Football
- Title:
- Special Teams Coordinator/Running Backs Coach
- Email:
- rjr4@lehigh.edu
- Phone:
- 610-758-4510
- Alma Mater:
- First Season
A familiar face returns to the Mountain Hawks coaching staff for the 2009 season as former Lehigh tight end and assistant coach R.J. Ryan re-joined the staff in March of 2009. Ryan returned to Lehigh following a stint as the Offensive Coordinator and Offensive Line and Tight Ends Coach at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He will oversee Lehigh’s special teams and coach the running backs. "I'm extremely grateful to Coach Andy Coen for giving me the opportunity to coach at a school that is special to me,” explained Ryan. “I'm also very excited for the challenge of helping to bring the Patriot League title back to South Mountain."
During his two-year stint at F&M, Ryan was responsible for all aspects of the offense, including game planning, scripting practice and play calling duties. He helped the Diplomats establish the school record for completions in a season during the 2007 campaign, while seven single-game records were either tied or broken by individual players during his time in Lancaster, including net rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, points scored, touchdowns scored, pass attempts, pass completions and touchdown receptions.
Prior to his time at Franklin & Marshall, Ryan enjoyed a three-year run as an assistant coach at Lehigh where he helped lead the Mountain Hawks to a share of two Patriot League Championships (2004, 2006) as well as an appearance in the 2004 NCAA I-AA Playoffs and a final national ranking of 15 following the 2004 season.
Ryan coached the tight ends and running backs while on South Mountain and had an assortment of other duties, including film breakdown, offensive scouting reports, defensive scout team, head coach of the Junior Varsity program, assistant offensive line coach and assistant recruiting coordinator.
After a three-year career in banking, Ryan began his coaching career at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts where he served as the running backs coach and video coordinator. While there his responsibilities included player evaluations and assisting the offensive coordinator with game planning.
Ryan has extensive recruiting experience as well having recruited the entire Northeast during his coaching career.
During his playing days in the Brown and White Ryan was a two-year starter at tight end. He was a member of the 1998 squad that won a school record 12 games and was ranked as high as seventh in the nation. Ryan was also the inaugural winner of the Barry Fetterman Award, for his dedication and determination to the program.
“I am very excited to have R.J. Ryan rejoin our staff,” Coen said. “R.J. is very familiar with Lehigh and he certainly has a passion for Lehigh Football. He did a great job in his prior stint at Lehigh and I believe he has grown much as a coach in the two years he spent as the Offensive Coordinator at Franklin & Marshall.”
Coen continued, “R.J. is a natural fit and he will be able to hit the ground running. He understands our system, he recruited well for us in the past, he knows many people throughout campus and so the learning curve is really non-existent.”
