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Pat Ruley, a former Rowan football standout, has been named the new head football coach at his alma mater.
Ruley replaces his former college coach Jay Accorsi, who announced his retirement in April. Accorsi guided Rowan as head coach for 22 years, the most in school history, and spent a total of 30 years with the University.
In 22 years as head coach, Accorsi went 143-78 with seven shared or outright New Jersey Athletic Conference titles and seven appearances in the NCAA Division III tournament. Two of his teams, in 2004 and 2005, advanced to the NCAA semifinals. Rowan’s NJAC record under Accorsi was 103-54.
Ruley, a 2013 Rowan graduate, spent the past six years as the associate head coach and defensive coordinator at Susquehanna University.
He arrived in 2017 as defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach and was promoted to associate head coach in 2023. During his six seasons, Susquehanna went 55-11 and won two conference championships while earning two NCAA playoff berths.
“Being the next head coach of the Rowan football program is a dream come true,” Ruley said in a statement released by the school. “My time as a student-athlete at Rowan created some of my strongest friendships and fondest lifelong memories.”
A native of Margate and graduate of Atlantic City High, Ruley was twice named an All-NJAC honors linebacker at Rowan. He was named a USA Sports College All-American in 2012 and was selected to play that year in the National Bowl, a bowl game for senior All-Americans.
In 37 career games that included 26 starts, Ruley totaled 179 tackles and six sacks.
“This place has such a rich tradition and I understand the standards and expectations that the alumni have for the program,” Ruley said. “Those high expectations are welcomed, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Ruley, who earned a degree in English from Rowan, began his coaching career in 2013 as a quality control coach and special teams assistant at Towson. That year Towson went 13-3 and advanced to the Football Championship Subdivision championship game.
He then spent 2014 and 2015 at Muhlenberg, where he served as outside linebackers coach.
After serving as special teams coordinator and linebackers coach at Alderson Broaddus University in 2016, he joined Susquehanna.
Rowan is coming off a season in which the Profs went 5-5 overall and 4-2 in the NJAC. The Profs, who won their final three games last year, open this season on Thursday Sept. 5 at Stevenson.
Photo Courtesy of Susquehanna Athletics
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Author: Marc Narducci
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