Tony Reno appears as the favorite for the Rice job

The Rice Owls are closing in on hiring Yale’s Tony Reno as the next head coach of the football program, sources tell Dave Campbell’s Texas football. Reno has spent decades in Ivy League circles, becoming the head football coach at Yale in 2012. He has won four conference titles in his time there, including championships in 2022 and 2024. Yale is currently 7-2 in 2024.

A native of Oxford, Mass., Reno, 50, is known in the Ivy League ranks as an ace recruiter. He played free safety at Worcester State in Massachusetts and cut his teeth in the coaching business as defensive coordinator at his alma mater from 1998-2002. He was the defensive backs coach at Yale from 2004-08 and the special teams and defensive backs coach at Harvard from 2009-11 when he left for the head coaching job at Yale.

Reno’s son, Dante, is a freshman quarterback at South Carolina who signed in the 2024 class. The 6-2, 214-pound freshman threw for 2,358 yards and 20 touchdowns as a senior and added eight scores on the ground. He was an Under Armor All-American and an Elite 11 finalist as a prep star. It wouldn’t come as a surprise if he transferred to Rice to start for his father.

Former Rice head coach Mike Bloomgren was fired in his seventh season on Oct. 27 following the Owls’ Week 9 loss to UConn to fall to 2-6 on the season. He was 24-52 as the head coach at South Main, which heralded Rice’s move from CUSA to the AAC ahead of the 2023 season. His Owls reached bowl games in 2022 and 2023, but never finished a season with a winning record.

Rice’s last winning season was in 2014 when David Bailiff led the Owls to eight wins. It was also the last season Rice won a bowl game. The program won 10 in 2013 and 2008.