With the departure of former head coach Jim Parady from the Marist football team, the Red Foxes have flipped the program upside down in the last month and a half. After 32 years, it was time for the head coach to move on after completely shaping the football program into what it is today.
Everything has changed in short order; there’s a new head coach (hired from outside the PFL), a brand new staff and many players jumping in and out of the portal. It’s my job to get you up to speed on the coaches, the players and the schedule of the new-look Foxes.
Dec. 19, 2023: Marist Football names Princeton assistant coach Mike Willis as head coach.
Willis’ hiring was the most important news in the wake of the Parady departure, and he joins the Marist staff as a first-time head coach of a Division I program.
The hiring could be considered shocking for one simple reason: it was an out-of-house hire. Considering that Parady’s defensive coordinator Scott Rumsey was by his side for 23 years (26 as a coach on the staff) and offensive coordinator Casey Tosches was a new in-house hire last year (five years previous on the staff), it’s safe to say the athletic department has gone in a different direction than years past.
Willis got his stripes in the Ivy League for the Princeton Tigers as both a player and a coach. He played offensive line during a turnaround in the Princeton program that featured an Ivy League championship in his final year of play in 2013, their first since 2006.
The Princeton graduate said he took a 90% pay cut to be a football intern in 2015 with Princeton instead of taking a “real-world job.” His decision quickly paid off, as he rose through the ranks of the Princeton staff, becoming an assistant head coach in 2017. Willis specializes in tight end personnel, as the Tigers have had an All-Ivy League player in the position in the first six seasons as a tight ends coach.
The New Jersey native received his promotion to offensive coordinator in 2020. Coincidingly, the Tigers had the top-scoring offense in their conference while winning the Ivy League championship, an impressive feat for a first-time coordinator.
While the following year Princeton maintained a solid offense (second in the Ivy League), they dropped to sixth in 2023.
At first glance, Willis’s Princeton ties make the move surprising, but the coach does have a family history with Marist. His grandfather, Anthony Campilii, worked at Marist for 43 years as the Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Business Affairs.
“No matter how this played out, they [Marist] had a Red Foxes fan for life,” said Willis to Marist football play-by-by commentator Geoff Brault in a Marist Athletics interview. “It’s an institution that’s intrinsic to who I am; I’ve spent time running around the campus with my grandpa… it’s very rare in college football to move from a place that has been home for your whole adult life and actually be around more family.”
Willis’s coaching philosophy boils down to a simple mission statement: he wants his team to play fast, physical and together.
“Fast means recruiting fast people, developing them to be faster in the weight room and through technique. Playing fast, using varying tempos…we will dictate how the game is played,” said Willis. “In our purest form, we will be a vertical passing offense that adapts to its personnel at every step. We have a player book, not a playbook… if we are clear and concise teachers, they think fast and play fast, we’ll create explosive plays.”
Willis’s staff hires (in order):
Jan. 5: Harvard assistant coach Mike Horan hired as defensive coordinator/defensive line coach.
Sticking with the Ivy League theme, Willis’s first hire came on the defensive side of the ball when he replaced the over two-decade-long partner of Parady, Scott Rumsey.
Mike Horan will now call the Red Fox defense. Horan is a five-time Ivy League champion after spending 15 years with the Crimson, including 12 of said years as the defensive line coach. Horan has also coached various positions at Wagner, The US Merchant Marine Academy, and Curry College.
This will be Horan’s first season as a play-caller in Division I football. Despite the lack of coordinator experience, Horan still has a promising track record: Harvard’s defensive line has racked up accolades during his time with the program, including leading the FCS in rush defense three separate times, sacks twice and scoring defense once.
Jan. 10, 2024: Carleton offensive coordinator Bob Davies hired as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach.
This will be Davies’s first crack at coordinating with the sole responsibility of a personnel group in the FCS. However, Davies’s first coaching job after graduating from Monmouth (where he served as a backup quarterback) was alongside Willis in 2017 as an assistant to the offensive line and a video coordinator.
He’s bounced around since, working as a quarterbacks assistant at Saint Lawrence (Division III) for two years before landing his first coordinating gig at Franklin Pierce University (Division II). Since 2020, he’s coordinated the Carleton Knights offense in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (Division III), where the Knights finished sixth in scoring offense in the MIAC in 2023, third in 2022, and sixth again in 2021.
The jury is still out on Davies’ ability to coach in Division I, but his boss believes he has what it takes to excel in his role.
“Bob is a rising star in this profession,” said Willis in a press release about the hire. “His teams have set school and conference records at every stop in his professional career, including during our shared time at Princeton. His expertise in quarterback development, combined with his schematic prowess, will make him an invaluable member of our team.”
The bottom line: Willis trusts him as a coworker who helped Princeton break the Ivy League passing yards in 2017.
Jan. 10, 2024: Johns Hopkins offensive line coach/run game coordinator TJ Weyl hired as offensive line coach/run game coordinator/recruiting coordinator.
Jan. 17, 2024: Central Oklahoma assistant Adam McGuire hired as defensive backs coach.
Liberty defensive run game coordinator/linebackers coach Tom Biscardi hired as linebackers coach (worked with Willis in 2019 at Princeton).
Kevin Johnson, a former graduate assistant at Iowa, was hired as special teams coordinator (worked previously at Florida Atlantic, Arkansas).
Owen Hartman hired as Director of Football Operations (played offensive line at Johns Hopkins 2020-23).
Jan. 31, 2024: Springfield College graduate assistant Vince DiMonte hired as outside linebackers coach.
Temple University graduate assistant Matt Herrman hired as wide receivers coach.
With the bulk of the staff hired, Willis’s vision is starting to take shape. Yet an important question remains: with a changing of the guard for the first time in three decades, what will the player personnel look like for the 2024 season?
Two key losses from the roster:
Brock Bagozzi, quarterback, Missouri State
While Parady’s staff has been replaced, the cornerstone of the quarterback room also departs with Brock Bagozzi committing to the Missouri State Bears of the Missouri Valley Conference. After a promising start to his 2023 campaign, his MCL sprain towards the end of the season dealt a final blow to the Red Foxes’s season.
Bagozzi objectively had two of the best games of his career in the 2023 season. In two separate games, the quarterback flashed his natural scoring ability with three passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown against both Valparaiso and St. Thomas, which he had only accomplished once in his first two years on the Red Foxes. His savvy deep ball ability often eclipsed any inaccuracy troubles, slinging two throws for 68 yards in the season while totaling 1511 yards in nine games.
Despite the injury, the quarterback moves on to a bigger conference within the FCS. He enters as a full-scholarship player with a maximum of three years of eligibility remaining in his college football career.
Willis has a tough task replacing and rebuilding the quarterback room. The good news is that Bagozzi’s backup, lefty slinger and soon-to-be redshirt junior Logan Brabham, held down the fort after the Bagozzi injury. He threw it 51 times in the season finale against Bucknell, completing 31 passes for 328 yards and three touchdowns with no turnovers.
Brabham’s short passing accuracy is a plus, but losing the arm strength and running ability of Bagozzi will require the program to adjust.
Ibrahim Giwa, offensive lineman, Towson
Measuring 6’4 and 300 pounds, junior Ibrahim Giwa entered the transfer portal with one year left of eligibility, joining the Towson Tigers of the Colonial Athletic Association.
His contributions to the offensive line will be missed; he was a Second-team All-PFL member in 2023 and a breakout player for the Red Foxes. His presence on the left side of the line gave Bagozzi enough time to throw out of the pocket when making deep reads on numerous occasions. Giwa is a brick wall, and replacing sturdy linemen with underclassmen recruits is not a linear process. Considering the strengths of Brabham, one could argue the loss of Giwa will pose an even bigger problem for Willis.
It has now been well over a month since the transfer portal closed; there were a number of Red Foxes who did not complete a transfer to another school. Some of those names include redshirt junior wide receiver Matt Stianche (Second Team All-PFL), redshirt junior safety Cameron Ball (All-PFL Honorable Mention) and freshman punter Joe Neubecker (All-PFL Honorable Mention).
Marist’s only first-team All-PFL player from last year, graduate student long snapper Justin Iaccio, is out of eligibility and will not return to the Red Foxes in 2024.
New Addition: Matt O’Dowd, quarterback
To add some depth to a young and inexperienced quarterback room, Willis recruited Matt O’Dowd, a redshirt sophomore walk-on from LSU.
O’Dowd did not see the field for the Tigers. Rather, he acted as the scout team quarterback during the 2023 season in a cramped quarterback room led by Heisman winner Jayden Daniels. Regardless of the lack of playing time, learning from one of the top schools and top college quarterbacks in the nation provides a level of intrigue as he arrives in Poughkeepsie.
In high school, O’Dowd led the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Eagles to back-to-back district championships in Florida. His commitment to Marist creates potential competition at the top of the quarterback depth chart.
Key Returner: Miles Kauderer, defensive line
Though he originally entered the portal, redshirt junior Miles Kauderer announced that he would return to the Red Foxes for another year.
Kauderer had a considerable breakout in his second season getting playing time on the Marist defensive line. Arguably a snub from All-PFL honors, the lineman appeared in all 11 games in the 2023 season and accrued 30 tackles, three tackles-for-losses, two sacks, a forced fumble and two fumble recoveries. Kauderer and Second Team All-PFL redshirt junior Nick Jackson are a duo that should anchor Marist’s defensive line at the start of the Willis era.
Other returning All-PFL honorees include redshirt sophomore right tackle Dominic Perricone (All-PFL Honorable Mention), redshirt sophomore linebacker Angelo Vokolos (All-PFL Honorable Mention) and redshirt junior running back Amin Woods (All-PFL Fourth Team).
The 2024 Schedule:
The schedule is a breath of fresh air. Not only do the Red Foxes end the season at home, they no longer have the oddly-placed bye week in week two. Instead of traveling down south to start the season, Marist will host the Georgetown Hoyas at home like they did two years ago. In the past two season openers, the Red Foxes have lost to Georgetown by a combined score of 92-19, so they will work to avoid another deflating season-opening loss.
After traveling to Lafayette and Bucknell, the Red Foxes will compete in PFL games for the remaining eight games on the schedule rather than ending the season with a less meaningful non-conference game. It gives Marist football the potential to play for the top spot in the PFL down to the final weeks of the season.
Of course, it’s only February. There is still much mystery about the roster’s strength and how significant these new changes will be for the Red Foxes, who have been either dead even or within a game or two of a .500 record since winning the PFL championship in 2013. One thing is for sure: these are the most significant changes for Marist football in a very long time, marking a new era and perhaps a new fate for the program.
Edited by Luke Sassa and Marley Pope
Graphic by Gavin Hard; Photos from Jaylen Rizzo
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