When Jay Accorsi retired in April, the Rowan University football program had to search for a head coach for the first time in 22 years.
After a two-month process, the school announced Wednesday morning that Pat Ruley, who played linebacker for Accorsi at Rowan from 2009 to 2012, will take over. Ruley rejoins the program from Susquehanna, where he served as defensive coordinator for six years.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Ruley said. “This place was always in the back of my mind. I knew Coach Accorsi was on the back nine. I felt like if this was ever an opportunity that made sense for me professionally, it would have been a dream. “
Ruley, of Margate, says he was sold on the job when it became clear that his desire to win was shared by athletic director John Giannini. He felt like he had inside information after the interview, and although some nerves arose after a long period of no response, the job was his.
“There’s no reason to be anxious,” Ruley remembers Giannini saying over the phone. “It’s time to go home.”
Accorsi left big shoes to fill for his predecessor: He won a program-record 143 games in the pros, earning seven New Jersey Athletic Conference titles and five NJAC Coach of the Year awards. The two have a cordial relationship according to Ruley, whose coaching resume suggests he is a smart choice to continue Accorsi’s success at Rowan.
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Susquehanna led the Centennial Conference in total defense in three of Ruley’s four seasons as defensive coordinator and did so for the fourth time after moving to the Landmark Conference last year. Prior to joining the River Hawks, Ruley worked as a linebackers coach at Alderson Broaddus University and Muhlenberg College.
Ruley has never coached a team that has lost more than three games in a season and doesn’t think that will change with his latest change of scenery.
“I think the standard of this program… is something that always attracted me to it,” Ruley said. “Every program I’ve been a part of…the expectations were very high and I’ve never been a part of a program where the standard wasn’t competing for championships.”
After years of working with Susquehanna head coach Tom Perkovich, Ruley believes he is fully prepared. Perkovich gave Ruley complete autonomy to run Susquehanna’s defense and also brought him into exclusive meetings with the school’s director of admissions, director of financial aid and athletic director, meetings that normally occur only with the head coach.
“I can’t thank (Perkovich) enough for that, because those meetings gave me a lot of insight into what it was like to be a head coach before my time came,” Ruley said.
Ruley will have some work to do from the start, as Rowan has been through some turbulence in recent seasons. The Pros haven’t won an NJAC championship since 2014 (their longest drought since the conference formed in 1985) and have gone 40-39 in that span.
“You have to start building the house from its foundation,” Ruley said. “There is a phenomenal foundation here with the history of the program. That said, in recent years, for some reason, it hasn’t exactly been up to standard.”
Rowan finished last in the NJAC in total defense in 2022, allowing 324 yards per game. Last season, they gave up 55 points to Johns Hopkins, 44 to Ursinus and 35 to Salisbury. The pros will play those three teams again this year and Ruley has no intention of allowing the same results.
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“We’re going to play tough defense,” Ruley said. “All the guys that play defense for us here going forward, the standard is to be a running back and a forward. Do you want to be physical or are you going to be a contact-rejecting guy?
When the fall comes, there will be no greater motivation for Ruley than revenge. In his final year at Rowan in 2012, the Profs went 6-1 in the NJAC, but fell short of the title by one game against undefeated Cortland. Their game against Cortland in the regular season ended in a 24-21 loss after the Red Dragons threw a game-winning touchdown with one minute and 26 seconds left.
That contest ultimately decided the championship, and Ruley knew it at the time: He broke his wrist in the third quarter and played the rest of the game anyway. Now back for his first NJAC season since that year, Ruley will try to lead Rowan to the title it missed 12 years ago.
“I remember that game play after play,” Ruley said. “Super motivation.”
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