While there he was selected as an Under Armour All-American before committing to South Carolina and the SEC in 2022.
Dante played a limited role last season, appearing in only one game. But in the short time he was there, the Gamecocks program made a number of changes with offensive coordinators under head coach Shane Beamer.
“I committed to one offensive coordinator (Marcus Satterfield), then he went to Nebraska,” Dante told The Athletic earlier this season. “And then when I was still getting recruited, Dowell Loggains, he came in. I loved him and then he left and went to (be the head coach at) App State. So, it was kind of like having three different guys in three different years. It was tough.”
There was also the reality that Dante would be stuck, at least temporarily, as one of the backups for LaNorris Sellers, who been mentioned as a possible Heisman Trophy candidate.
“It doesn’t matter what level you’re at, playing as a true freshman is really hard. You don’t see it a lot,” said Reno. “But I learned a lot (at South Carolina), I developed my body well. I don’t want to say that I was disappointed. If I took nothing from that experience, I would have been disappointed. I learned a lot about offensive philosophy and how to be a college football player.”
So, after last season, Dante had a decision to make. Despite his close friendships with his teammates and coaches, he decided, on the last day possible, to enter the transfer portal.
At that point, playing for Yale became his focus and he sought out his father to share his aspirations. Tony Reno was very excited about it and on June 9, Dante committed to Yale.
“I got home from a couple of visits,” Dante said, “and I talked to my mom, ‘What do you think of the idea of playing with Dad?'”
“So I asked him, ‘What do you think about me coming for a visit, spending some time around the guys?’ And I told my dad, ‘I want you to be the coach, and I just want to be a player for a night, to see what that feels like.’ That was a big thing for me, because he had never coached me before—he always let other people coach me.”
It’s believed that he is the first quarterback in the portal era to decide to play for his father.
“It’s a little different when your kid’s out there playing,” Dante said. “Once you’re in the facility and on the field, it’s more coach-to-player than dad-to-kid. The key is being able to separate the two, on the field, off the field, and at home. It’s not two completely different worlds, but you have to be coach and player in one setting, and father and son at the end of the day.”
Following the great careers of Kurt Rawlings and Nolan Grooms, and the great season of Grant Jordan in 2024, Dante will get his chance to put his own stamp on the program.
“Dante has elite anticipation and accuracy, and he works hard. He has a full career ahead of him and it will be exciting to see him grow,” said Chris Ostrowsky, Yale’s offensive coordinator. “Our growth has been really special from July until today. We’re further along than I thought we would be this early, so the sky is the limit for us.”
While he was impressing his coaches, Dante was also attracting the attention of his teammates, which certainly help him speed up the acclimation process.
“What I noticed from Dante, he’s been around the culture for some time,” said Yale captain Josh Pitsenberger. “But you don’t see too many transfers come in and try to buy in immediately. That’s exactly what he did. He brought guys along, he stepped up in the offense, he led meetings with all the skill players, 7-on-7, installing (offense), film, Dante led all of that.
“His leadership is one of the biggest pieces, and the fact he can play good football is just a plus.”
