Shawn Halloran was at his new job for the first time yesterday.
"I'm excited about the opportunity to be looking eye-to-eye at the players," he said.
Those players are members of the Penn football team's offense -- which Halloran was hired to direct last week after a three-year stint as the head coach at Division III Franklin and Marshall.
The search for a new offensive coordinator lasted just over a month and commenced after Andy Coen left to become the head coach at Lehigh in the beginning of January.
Halloran will have large shoes to fill -- in Coen's six years in Philadelphia, the Quakers went 47-12 overall and 35-7 in Ivy League play, winning three championships.
Much of the success in those years can be attributed to a high-powered offense that included every all-time, single-season and single-game record in passing and receiving except for receiving yards in a game, the second leading rusher of all time and the player with the most rushing touchdowns -- Kris Ryan.
But for Halloran, the choice to come to Penn was clear.
"It was a great opportunity to work with an outstanding staff and a head coach like coach [Al] Bagnoli," he said.
He also cited Penn's tradition as a reason that he accepted the job.
Once Halloran found out that he was a candidate for the position, he quickly told Franklin and Marshall about the possibility.
Within 72 hours, he had the job and was resigned from his previous one.
One of the reasons that Halloran thinks he got the job is that he has some familiarity with the Penn program.
He hired former Penn defensive assistant Tony Thompson after the 2002 season. After that, Bagnoli gave Halloran the opportunity to watch some of Penn's spring practices.
Thompson was Halloran's defensive coordinator with the Diplomats and next year will be the special teams coach at Hofstra.
Halloran also knows the Penn program and some of the rest of the Ivy League from his days as the special teams coach at Yale, from 1997-2002.
"My familiarity is pretty decent," Halloran said.
Before joining the Elis staff, Halloran was the offensive coordinator at Georgetown for five seasons and was an assistant at Worcester Polytechnic and his alma mater, Boston College.
