Drach New HC at Wilkes

Friday, February 2, 2018

Drach New HC at Wilkes

Hobart College OC Jon Drach will officially named as the new HC of the Wilkes University Colonels (Wilkes-Barre, PA) at a press conference this Wednesday afternoon. He replaces Trey Brown who went 7-33 since 2014, including a 0-10 mark last season. Information on the announcement will likely be made available via the Colonels Football website, which you can access here. The story was leaked a couple of hours ago by FootballScoop.com.

The Colonels are part of the Middle Atlantic Conference (aka the "MAC") and have not had .500 or better season since 2012. Their best season in the last 20 years goes back to 2006, when they went undefeated in the regular season, winning the MAC title, then went on to win a first round game, 42-0, over W&L before falling to Rowan, 21-14, in the second round of the NCAA playoffs.

Coach Drach joined the Statesmen back in 2007 and has served as QB coach in prior seasons and was promoted to OC after the 2014 season. Under Drach's leadership the Statesmen set several program records with his wide open "Air Show" offense. He's mentored several great Hobart QBs including Shane Sweeney '18, Patrick Conlan '15, Nick Strang '14 and Rich Doyle '09.

While I'm happy for Coach Drach, this will be the fourth time in the past four seasons HC Mike Cragg has seen a top coordinator leave the staff for a new opportunity. What remains to be seen is whether this departure could open the door for former OC Kevin DeWall '00 return home or if a national search will find a new OC for Hobart? The Cragg coaching tree continues to grow with this placement, joining others in the HC ranks such as Scott Yoder '01 at Shenandoah, Nate Milne '03 at Muhlenberg, as well as other former players such as Chad Martinovich '94. This appointment also reunites Drach with a former Hobart Athletics colleague, former HC of Basketball, Izzy Metz '98

Either way, I wish nothing for the best for Coach Drach and his family at Wilkes. It'll be a challenging job for sure, but I have to think there will be a lot of players who will want to sign up for the kind of offensive system he runs. We'll have more updates on how his staff comes together this off season, as well as who comes in to call to the offense for the Statesmen in 2018.