| Title: | Head Football Coach |
| Phone: | (860) 832-1893 |
| Email: | mcinerneyjef@ccsu.edu |
Jeff McInerney enters his seventh season as the head football coach at Central Connecticut State University in 2012. He has a 42-25 record over his first six seasons in New Britain. McInerney has led the Blue Devils to a pair of Northeast Conference titles and his 42 wins are the second-highest total in school history. His .627 winning percentage ranks third in the program's history.
The 2012 season will feature the opening of the newly expanded
Arute Field, a facility that has been kind to the Blue Devils under
McInerney. Since 2006, Coach Mac and the Blue Devils are 24-5
in home games, with four undefeated seasons at home.
The Blue Devils opened 2011 with a home victory over Southern
Connecticut, which marked the 15th consecutive home victory for the
Blue Devils. The 15-game winning streak at Arute Field is a
school record and was tied for the longest in the nation.
In 2010 Central posted a perfect 5-0 mark at home, and an 8-3
overall record. They were 7-1 in NEC play, marking the second
straight season with seven conference wins. They won a share
of their fourth NEC title since 2004. The 14 league wins are
the second-highest two-season total in league history. In
McInerney's five seasons the Blue Devils are 22-2 at home.
McInerney was named the NEC Coach of the Year in 2009. The
Blue Devils won the first outright NEC title in school history and
advanced to their first-ever Division I postseason
game.
In 2009 the Blue Devils matched the school-record for victories
with a 9-3 overall mark, including a 7-1 record in NEC
action. Central clinched the title with a 14-13 win over St.
Francis (PA) in the final regular season game of the season.
Central's six-straight wins from Sept. 26 until Oct. 31 marked the
longest win streak in its Division I history. The Blue Devils
advanced to the Gridiron Classic and faced Butler on Dec. 5.
They lost to the Bulldogs and finished the season with nine wins,
the most in a single-season since 1973.
The Blue Devils made an appearance in the national polls for the
second time in McInerney's four seasons in 2009. Running back James
Mallory helped make program history by becoming the second player
in school history to be a finalist for the prestigious Walter
Payton Award, awarded to the top player in the Division I Football
Championship Subdivision. Mallory finished his career in New
Britain as the second-leading scorer and rusher in program history,
and earned numerous All-America honors following his senior
campaign.
Three years ago, the Blue Devils set more milestones under
McInerney. They won the NAACP Harmony Classic, defeating
North Carolina Central, 35-23, in front of an NEC record 8,322
people at New Britain's Veterans' Stadium in Willow Brook Park on
Sept. 20, 2008.
McInerney has coached two NEC offensive players of the year
(Mallory, 2009; Justise Hairston, 2006), 15 first team All-NEC
selections, 20 second team All-NEC selections, five ECAC Player of
the Week honorees and 32 NEC Player/Rookie of the Week recipients
during his tenure. McInerney's student-athletes have also
received 12 All-America awards, including two Academic All-America
honors. Two year's ago linebacker Lawton Arnold was named the
NEC defensive rookie of the year.
Central Connecticut went 6-5 in 2007. The Blue Devils again
ranked high in the national rushing ranks. Jo Jo Freeman
guided the nation's 10th most prolific rushing offense. His
828-yard, 10-touchdown season helped him earn first team Sports
Network Mid-Major All-America status.
McInerney saw many firsts in his inaugural season as the head coach
at Central. An 8-3 record in 2006 marked the third straight
winning season for the Blue Devils. But it was the national
attention that McInerney's Blue Devils received that helped CCSU
reach new heights among FCS programs.
The second week of the 2006 season brought the Blue Devils to the
national stage. CCSU went to Statesboro, GA, to face six-time
national champion Georgia Southern in its home opener. A
17-13 victory by the Blue Devils made national news, and a week
later CCSU entered the Sports Network National Poll for the first
time in school history. The Blue Devils were nationally
ranked for the first time during the season and reached as high as
#19 in the poll. The 8-3 record marked the second time in
three seasons that CCSU posted eight wins, the second-highest
single-season total in program history.
McInerney's teams have led the league in rushing offense during
each of his five seasons in New Britain. The Blue Devils have also
ranked in the nation's top-10 in rushing during each
campaign. That includes holding the top spot in 2006.
Led by Hairston, the Blue Devils paced the nation in rushing.
Hairston, who set a CCSU and Northeast Conference single-season
rushing mark with 1,847 yards, earned third team AP All-America
honors and finished eighth in the Walter Payton Award voting.
The NEC Offensive Player of the Year, Hairston also joined Nutt and
Farod Muhammad as Sports Network Mid-Major All-America selections.
McInerney became the 12th head coach in the history of Central
Connecticut State University football on January 13, 2006.
McInerney spent two seasons as the defensive coordinator at the
University of Rhode Island prior to arriving at CCSU. He has
also been an assistant at Tulsa, UNLV, Oregon State, Georgia
Southern and Southern California.
The South Windsor High School graduate received his bachelor's
degree from Slippery Rock University in 1982 and his master's
degree from Troy State University in 1984. His first coaching
job came at Slippery Rock as an undergraduate in 1981 and then as a
graduate assistant coach in 1982.
McInerney has seen plenty of success in his coaching career, thrice
being a part of a staff that won a National Championship (1984 and
1987 at Troy State; 1990 at Georgia Southern).McInerney and his
wife, Leslie, have two children. Ryan is a 2009 graduate of
Pittsburgh State and currently a graduate assistant at TCU.
Amy is a senior at CCSU.

