Bellarmine names former Stanford linebacker Tom Williams as its coach

"Williams, 56, has an extensive background coaching at the high school, college, NFL and international levels, including time with Hawaii, Washington, San Jose State and the Jacksonville Jaguars. He also served as Yale's head coach from 2009-2011. He resigned late in 2011 amid controversy after admitting he made a false claim that he had applied for a Rhodes scholarship and was a finalist while at Stanford."

"Bellarmine athletic director Kevin Saldivar told the Bay Area News Group that Williams' resignation at Yale came up during the hiring process, which featured four rounds of interviews. After speaking with Williams about the incident and conducting background checks and interviews with references, the school felt comfortable moving forward."

""One of my favorite lines I use with the student-athletes here is, 'If we were all perfect, the world would be boring, right?'" Saldivar said. "Part of athletics and anyone being a human is going through some obstacles in their life and learning from it and moving forward and making amends for the stuff they've done. "He's done that for sure. The weeks upon weeks and the amount of people that were involved here and making sure this decision was the correct one for Bellarmine and Bellarmine football, we had no reason to believe that Tom isn't kind of a person of integrity that aligns with our Jesuit values and philosophy.""

Tom Williams was named head football coach at Bellarmine to replace David Diaz-Infante. Williams, 56, has coached at high school, college, NFL and international levels, including Hawaii, Washington, San Jose State and the Jacksonville Jaguars. He served as Yale's head coach from 2009-2011 and resigned in late 2011 after admitting he falsely claimed he had applied for and been named a finalist for a Rhodes scholarship while at Stanford. Bellarmine completed four interview rounds, background checks and reference calls and determined Williams aligns with the school's Jesuit values. Williams inherits a program that went 0-10 in 2024 and is 4-26 over three seasons.

Read at The Mercury News