Football Hires New Assistant Coach

On Tuesday, Harvard football coach Tim Murphy announced that former Crimson football staff member Mike Donovan will be returning as the team’s assistant defensive line coach for the upcoming season.

“We are happy to have Michael Donovan back in the fold,” Murphy said. “He’s a local guy, he understands our system and fits the chemistry of our staff.”

After holding the title of assistant football operations coordinator at Harvard from 2011-2012, Donovan accepted an assistant coaching position at Delaware for the 2012-2013 season. He now rejoins the Crimson with an extra year’s worth of coaching experience under his belt.

The Stoughton, Mass. native was the defensive quality control assistant for the Blue Hens in 2013. His responsibilities included studying game footage for defensive strategy and managing recruiting visits. He was responsible for recruiting both the New England area and portions of the South, in states such as Alabama, Rhode Island, Vermont and Louisiana.

In his only year with Delaware, the Hens won seven games, finishing with a 4-4 mark in the Colonial Athletic Association Conference. His defensive corps finished ninth out of the 11 Colonial Athletic Association teams in scoring defense and tenth in total defense.

After a brief hiatus from the sidelines, Donovan joined Murphy’s staff for the 2011-2012 season. In that year, Donovan helped the Crimson finish 9-1 overall, with a spotless 7-0 Ivy League record and a 45-7 drubbing of Yale in The Game.

Donovan’s coaching career began at his high school alma mater, Stoughton High School, where he was the defensive line and wide receivers coach in 2009 as an undergraduate student at Bentley.

—Staff writer Caleb Y. Lee can be reached at caleblee@college.harvard.edu.