Rob Ianello Tabbed as Interim Coach

In a somewhat expected move Rob Ianello has been named the interim head coach at Buffalo. This means one of two things:

1 - That it’s going to be his job, as he has been on staff longer than anyone here and was the associate head coach the last couple of years

2 - That he is once again going to keep the seat warm while UB does a coaching search to replace Lance Leipold.

Ianello has been at Buffalo almost seven years, but before then he had been around a bit

From 2005-09, Ianello served as wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at Notre Dame. While at Notre dame he brought in three consecutive top-10 recruiting classes.

That got him a gig at at Akron, and it didn’t go really well. He lasted only two seasons and went 2-22.

After Akron he went to work at Kansas where he procured the 25th-rated signing class to Kansas in 2013.

I put zero weight on his recruiting at Notre Dame but helping to build a top 25 class at Kansas does grab ones attention. KU is not exactly a football power house and it was a mess in 2012 as the Jayhawks decided to part ways with Turner Gill after just two seasons.

He came to Buffalo in 2015 while UB looked for Jeff Quinn’s replacement and was hired on by Lance Leipold once he got here. Since then Ianello has worked with the receivers and has been the lead recruiter for UB football.

While not the best recruiting school in the MAC there has been a noticeable uptrend during his tenure.

The athletics department issued a release saying they are beginning a “national search” to replace Leipold, and time is short. At the very least they will need Ianello to keep everything solid while the coaching search is underway.