Offensive Line

A veteran of northeastern football coaching, Mike Foley enters his third season as offensive line coach at Connecticut. Prior to UConn, Foley completed 21 seasons of involvement with the football team at his alma mater, Colgate University. He had served as the Raiders’ offensive coordinator and offensive line coach since 1997.

In his time at UConn, Foley has helped bring a collection of young offensive linemen to a group that helped the Huskies to the 2007 BIG EAST title. That group enters teh 2008 season with a combined 147 games of playing experience, almost all of them under Foley’s guidance.

In 2005, his final year at Colgate, the Raiders posted an 8-4 record and advanced to the NCAA Division I-AA Playoffs. Foley helped coach all seven of Colgate’s NCAA Playoff squads, including the 2003 team that advanced to the National Championship Game. Of the 13 seasons in which Colgate was eligible for the playoffs with Foley aboard, the team qualified seven times. Foley also played a role in each of Colgate’s five Patriot League Championship teams (1997, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005).

Colgate broke the league record for rushing yardage three times under his tutelage, and led the Patriot League five out of his last nine seasons. During his tenure as offensive coordinator (1997-2005), Foley produced 39 All-Patriot League players including 13 on the offensive line. His offensive schemes and the line’s blocking helped pave the way for a pair of Walter Payton Award winners, Kenny Gamble in 1987 and Jamal Branch in 2003.

He began his coaching career as offensive line coach at Bates College in 1978, before moving the next fall to Dartmouth as the freshman offensive line coach for one season. After one season as offensive line coach at Holy Cross in 1980, he returned to his alma mater as junior varsity head coach and varsity receivers coach. After two seasons in that position, he took over as offensive line coach in 1983. Foley added the duties of offensive coordinator in 1984.

In 1986, he served as interim head coach during the absence of head coach Fred Dunlap, who was recovering from bypass surgery.  Following Dunlap’s retirement in 1987, Foley was named head coach of the Raiders, a title he held through 1992, compiling a 21-34 record. He returned to the Hamilton, N.Y. campus in 1997 as offensive coordinator and line coach after three years on the Harvard staff. While with the Crimson, he served as offensive coordinator during his entire stay.

He was a four-year letterwinner at Colgate and captain of the 1977 team. A three-year starter at center, he was twice honored as an All-East performer by the Associated Press and, in 1977, was also named to the ECAC All-East squad.  In 2004, Foley was inducted into Colgate’s Athletic Hall of Honor.

Foley was born in Kittery, Maine, but grew up in Newburyport, Mass. He graduated from Colgate University in 1978 with a degree in economics. Foley and his wife, Kathleen, have two grown children, Erin and Patrick. A football coach like his father, Patrick is the defensive coordinator at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.