The Albany Great Danes hired Tom Perkovich to lead the football program. Perkovich was previously with the NCAA Division III Susquehanna River Hawks for 11 years.
Perkovich played football and basketball at Canisius from 1999 through 2002. The school dropped football after the 2002 season and Perkovich would begin his coaching career in 2003 at NCAA Division III Muhlenberg. After two years as the running backs coach, Perkovich became the tight ends coach at Holy Cross for the 2005 campaign. In 2006, he moved to Colgate as the running backs coach. In 2007, Perkovich returned to Muhlenberg as the special teams and offensive line coach. He was promoted to the offensive coordinator in 2011 and remained as the OC through 2014. He then took the head coaching role at Susquehanna in 2015.
Susquehanna went 5-5 in its first season under Perkovich, but later saw the five victories vacated due to infractions. The team would go 6-4 in 2016, 8-3 in 2017, and 7-3 in 2018. The River Hawks won the 2017 and 2018 Centennial-MAC Bowls. In 2019, the team went 10-1, but missed out on the NCAA Division III playoffs. Ironically, Susquehanna lost the head-to-head matchup and the Centennial AQ bid against Muhlenberg. After no season in 2020, Susquehanna went 9-2 in 2021. The River Hawks won four straight Centennial-MAC Bowls from 2017 through 2021.
In 2022, the River Hawks broke through and won the Centennial. They lost the first round matchup to finish 10-1 and moved to the Landmark Conference in 2023. There, Susquehanna would win the AQ bid but lose the first round once more. In 2024, Perkovich led the River Hawks all the way to the D-III Semifinals, where they lost to the eventual national champions, North Central (Illinois). Susquehanna returned to the D-III playoffs in 2025, reaching the quarterfinals before losing to Johns Hopkins.
In his 10 seasons at Susquehanna, Perkovich went 83-25 overall and 60-17 in conference games. He won four conference titles, made the D-III playoffs four times, and won four bowl games. He will take over an Albany squad that went 2-10 in Jared Ambrose’s lone season as the interim head coach.
Photo Credit to Susquehanna University Athletics
