Towson’s Reno Ferri joins Syracuse as tight ends coach
Towson fullbacks and tight ends coach Reno Ferri is the new tight ends coach for Syracuse coach Dino Babers, according to a source.
This past season was Ferri’s fifth at Towson, and he was also recruiting coordinator. He was the program’s running backs coach his first three years, working with now-Baltimore Raven Terrance West, before moving to coach fullbacks and tight ends in 2014.
Before Towson, Ferri was Akron’s running backs coach from 2007 to ’09 and also worked as the program’s recruiting coordinator. He was promoted as the Zips’ wide receivers coach in 2006 after being their director of football operations in ’05 and a graduate assistant in ’04.
Ferri was a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Army, in 2000, after playing for the Black Knights for four seasons. A Youngstown, Ohio, native, he was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army from May 2000 to March ’02.
Ferri joins Babers, who became Syracuse’s coach last month after posting an 18–9 record in his two years at Bowling Green, including a 10–3 mark and a MAC championship this season. A disciple of Baylor’s Art Briles, Babers is considered one of college football’s best offensive minds and has a 37–16 career record.
While coach at Eastern Illinois from 2012 to ’13, he coached quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to the Walter Payton Award, the Heisman Trophy award of the FCS. Garoppolo was drafted in the second round of the 2014 NFL draft by the New England Patriots.
Syracuse’s first black head coach, Babers replaces Scott Shafer, who was fired with a 4–8 record this season. Shafer went 14–23 in his three seasons in charge of the Orange.
