Gattuso to return for 2022 season
Ualbany coach with 36-49 record has one year left on his contract
The University at Albany football team needs to improve after a 2-9 season, but one thing the Great Danes won’t be shopping for his holiday season is a new football coach.
Athletic director Mark Benson confirmed by text Tuesday head coach Greg Gattuso will return for the final year of his contract in 2022. Benson didn’t comment further.
Gattuso is 36-49 overall and 20-40 in the Colonial
Athletic Association over his eight seasons at Ualbany with one NCAA playoff appearance in 2019.
The Great
Danes started the season 0-8, and ended it with an ugly 36-14 loss to SUNY rival Stony Brook.
It was a blowout defeat in a season characterized by close losses. Ualbany suffered five CAA defeats by seven points or fewer.
“We’re going to look and evaluate everything we do and we’re going to come out of it with a plan,” Gattuso said after the Stony Brook game. “We’ve been actively recruiting some really good football players to join our football team. We’re going to come back and have a great year in 2022. That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
Benson said earlier this month that he and Gattuso spoke regularly and would sit down after the season, which is common practice with Ualbany’s coaches.
“I think if you look at the strength of the CAA from top to bottom, it is a league where there is a lot of parity,” Benson said. “So if you make mistakes, if you make turnovers, it makes it difficult to win, and when it comes to some critical plays, game by game, we haven’t been able to make those plays. The team’s effort is really good, I think the talent is good. It’s just a matter of avoiding those mistakes.
“I don’t think there’s anybody that’s more upset than our coaches and our athletes and they continue to give great effort,” Benson added. “I would love to see them get some wins and get this going in a different direction.”
Gattuso’s total pay was $338,445 last year, according to seethroughny.net. If Ualbany dismissed Gattuso, the school would owe him the final year of his contract.