WORCESTER – If you’re a Holy Cross football fan, you grew accustomed to winning under coach Bob Chesney.
So if you’re concerned that new head coach Dan Curran had a losing overall record and posted only four winning seasons in his 11 years as head coach at Merrimack College, maybe you shouldn’t be.
Merrimack moved up from Division 2 to Division 1 in 2019 and awarded only 30 football scholarships, half as many as some of its rivals in the Northeast Conference. Last month, the Warriors battled UMass-Amherst tough before losing, 31-21, and the Minutemen have 85 football scholarships.
Holy Cross awards 60 football scholarships, the same as its opponents in the Patriot League. So, Curran will finally be on an even playing field, “for the first time in my career,” he said.
All of Curran’s previous coaching experience occurred at Merrimack where he served as offensive coordinator from 2010-12 and as head coach from 2013-23. In his 11 years as head coach, he compiled a record of 53-58, including 38-43 in conference play. Merrimack didn’t win any conference championships, but the Warriors did reach the Northeast Conference championship game in each of the past two years.
When Merrimack jumped from the Division 2 Northeast-10 Conference to the Division 1 Northeast Conference in 2019, the Warriors finished 6-5 to join only a handful of teams to post a winning record in their first year in Division 1.
Curran’s best team was in 2022 when the Warriors finished 8-3, including 6-1 in the conference. The eight victories tied a school record and Merrimack received votes in the top 25 for four consecutive weeks in only the program’s third full season in Division 1.
This past season, Merrimack finished 5-6, including 4-3 in the conference.
Curran knows what it feels like to win at Fitton Field. His Warriors defeated the host Crusaders, 35-21, on Sept. 11, 2021. The victory meant a lot to him.
“I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t rank as probably the best ever,” he said.
That year, he served as head coach, offensive coordinator and coach of the offensive line and tight ends, and he ran meetings for the running backs and the special teams units.
“Clearly, I don’t have to do that at a place like Holy Cross,” Curran said. “I can focus more of my energy on running the program. It was a great challenge and I think it made me a better coach, but you have the resources here, you have the support here, you have the facilities here and you have tradition here.”
Curran went out of his way to make sure he didn’t sound like he was criticizing Merrimack.
“Merrimack has been so good to me,” he said, “and that place is going to do big things. I’m really proud of what we built there.”
Of course, it’s important that Curran makes good use of his scholarships to bring in talented players that will help HC keep winning. National signing day is Wednesday.
“There’s no secret recipe,” he said. “It’s about bringing in quality people, really investing in them and developing them.”
At Merrimack, Curran signed and mentored nine All-Americans, 50 all-conference players and 10 NFL free agents.
Curran said he hopes to finalize his coaching staff within a week.
Curran’s hiring was announced on Friday, just eight days after Chesney left to become head coach at James Madison University after coaching the Crusaders to five Patriot League championships in six seasons. Curran has been working so hard since, his voice was hoarse on Tuesday at his introductory press conference at the Luth Athletic Complex. Curran’s wife, Megan, and three children, Ty, Kaley and McKayla, were on hand for the press conference.
Hughes grew up and still lives in Chelmsford, just 40 minutes from Fitton Field, and he has relatives and friends who graduated from Holy Cross. He remembers watching Gill Fenerty, Gordie Lockbaum and Jerome Fuller star for HC in the 1980s and early 1990s. He even attended football camp at HC as a freshman and sophomore at Chelmsford High.
As a senior running back at Chelmsford, he was named the Boston Globe Player of the Year and earned USA Today All-America status after leading his team to a Super Bowl victory and its fourth consecutive Merrimack Valley Conference title. He was later inducted into the Chelmsford High School Hall of Fame.
HC coach Peter Vaas recruited Curran and his mother wanted him to go there, but Curran said University of New Hampshire head coach Sean McDonnell and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, who is now the head coach at UCLA, were too convincing to turn down.
As a senior tailback at UNH, Curran earned All-Atlantic 10 honors after rushing for over 1,000 yards and scoring 16 touchdowns. He then played eight years of professional football, including some time with the Seattle Seahawks and New Orleans Saints in the NFL, but mostly with the New Orleans Voodoo and Georgia Force of the Arena Football League.
Kit Hughes, HC Associate Vice President for Athletics, said he chose Curran from three finalists.
“He not only brings the positive energy and enthusiasm,” Hughes said, “and passion both for the position and Holy Cross, but also possesses the experience, track record and reputation that makes him the ideal fit at this moment in time.”
Curran is the youngest of five children from an Irish Catholic family and he’s familiar with the mission of HC as a Catholic college because Merrimack is also one. HC is a Jesuit school, Merrimack is an Augustinian college. All three of his brothers, Tom, Tim and Sean, graduated from Villanova, an Augustinian university.
Curran’s sister, Kate, captained the women’s soccer team, competed in track and graduated magna cum laude at Worcester State.
One of Curran’s Chelmsford High football and hockey teammates, John Sheehy, played baseball at HC and Sheehy’s niece dates HC linebacker Jacob Dobbs, a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award as the FCS national defensive player of the year. Unfortunately, Dobbs has announced he will transfer from HC.
Chesney coached the Crusaders to a record of 44-21, including 28-4 in the league. HC also reached the NCAA Tournament in four years and earned the only two NCAA tournament football victories in school history. That’s a lot to live up to.
“I think expectations are a good thing,” Curran said.
Curran plans to live up to those expectations.
“We will be successful,” he said, “and we’ll do it in a manner and a fashion that will make everyone in this room, everyone on this campus and everyone who is part of this community very proud.”
Curran has grown close to Chesney so he called him to congratulate him on being hired by James Madison, but he hasn’t asked him for any advice.
Curran plans to build the offense around junior quarterback Joe Pesansky, who showed promise while filling in for two games this season while Matt Sluka was injured, and tailback Jordan Fuller.
“They run the ball pretty good here,” he said.
Bill Doyle has been a professional journalist for 47 years, most of them as a sports writer for the Telegram & Gazette. He covered the Boston Celtics for 25 years and has written extensively about golf, boxing and local high school and college sports. He also worked for the campus newspaper when he attended UMass-Amherst. He can be reached at billdoyle1515@gmail.com
