Yale QB Dante Reno has huge day after legendary coaching dads death: This ones for you
Yale’s first football game following former head coach Tony Reno’s tragic death could not have gone any better.Just one day after Yale announced Reno died at 52, Yale defeated Merrimack 41-24, with his son and current Bulldogs quarterback Dante Reno, having one of the best games of his collegiate career.Dante Reno threw for four touchdowns and 298 yards on Saturday, leading Yale to its second win of the season.“This one’s for you pops,” he wrote on X following the game.After the win, Dante told reporters that his father would have wanted him to take the field.“I know him, and I know my dad, and he would want nothing less than for me to go out there and play,” Reno said after the game.“Not miss practice.
Go to school.Be around the guys.”The elder Reno coached at Yale for 14 seasons, leading the Bulldogs to five Ivy League championships and helping establish them as a conference powerhouse.In his final season last year, Yale was the first automatic FCS playoff qualifier from the Ivy League and earned their first-ever postseason victory with a comeback win over Youngstown State.He stepped down as head coach ahead of the 2026 season due to complications from his illness, and ended his tenure at Yale with an 83-49 record, the second-winningest coach in the program’s history.“Tony Reno devoted his life to serving others and approached every day with humility, compassion, and purpose.
He believed deeply in the power of mentorship and invested wholeheartedly in the success and well-being of his players, colleagues, and friends,” athletic director Vicky Chun said in a statement.“While his accomplishments on the football field were remarkable, it is the relationships he built and the lives he changed that will define his enduring legacy.Our thoughts are with Toni, Dante, Angelina, Vince, and the entire Reno family during this time.”Dante Reno, who transferred to Yale in 2025 to play under his father after starting his NCAA career with South Caro...