RECRUITING AREAS: Georgia, North Florida
Dean Kennedy enters his second season on the Holy Cross coaching staff in 2023. He was promoted to offensive coordinator of the four-time defending Patriot League Champions after serving one season as the Crusaders' quarterbacks coach in 2022.Â
In 2022, Holy Cross had one of the top offenses in all of FCS, paced by quarterback Matthew Sluka, who was a finalist for the Walter Payton Award and an All-Patriot League first team selection. As a whole, the Crusaders ranked second in FCS in yards per completion (16.2), sixth in rushing offense (245.1 yards per game) and eighth in scoring offense (37.4 points per game). Sluka finished with 1,234 rushing yards, the most of any FCS quarterback, while passing for 2,489 yards. He passed for 26 touchdowns while rushing for 11 more.Â
As a team, Holy Cross went 11-0 during the regular season for the third time in program history and first time since 1991. The 2022 Crusaders (12-1) recorded the most single-season wins in program history and advanced to the NCAA FCS quarterfinals for the first time since 1983; their lone loss on the campaign was a hard-fought playoff contest to top-seeded South Dakota State, the eventual national champions. Holy Cross finished the year with a No. 6 ranking among all FCS teams as a result of numerous marquee wins, including a Hail Mary victory against FBS foe Buffalo and an overtime win over nationally ranked Fordham; the Crusaders also earned their first win at Harvard since 2000 and defeated Harvard and Yale in the same season for the first time in program history.
Kennedy joins the Crusaders after he previously worked at the University of Florida; during the 2021 season, the Gators elevated Kennedy from a quality control role to an on-field position as an assistant quarterbacks coach. He additionally assisted the Gators with recruiting in Atlanta and Southern Georgia, and aided in the coaching of quarterback Kyle Trask, who finished fourth in voting for the 2020 Heisman Trophy.
Prior to his time at Florida, Kennedy was also an offensive graduate assistant at Mississippi State.
A native of Scituate, Mass., Kennedy was a standout quarterback at the University of Rochester, where he earned All-Liberty League first team honors his senior season.
