Sources: Buffalo Bulls, Danny White to Hire UMES Head Coach Toby Rens to lead Volleyball

UPDATE: Matt here. Big, fat mea culpa here on this one, as I've learned this is "completely inaccurate". We can all bust out the 'real journalists' tag if we want: I trusted two sources based on them coming through on the Reed Sunahara hire and rushed things with my confidence.

The coaching search is still ongoing.

***

According to multiple internet sources the Buffalo Bulls and Athletics Director Danny White are set on hiring Maryland Eastern Shore volleyball head coach Toby Rens to become the next head coach of the UB Volleyball team.

Rens will bring with him over 17 years of successful head coaching experience at the collegiate level, including 14 at the Division I level, and an overall record of 311-237. He is also an active member within the national volleyball circuit: serving as a voter in the USA Today Top 25 poll, and he is also a member of the NCAA Division I Coaches Committee.

Rens began his coaching career at Division II Northern Michigan where he amassed 58 wins, two NCAA tournament births, and produced two All-Americans in his two seasons with the Wildcats. Then, he began his first stint with UMES with a 3 win campaign, but then quickly turned the program around producing 20+ wins in his next two seasons at the helm. The 17 win turnaround was the best in the NCAA, and for his efforts, he was awarded MEAC Coach of the Year in 2002.

He then went on to coach for four seasons at LIU-Brooklyn where he led the Blackbirds to 4 straight NCAA Tournament appearances averaging over 26 wins per season, and was 31-1 in NEC conference play. Two of his student-athletes were named to the ESPN the Magazine All District team in 2007.

After LIU-Brooklyn he spent five years at Pitt coaching three AVCA All-Americans, 11 All-Big East Conference selections, and a Big East Player of the Year and a Big East Libero of the Year. He then spent a year at Chicago State before returning to UMES.

In addition to his teams successes on the court, Rens' squads have been successful in the classroom as well. In two of his five years at Pitt his team had the highest GPA within the Pitt athletic department; and, between his tenure in LIU and Pitt, three of his squads were awarded the AVCA Academic Award, by maintaining at least a 3.3 GPA in the classroom.

While this is still an unconfirmed rumor, these same sources tipped Bull Run off to the Reed Sunahara hiring a year ago.

Go Bulls!