Rick Santos will serve as the next head coach of Penn football, Penn Athletics announced Saturday.
Santos was previously the head coach of New Hampshire for five seasons, where he led the Wildcats to three FCS Playoff appearances in the past four years. Santos finished his time with New Hampshire with a 37-24 overall record and a CAA title in 2022. This past season, the No. 25 Wildcats ended the regular season with an 8-5 overall record before falling to South Dakota State 41-3 in the first round of the FCS Playoffs.
“I am incredibly excited and humbled by the opportunity to lead the football program at the University of Pennsylvania," Santos said in a Penn Athletics press release. "Penn represents excellence at the highest level—academically, athletically, and institutionally—and I am grateful for the trust placed in me to steward such a proud and prestigious program."
A star quarterback for New Hampshire in the mid 2000s, Santos won the Walter Payton Award as the FCS’s most outstanding offensive player in 2006. He then spent three years with three different clubs in the Canadian Football League before beginning his coaching career as an assistant at his alma mater, Bellingham High School in Massachusetts.
“We are thrilled to welcome a high-energy, dynamic leader in Rick Santos as the next head coach of Penn Football,” Director of Athletics and Recreation Alanna Wren said in the release. “He is a proven winner, taking New Hampshire to multiple NCAA FCS Playoff appearances, and is considered one of the best players in FCS history as a former Walter Payton Award winner. I am confident Rick will have Penn competing for Ivy League championships and postseason appearances in the near future.”
Santos is also no stranger to the Ivy League — he worked as a quarterbacks coach at Columbia from 2016 to 2018 before returning to New Hampshire in 2019.
“The chance to work with outstanding student-athletes at a world-class institution, while competing for championships and developing leaders for life, is truly special. I cannot wait to begin this next chapter and fully embrace the Penn football community,” Santos said.
“I don’t know him personally yet, but I know he’s coming from a strong program at UNH. From what I’ve seen, he’s done some impressive things there. I’m looking forward to meeting him and getting started,” sophomore quarterback Karson Siqueiros-Lasky wrote in a message to The Daily Pennsylvanian.
After 39 years with the program and nine at the helm, coach Ray Priore stepped down from the program on Nov. 24. The Quakers finished 6-4 this past season. The program has not won an Ivy League title since the 2016 season. In his tenure has head coach, Priore’s team finished 52-38 overall.
Santos will be introduced to the Penn community at a press conference on Dec. 16 held in Li Family Auditorium within the Coulson Family Training Complex at Franklin Field.
