Robert Morris football head coach John Banaszak has resigned, the university announced on Monday.
The announcement comes after a 2-9 season for the Colonials, who ended the season on an eight-game losing streak. Banaszak took over the position in 2013 following 11 seasons as an assistant coach.
“It all went down today and we let people know once it happened. It became official today,” athletic director Craig Coleman said during a phone interview. “He spent a lot of years at our university, we've very grateful for everything he's done for us and his time here. Now we're looking ahead to see what comes next, what the next chapter is.”
The Colonials went 9-35 in four seasons under Banaszak. Before joining Robert Morris in 2003, the former Steelers defensive end was the head coach at Washington & Jefferson, where he went 38-9 in four seasons.
Robert Morris will begin the search for a new head coach immediately, and the program will cast a wide net.
“Sometimes it's a young, hungry assistant coach,” Coleman said. “Sometimes it's a veteran coach at a lower competition level. There's all different paths to being a head coach at the FCS level of football. I don't think we're going to restrict ourselves to one set path. I think we're going to see the types of folks that apply, the resumes are flying in as we speak. And once we get a sense of some of the folks that are interested, we'll narrow it down from there.”
Robert Morris last won a Northeast Conference championship in 2010, under former head coach Joe Walton. That’s the goal every year, Coleman said, and there is a desire to see the program become competitive sooner rather than later.
“We know you can't always win a conference championship every year, but we want to be in the running,” Coleman said. “And one of the teams people know is going to be a tough team to beat, and we want to be competing for a conference championship all the time.”
Omari Sankofa II: osankofa@post-gazette.com and Twitter: @omarisankofa
First Published: November 20, 2017, 6:13 p.m.