UMass will introduce Charley Molnar from Notre Dame as new football coach
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As the University of Massachusetts moves its football program to the Bowl Subdivision, it will hire a new coach from a school loaded with football tradition.
Notre Dame offensive coordinator Charley Molnar will be named the 28th football coach at UMass and its first in the FBS. UMass scheduled a press conference at 4 p.m. Thursday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. The school did not specify what would be announced, but multiple sources confirmed that Molnar would be introduced.
The event will be at Gillette because the Minutemen will play their home games there beginning next season as they move up to the FBS and Mid-American Conference.
Molnar will replace Kevin Morris, who was fired last month after three seasons as head coach.
Neither Molnar nor UMass athletic director John McCutcheon could be reached for comment Wednesday night.
The length and terms of Molnar's contract have not been revealed yet. Morris had a five-year contract with a base salary of $200,000. McCutcheon has said that UMass would offer the new coach a salary competitive in the Mid-American Conference, which would likely mean at least $325,000 a year.
Molnar, 50, met with McCutcheon over the weekend and quickly rose to the top of the list of potential candidates, which also included Texas Tech offensive coordinator Neal Brown, Auburn recruiting coordinator Curtis Luper and Boston College defensive coordinator Bill McGovern.
When Molnar will begin working full-time at UMass is uncertain. Notre Dame will play Florida State in the Champs Sports Bowl on Dec. 29. In some cases when an assistant coach is hired, a program will let him leave immediately to begin his new job. In other cases, a coach will stay through a bowl game while starting to recruit players and assemble a staff for his new team.
While it seemed apparent on Tuesday that he would likely be the next coach at UMass, Molnar was still recruiting for the Irish. He and head coach Brian Kelly visited a player in Virginia who has committed to Notre Dame, according to IrishSportsDaily.com
Molnar, a native of Morris Plains, N.J., should be quite familiar with the MAC because he has previously coached at three of its schools - Central Michigan, Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan.
He and Kelly began working together in 2006 at Central Michigan. Molnar followed Kelly to Cincinnati, where he was the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach from 2007 to 2009. They then went to Notre Dame in 2010.
Molnar, who is also the quarterbacks coach of the Fighting Irish, has had prolific offenses throughout his career highlighted by the 2009 Cincinnati team which ranked No. 8 in the nation in passing at 308.8 yards per game and amassed 39 touchdown passes. It averaged 38.6 points per game, fifth most in the Bowl Subdivision.
After Morris was fired, McCutcheon listed some preferred characteristics for his ideal candidate. Molnar seems to have many of them.
"We want somebody who is going to be the face of this program, the leader of this program," said McCutcheon. "You could almost say the CEO of this program as we move forward in that transition.
"They're going to need to have a lot of energy, a lot of charisma," he added. "They need to be recruiting players, the public and a lot of different groups for that matter. We need them to be able to energize our student population, our current fan base, a new fan base ... we want them to reach out to as many different constituents as we can.
"There is no one perfect individual out there. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses," he continued. "Somebody that has I-A (FBS) experience that knows what is required to compete at that level would be a benefit. Head coaching experience would be a benefit. But I wouldn't say if they didn't have head coaching experience that it would take them out of consideration...
"It would be attractive to have someone that knows East Coast recruiting from Florida all the way up," McCutcheon said. "We want somebody who is experienced in a situation where they've had success and knows what it takes to be successful."
Molnar's energy, charisma and ability to be the face of the program are hard to quantify yet. And while he's never been a head coach, Molnar has extensive FBS coaching experience and he has recruited in New York and Pennsylvania for the Fighting Irish. He also can point to success on his resume because he has coached in bowl games each of the last four seasons at Notre Dame and Cincinnati.
Comments made by Molnar when he was hired at Notre Dame, as reported by UND.com on Jan. 7, 2010, provide a window to what his offensive philosophy will likely be at UMass.
"We'll run a spread offense that operates at a high tempo. Our players will play hard and they will be fundamentally sound," Molnar said in 2010. "We'll be a team that will push the ball down the field through the vertical passing game but also understand the importance of having an effective rushing attack."
He was asked then about his approaching to coaching quarterbacks.
"I'm a very fundamental coach when it comes to footwork and throwing mechanics," he said. "I'd like to think that quarterbacks under my guidance have improved dramatically over time. When we first get the quarterbacks, we'll try to just teach them the system and have them play within it. As they mature and get a better grasp of what we do, then we will allow spontaneity."
He said players will know what to expect from him.
"I think they are going to see that I'm very consistent in my approach to football and how I work every day. I bring a lot of energy to the field each day," he said. "I'm a very demanding coach. I have a picture in our mind of the right way to do things and I am constantly stressing those things. For us to be a timed-pass offense, we have to be very detailed in our approach so everyone is in the right place at the right time."
Molnar, a graduate of Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania, and his wife Meg have eight children. Their oldest, Charley Molnar III, is a graduate assistant at Buffalo, another MAC school, and he could possibly join his father's staff at UMass.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.
