HEAD COACH TONY RENO

Named the Joel E. Smilow ’54 Head Coach of Yale Football on Jan. 12, 2012. In his 12th season at the helm in 2024.

Guided the Bulldogs to Ivy League championships in four of the last six seasons (2023, 2022, 2019 and 2017).

Enters the 2024 season with 67 victories, tied with Walter Camp for the third most in school history.

Four Bulldogs have won the Asa S. Bushnell Cup as the Ivy Player of the Year under Reno’s direction – quarterback Nolan Grooms, a two-time recipient (2023, 2022), quarterback Kurt Rawlings (2019), linebacker Matthew Oplinger (2017) and running back Tyler Varga (2014). Running back Joshua Pitsenberger (2022), quarterback Griffin O’Connor (2018) and running back Zane Dudek (2017) have been named Ivy Rookie of the Year during his tenure.

Ten Bulldogs Reno has coached have gone on to play in the National Football League – Kiran Amegadjie (Chicago Bears) Dieter Eiselen (Chicago Bears, Houston Texans), Nick Gargiulo (Denver Broncos), Jaeden Graham (Atlanta Falcons, Philadelphia Eagles), JJ Howland (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Foyesade Oluokun (Atlanta Falcons, Jacksonville Jaguars), Matthew Oplinger (Arizona Cardinals), Rodney Thomas II (Indianapolis Colts), Mason Tipton (New Orleans Saints) and Tyler Varga (Indianapolis Colts). Oluokun, who led the NFL in tackles in 2021 and 2022, Amegadjie, Tipton, Gargiulo, Thomas and Eiselen are currently on NFL rosters.

His 2023 team won seven of its final eight games, including a victory over Harvard, to finish 7-3 overall and 5-2 in Ivy play, winning the 18th Ivy championship in school history.

Selected as the Ivy League Coach of the Year in 2022 after leading Team 149 to an outright Ivy title with an 8-2 overall record and a 6-1 league mark. The Bulldogs led the league in scoring offense (30.5 ppg.) and were second in scoring defense (19.5 ppg.).

In 2019, led Team 147 to a 9-1 season that was capped with a thrilling 50-43, double overtime victory over Harvard in The Game. The Bulldogs trailed by 19 points early in the fourth quarter but scored two touchdowns in the final 90 seconds to force overtime before finishing off the remarkable comeback as darkness set in at Yale Bowl.

In 2017, guided the Bulldogs to their first outright Ivy title in 37 years. Team 145, which included 20 all-league selections, finished with a No. 24 national ranking after earning the Blue’s first Ivy championship in 11 seasons. The championship was clinched in grand fashion with a 24-3 win over Harvard before 52,000 fans at Yale Bowl. Following the memorable season, Reno earned Division I Coach of the Year honors from both the New England Football Writers and the Gridiron Club of Boston.

Selected as a finalist for the 2014 Eddie Robinson Award, presented annually to college football's top head coach in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision. The Bulldogs finished with an 8-2 overall record that season, including a thrilling overtime victory over FBS Army at Yale Bowl, which was celebrating its 100th anniversary. Yale was in the hunt for the Ivy title entering The Game, which brought the ESPN GameDay crew to Harvard Stadium.

Spent six years on the Yale coaching staff under Jack Siedlecki, rising to assistant head coach. Helped the Bulldogs win the 2006 Ivy title as the defensive secondary coach after coaching wide receivers in 2003. Fourteen of his players earned all-league honors during his tenure as a Yale assistant coach.

Prior to being named Yale’s head coach, served as Harvard’s special teams coordinator and defensive secondary coach from 2009 to 2011. Helped engineer an undefeated 2011 Ivy League championship team for the Crimson, which earned a No. 14 FCS national ranking.

Oxford, Mass., native and a 1997 Worcester State College graduate. Completed a master’s of science in health education from Worcester State in 2000.

As a player at Worcester State, was a three-year starter at free safety, and his team was league champion his last two seasons.

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

The first Yale football head coach from Massachusetts since Ted Coy '10 in 1910.

Reno and his wife, Toni, have three children: Dante, Angelina and Vince.