As Penn welcomes a new school year, University athletes are gearing up for a new season.
Some teams are looking to maintain last year’s momentum as they head into the fall, and others are looking to kick off with a clean slate — starting with the coaching staff.
Here are the new head coaches and a few of the assistant coaches Penn’s teams have added during the offseason:
Head coaches
Rick Santos — football
Rick Santos was named the new head coach of Penn football at the end of 2025, following the resignation of longtime head coach Ray Priore. Santos previously served as the University of New Hampshire’s head coach, where he led the Wildcats to three FCS playoff appearances in four years.
Penn football finished 6-4 in the 2025-26 season. With the Red and Blue losing star quarterback Liam O’Brien, wide receiver Jared Richardson, and special teams player Julien “Juice” Stokes to graduation, Santos is looking to reshape the program to capture the Ivy League championship title, which Penn last won in 2016.
Jon Dupont — sprint football
After 19 seasons as an assistant coach for Penn football, Jon Dupont will now serve as sprint football’s head coach.
While serving as a Penn football assistant coach, Dupont helped the team win five Ivy League championships and recruited 2018 Wharton graduate, NFL wide receiver, and three-time Super Bowl champion Justin Watson. Penn sprint football finished 2-6 in the 2025 season, and Dupont looks to make the historic anchor program competitive once again.
Tyler Nase — women’s rowing
Following the resignation of former women’s rowing head coach Bill Manning, former Olympian Tyler Nase took the job on July 20.
Nase rowed collegiately at Princeton, where he helped its first varsity boat win bronze in the 2010 Eastern Sprints and an Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship title. Following graduation, Nase rowed for the United States men’s national team at the 2013 World Cup and in the 2016 Olympics.
Since then, he served as an assistant coach for Penn men’s lightweight rowing program until 2022, when he moved to Ithaca as head coach for the Cornell men’s lightweight rowing program. Now, he returns to Philadelphia after the women’s rowing program failed to qualify for the NCAA championships for the first time in five years at the end of last season.
Assistant coaches
Lucas Byrd — wrestling
Penn wrestling head coach Matt Valenti added NCAA national champion Lucas Byrd to his coaching staff over the summer. Byrd is now the third NCAA All-American on the wrestling coaching staff, in addition to coach Valenti and assistant coach Lennox Wolak.
A four-time All-American for Illinois, Byrd claimed the NCAA title in the 133-pound weight class in 2025. Byrd joins Valenti and the coaching staff to improve a wrestling program that finished third out of six at the Ivy League championships last season.
Graeme Williams — women’s squash
Graeme Williams will join Penn’s squash program as an assistant coach. He previously served as the assistant coach for Princeton’s women’s squash team.
Last season, Penn faced Princeton in both the Ivy League championship and the CSA National Team Championships. Princeton won the conference, but Penn claimed the national title for the first time in more than 25 years.
Williams helped the Tigers secure the No. 1 seed in CSA team rankings last season, but he’ll be donning the Red and Blue for the 2027 season.
Madison Carter — women’s lacrosse
In July, Penn women’s lacrosse head coach Karin Brower announced Madison Carter would join the program as an assistant coach.
Carter played lacrosse for Penn State, helping her team advance to back-to-back NCAA Final Four appearances in 2016 and 2017. Since then, Carter has served as an assistant coach for lacrosse at Mercer and Clemson, where she helped kickstart the lacrosse program.
Carter has most recently served on UConn’s staff as an assistant coach, helping lead the team to three straight Big East tournament appearances.
Following an 8-8 record in the 2025-26 season — Penn’s worst since 2022 — and the program’s third straight 5-2 conference record, Carter looks to elevate Penn’s program.
