New football coach Charley Molnar had eyed UMass since upgrade announced
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FOXBOROUGH - When University of Massachusetts athletic director John McCutcheon started the search for a new football coach, he didn't have Charley Molnar on his radar.
Molnar has had UMass on his radar since the Minutemen announced they were upgrading to the Bowl Subdivision.
So shortly after UMass fired Kevin Morris on Nov. 21, Molnar, the offensive coordinator at Notre Dame, approached UMass. On Thursday he was officially introduced as the Minutemen's new head coach in a press conference at Gillette Stadium.
"The day I read in the paper that UMass was going to move up to the Mid-American Conference, that was the day I set my sights on UMass football," said Molnar, who wore a newly purchased maroon tie and his 2009 Big East championship ring from Cincinnati.
"I bided my time and did the job I had to the best of my ability," he added. "When I heard UMass was making a change, I knew that's when it was time to strike."
He got McCutcheon's attention right away in the interview.
"He contacted us first," McCutcheon said. "He was not one of our initial group, but the more we got to know Charley, the more interested we got, The more people we talked to and the more we found out about him, the more positive the picture became. When we got together in person, all the energy and the other things really came out."
The energy was apparent in his remarks Thursday. Molnar, 50, spoke loudly, quickly and passionately as he talked about his goals for the program.
"UMass has a vision to be greater than where it is today," he said. "I wanted to be involved in a program from the ground up. I've always envisioned myself to be a builder. I want to help build something from the ground up. I like heavy lifting. I like having ideas and seeing my ideas become reality.
"We're going to work hard," Molnar added. "We're going to work together and we're going to have a winning football program at the University of Massachusetts."
Molnar signed a five-year contract with a base salary of $250,000 and what McCutcheon called "a competitive incentive package." Molnar will remain in his role at Notre Dame through the Champs Sports Bowl on Dec. 29, but he will be able to begin assembling a staff and recruiting for the Minutemen immediately.
"There's going to be days when I'm in Amherst working strictly on UMass football and there's going to be days when I'm in South Bend and I'm going to be working on Notre Dame football on the practice fields and in the meetings," he said. "But in the evenings instead of making calls to recruits on behalf of Notre Dame I'll be making calls on behalf of UMass."
Molnar said he will have some of his assistant coaches in place soon.
"We should have a number of guys working here very quickly, getting out on the road recruiting, getting out into the high schools getting going," he said.
Molnar met with most of the Minutemen players Thursday morning at UMass.
Freshman quarterback Mike Wegzyn said he came away impressed.
"I was talking with a couple of guys. We can't wait to get onto the field or into the film room to work with him," said Wegzyn, who drew early recruiting interest from Molnar when he was the passing game coordinator at Cincinnati.
Molnar will stay in Massachusetts through the weekend and will be introduced to the crowd at tonight's men's basketball game at the MassMutual Center in Springfield. UMass plays Siena at 7 p.m. in the Hall of Fame Holiday Showcase.
McCutcheon said an advertising campaign and a calendar of events and appearances to promote interest in the football program will be announced shortly.
Molnar said he is looking forward to bringing his message to the fan base.
"We're going public. We're a stock. It's new. Buy in today because the price is going to skyrocket," Molnar said. "This place is going to the top and you can jump in as initial stockholders."
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.
