New Hampshire head coach Rick Santos has taken the same position at Penn. Santos went 31-19 over the last four seasons and made three FCS playoff appearances with the Wildcats.
Santos played collegiately at New Hampshire from 2003 through 2007 and spent part of the 2008 offseason with the Kansas City Chiefs. Santos ultimately ended up in the Canadian Football League for four seasons. In 2012, he started his coaching career at Bellingham High School in Massachusetts. In 2013, he returned to UNH as the wide receivers coach for three seasons. He then went to Columbia from 2016 through 2018 to take the quarterbacks coaching role.
In 2019, Santos rejoined UNH as the associate head coach and quarterbacks coach, but ended up becoming the interim head coach for the season for Sean McDonnell. The Wildcats went 6-5 overall that season, with upsets over #22 Stony Brook and #11 Villanova. Santos returned to the AHC and QB roles for the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
In December 2021, Santos was promoted to head coach. UNH went 8-3 in the regular season and tied for the CAA standings. The Wildcats reached the second round of the FCS playoffs before falling to Holy Cross to finish 9-4 overall. In 2023, UNH took a slight step back after starting the season ranked and finishing 6-5 overall.
In 2024, the Wildcats started 4-4, but won the last four games to make the FCS playoffs. They lost the first round matchup at home to UT Martin to finish 8-5 overall. In 2025, the Wildcats started 3-4 overall, but once again rallied to win the final five games to reach 8-4 overall. UNH made the FCS playoffs for the third time in four seasons, but fell to South Dakota State in the first round.
For his career, Santos is 37-24 overall and 28-12 in CAA games over his five seasons. Santos will replace Penn legend Ray Priore, who stepped down after nearly 40 years with the Quakers. Priore spent the final 11 years as head coach for Penn, going 58-42 overall and 33-30 in the Ivy League.
Santos is the 15th FCS coaching change to occur in the current cycle. Albany (CAA), Bucknell (Patriot League), Cal Poly (Big Sky), Florida A&M (SWAC), Hampton (CAA), Mercer (SoCon), Monmouth (CAA), Penn (Ivy League), Portland State (Big Sky), Sacramento State (Big Sky), Samford (SoCon), Southern (SWAC), Weber State (Big Sky), and West Georgia (UAC) have also announced changes. The full list of changes can be found here.
Photo Credit to the University of New Hampshire Athletics
