Danny Rocco

Daniel Christopher Rocco (born July 16, 1960 ) is the current head coach of the Richmond Spiders college football team representing the University of Richmond and a former assistant coach of the New York Jets of the NFL. Rocco has over 25 years of professional and collegiate coaching experience. Rocco earned his Bachelor's Degree in Speech Communications from Wake Forest in 1984. He then added an Education and Counseling Master's Degree from Wake Forest in 1987. He is the son of former Penn State assistant coach Frank Rocco Sr., the brother of former Penn State quarterback Frank Rocco, Jr. (currently the head football coach and athletic director at Libery Christian Academy in Lynchburg, VA), the uncle of Virginia Cavaliers quarterback Michael Rocco whose father is Frank Jr.; the brother of Dave Rocco (currently the head football coach and assistant athletic director at The Covenant School in Charlottesville, VA), and the brother of Sheri Harrison (resides in State College, PA).

Playing career
Rocco played linebacker for Joe Paterno at Penn State earning letters in 1979 and 1980. He played in the 1979 Liberty Bowl and the 1980 Fiesta Bowl for the Nittany Lions. He then transferred to Wake Forest under then head coach Al Groh where he started for two more seasons at outside linebacker in 1982 and 1983. He was named team captain of the Demon Deacons in 1983.

Coaching career
Throughout his coaching career, Rocco has been a friend and protégé of Al Groh, working with him for over six years in both collegiate and professional positions.

Rocco began his coaching career as a Graduate Assistant then defensive line coach at Wake Forest University from 1984 to 1986. After a season coaching linebackers at the Colorado under Bill McCartney, he spent three seasons at Tulsa. Next stop for Rocco was Boston College and three years under Tom Coughlin as defensive line coach.

Liberty
Rocco was named the head coach of the Flames on December 2, 2005, succeeding Ken Karcher. He began his first stint as a head coach at any level taking over a program that went 1–10 the season before he arrived in 2005.

In his first season as head coach at Liberty in 2006, he led the Flames to a 6–5 record and was honored by the Big South Conference as their Coach of the Year. He then followed that up in 2007 by leading the Flames to an 8–3 record and the school's first ever Big South Conference Championship and his second consecutive Coach of the Year distinction.

In February 2008, the university extended Rocco's contract through the 2012 season.

He then followed that up with another Big South Conference championship in 2008 with a 5–0 record in league play. He was named Big South Coach of the Year for the third straight season.

In 2009, he stretched the Flames' Big South winning streak to a conference record 15 games before falling in the season finale at Stony Brook. Liberty shared the conference championship with the Seawolves. In 2010, a loss at Coastal Carolina led to a three-way share of the league title with the Chanticleers and Stony Brook. But CCU went to the playoffs based on a tie-breaker of point allowed in conference games.

In January 2010, Rocco signed a 2-year contract extension through the 2014 season.

On December 6, 2011, Rocco was named head coach at the University of Richmond.