University of Richmond Athletics
Rocco Named to AFCA Board of Trustees
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Richmond Head Coach Danny Rocco, along with Navy’s Ken Niumatalolo, Arkansas’ Bret Bielema, Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen and Arkansas State’s Blake Anderson, has been elected to the Board of Trustees of the American Football Coaches Association.
Niumatalolo, Bielema, Mullen, Anderson and Rocco join a group of distinguished head coaches who guide the organization. The Board formulates policy and provides direction for the AFCA, which was founded in 1922 by Amos Alonzo Stagg, John Heisman and others. The AFCA has more than 11,000 members from all levels of the profession.
Rocco completed his fourth season as the head coach at Richmond and has a 33-13 record, with an overall mark of 80-38 in his 10 years as a head coach at Richmond and Liberty. In 2015, he led the Spiders to a 10-4 record, a co-championship in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) and a trip to the NCAA FCS Playoff Semifinals.
Rocco has been named Conference Coach of the Year five times, by the Big South from 2006 through 2009 and by the CAA in 2015.
Rocco’s coaching career started in 1984 and saw him as a position coach at a wide variety of premier FBS programs under legendary coaches – Colorado under Bill McCartney, Boston College under Tom Coughlin and Texas under John Mackovic. Rocco’s first head coaching position came at Liberty University in 2006 and he promptly had the Flames competing at high levels, winning the Big South Conference for four straight years from 2007-10. He moved to Richmond in 2012 and immediately had the Spiders competing at the same level, winning the Colonial Athletic Conference that first year.
Returning members of the AFCA Board of Trustees include incoming president Lee Owens of Ashland University; first vice-president Rich Rodriguez of the University of Arizona; second vice-president Bill Cronin of Georgetown College and third vice-president Frank Solich of Ohio University.
Also serving on the Board in 2016: Mike Riley, University of Nebraska; Gary Patterson, TCU; David Bailiff, Rice University; Mark Richt, University of Miami (Fla.); Pete Fredenburg, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor; Turner Gill, Liberty University; Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern University; Craig Bohl, University of Wyoming; Bronco Mendenhall, University of Virginia; Todd Knight, Ouachita Baptist University; David Cutcliffe, Duke University; Jeff McMartin, Central College (Iowa); Bobby Kennedy, University of Iowa, ex officio member and chairman of the Assistant Coaches Committee; Van Malone, Southern Methodist University, ex officio member and chairman of the Minority Issues Committee; and Sam Knopik, The Pembroke Hill School (Mo.), ex officio member and chairman of the High School Committee. New AFCA Executive Director Todd Berry serves as secretary-treasurer of the organization.