Saint Vincent canvassed the country, searching far and wide for the best candidate to take over its football program.
Coaches with NFL, Big Ten and NCAA Division II experience were considered, officials said.
But at the end of the day, SVC was won over by a guy who got his start in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference.
Casey Goff was announced Tuesday as the new coach of the Bearcats. The 46-year-old Montrose native began coaching as an assistant at Washington & Jefferson in 2007.
He was head coach at The College of New Jersey from 2017-24.
Goff replaces Aaron Smetanka, who was not retained after six seasons leading the team. The Bearcats went 1-9 last season, losing their final eight games while allowing 38.7 points per game.
The new coach will begin work on X’s and O’s at a later time. His initial focus is on the classroom.
“We want high-character student-athletes who understand when you step onto a college campus, it’s not just about football, it’s about the academics as well,” Goff said in a news release. “There has to be full commitment to academics and football.”
TCNJ went 5-5 in 2023 for its best record in more than a decade. The team roster was 100-plus-strong when he left, an improvement from when he arrived.
“Casey brings with him a history of excellence in coaching, forming young men to be excellent grown men, using football as the discipline to become better in everything they do,” SVC president Father Paul Taylor said. “For the student-athletes at Saint Vincent, academics come first. Coach Goff will bring that discipline to his coaches and team so that we will move forward and win. I am confident in Casey Goff and am so glad that he is with us.”
Goff and his staff were tabbed the New Jersey Athletic Conference Coaching Staff of the Year in ’23.
Goff, a Montrose High School graduate, played linebacker and defensive line at Susquehanna University and won a Mid-American Conference Commonwealth League championship.
He was a three-year defensive line coach at W&J before coaching the same position at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre and Regina University in Newport, R.I.
Goff was head coach at Defiance College in Defiance, Ohio, in 2016, and also had stints at Rhodes College, Cortland State and Muhlenberg.