From University of Rochester Athletics
University of Rochester alumnus Brian Daboll '97 reached the pinnacle of his coaching career when he was named the head football coach of the New York Giants in the National Football League on Friday, January 28, 2022.
Daboll takes over as the 22nd head coach of the Giants. Since 2018, he served as the Offensive Coordinator of the Buffalo Bills. His coaching odyssey has taken him through six NFL teams before arriving with the Giants. During his coaching tenure, Daboll earned five Super Bowl wins with the New England Patriots. He has worked with a myriad of quarterbacks, including NFL Hall of Fame inductee Bret Favre (when both were with the New York Jets) and with Tom Brady with the Patriots.
In 2020, Daboll was named the Associated Press Assistant Coach of the Year after helping to develop Josh Allen into one of the NFL's top quarterbacks. The Bills reached the American Football Conference Championship Game against the Kansas City Chiefs. More recently, Daboll was credited for calling "a perfect game' in the wild card round of the NFL playoffs. Buffalo scored touchdowns on seven of its possessions in an overwhelming game vs. the Patriots. The eighth possession was a kneel-down in the final seconds to run out the clock.
He coached with two men who have become some of the most successful coaches in the sport: Nick Saban, currently with the University of Alabama, and Bill Belichick of the Patriots. He had two coaching stints with each – and helped each man win a championship. He was the offensive coordinator with Alabama when the Crimson Tide won the 2017 College Football Playoff. In 2018, Daboll moved to his hometown Buffalo Bills as the Offensive Coordinator under Sean McDermott.
Daboll won five Super Bowl rings with the Patriots – three in his first term with New England and two more when he returned to the Patriots after three stops as the offensive coordinator (with the Cleveland Browns, the Miami Dolphins, and the Chiefs). With New England, he was a defensive assistant coach in 2000-01, then the wide receivers coach from 2002-06.
He left New England to serve as the quarterbacks coach under Eric Mangini (who was an assistant with the Patriots before going to the Jets). Daboll was in New York from 2007-08, then offensive coordinator with the Browns in 2009-10, the OC with the Dolphins in 2011, and the OC for Kansas City in 2012. He returned to the Patriots in 2013 as the tight ends coach and remained there through 2016. Saban called after that and Daboll served as QB coach and offensive coordinator in the 2017 season.
When the Bills beckoned in 2018, it brought Daboll back to his Western New York roots. He attended St. Francis High School in Athol Springs, then matriculated at Rochester. He lettered for the Yellowjackets football team and was a two-year starter in the secondary.
Statistically, one of his best games for the Yellowjackets took place on September 9, 1995. Daboll intercepted three passes in a 9-5 win over Case Western Reserve in Cleveland. The third pick came in the middle of the end zone in the closing seconds.
Rochester trailed, 5-2, in the final minute and reached the CWRU 10, 4th-and-goal. Quarterback Steve Kenny threw a 10-yuard touchdown pass to wide receiver Brian Flynn with 50 seconds remaining. Case drove downfield with the kickoff but the potential TD pass was intercepted by Daboll in the middle of the end zone. He finished the game with four primary tackles and two assists for six stops. He had the three INTs.
He finished the 1995 season with 52 total tackles (29 primary, 23 assists). He had four interceptions and eight more pass breakups. He had 51 tackles in 1994 (30 primary, 21 assists) plus two interceptions and two additional pass breakups. He had two assisted tackles as a first-year player in 1993. He graduated from the University in 1997 with a degree in economics.