The Staff

Head coach jeff devanney

Ranked #126 on ESPN’s Top 150 Coaches of the Last 150 Years. https://es.pn/3bdyxH3

Devanney has an 96-19 record as a head coach that includes perfect 8-0 records in 2008, 2012 and 2016 and gives him the best winning percentage in the history of Trinity football at .835. The Bantams won or shared the NESCAC title from 2002 to 2005, in 2008 and 2012, and from 2016 to 2018. Devanney was honored as the NESCAC Coach of the Year in 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2018 and also garnered the Gridiron Club’s Division II/III New England Coach of the Year award in 2012.

Coach Devanney is in his 16th season as head football coach at Trinity College in the fall of 2021. Trinity hired Devanney, a 1993 graduate of the College, as its 27th head coach in December of 2005

Associate Head Coach Lew Acquarulo (Recruiting area: ConnecTicut)

Coach Lew Acquarulo, a Connecticut native, begins his 28th season in college football, his 17th season as an assistant coach with the Bantams and his 15th as defensive coordinator in 2021. Acquarulo coaches the inside linebackers and also coordinates the kicking game. In 2011, Acquarulo was named as the New England Division II/III Assistant Coach of the Year by the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston, after the Bantams boasted the top defense in all of NCAA Division III football.

Trinity led the nation statistically in three different defensive categories in 2011, having allowed just 63.5 rushing yards per game, 195.5 total yards per game, and 8.13 points per game. Trinity also claimed third place nationally in tackles for loss with 9.0 per contest, while posting shutouts in four of its eight games. In 2012, Trinity yielded an NCAA Division III-low 195.5 yards per contest, and surrendered an NCAA Division III-low 8.1 points per game, allowed an NCAA Division III-low 53.6 yards per game on the ground, and posted an 84.68 defensive pass efficiency rating (4th in nation)

mark melnitsky - offensive coordinator/ol (Recruiting Area: Massachusetts)

Coach Melnitsky is in his 15th season of his second stint as an assistant coach for the Bantams in 2021 and will serve as offensive coordinator for the tenth year. Melnitsky, who has coached and continues to coach the Bantam offensive line since his return to Trinity in 2006, mentored Trinity’s tight ends and wide receivers as a graduate assistant in 1998 and 1999. The Bantam offensive line led the nation in sacks allowed (two) in 2006 under his watch, and has topped the conference in scoring in five of the last seven years with 32.4 ppg in 2013, 38.1 ppg in 2016, 34.6 ppg in 2017, 36.0 ppg in 2018, and 30.8 ppg in 2019. The Trinity offense also led the league in touchdowns (39), passing yards per completion (18.7) and in pass efficiency (177.3) last fall.

Some of the top offensive players in Trinity history have also reached unprecedented heights under Melnitsky’s watch. Evan Bunker, the all-time leading rusher in NESCAC history, and Sonny Puzzo, Trinity’s all-time leader in total offense and touchdowns, are two that thrived under Melnitsky’s tutelage in the last five years. Max Chipouras, the 2018 NESCAC Co-Offensive Player of the Year, broke both the Trinity scoring record and the NESCAC rushing touchdown marks last fall. Most recently, Koby Schofer broke the longstanding Trinity record with 23 touchdown receptions in his career. No less than 29 Melnitsky-coached offensive lineman have made the All-NESCAC Teams in the last 14 seasons, including two-time All-American Chris Simmons and Austin Baiardi as well as All-Americans Joe Magardino and Matt Porter.

geOFF rHATICAN- pASS gAME cOORDINATOR/qb (RECRUITING AREA: NEW YORK)

Coach Rhatican enters his seventh season as Trinity football’s quarterbacks coach in 2021, having been promoted to passing game coordinator in January of 2018. Currently in his second coaching stint with the Bantams, Rhatican returned to Hartford where he previously served as Trinity’s running backs coach while earning his master’s degree in public policy & law from 2010 to 2012.

He played a major role in the development of All-NESCAC Trinity quarterback Sonny Puzzo who led the Bantam attack that ranked first in scoring offense in recent history. Rhatican also guided rising Junior Seamus Lambert to a NESCAC Rookie of the Year selection in 2018.