SPORTS BRIEF: Yale Announces Jaguars Assistant Tom Williams as Head Football Coach

Yale introduced Jacksonville Jaguars assistant Tom Williams as its new head coach on Wednesday, and Williams wasted no time declaring “We’re going to beat Harvard. We’ve got to turn The Game back into a rivalry.”

Williams played linebacker at Stanford, earning a Rhodes Scholar nomination his senior year. He captained the Cardinal to a share of the 1992 Pacific-10 Conference title.

Williams began his coaching career as a graduate assistant under Bill Walsh at Stanford. He then moved to Hawaii, where he coached for three seasons, then moved to work under Rick Neuheisel at Washington for three years.

In 2002, just one year before Neuheisel was axed after numerous recruiting violations and gambling on the NCAA tournament, Williams returned to his alma mater as defensive coordinator.

In 2005, he worked under former Texas coach Dick Tomey at San Jose State as the defensive coordinator.

The next year, he moved to the Jaguars, where he has served as a defensive assistant under head coach Jack Del Rio.

Williams steps into the shoes of Jack Siedlecki, who had lost seven of his last eight against Harvard, including an embarrassing 37-6 drubbing in 2007 that ruined an undefeated season for the Elis.

Siedlecki finished 70-49 in 12 seasons at Yale, winning Ivy championships in 1999 and 2006.

—CRIMSON SPORTS STAFF