The Ithaca College football team hired offensive coordinator Brandon Maguire as the program’s next head coach Feb. 3. Maguire will take over for his former boss, Michael Toerper, who left Dec. 14 to join Cornell University as their defensive coordinator.
Over the past two seasons, Maguire has coordinated the Bombers’ offense, which has placed first in the Liberty League in average yards per game twice, while averaging 27.35 points per game in the 2024 and 2025 seasons. While with the Bombers, Maguire has gone 14-6 and has managed to keep consistency in the offense, even with three different starting quarterbacks.
Prior to Maguire’s tenure in Ithaca, he had experience as a defensive line coach for the United States Football League Philadelphia Stars. He also has NCAA Division I experience, coaching with Toerper at Holy Cross in assistant offensive roles from 2020-2022.
Maguire will attempt to keep the consistency the program has enjoyed recently. First on the agenda will be attempting to get another Liberty League title, something the Bombers have fallen short of since their last one in 2023.
Maguire sat down with Senior Writer Billy Wood to discuss the new role and what the future of Bombers’ football looks like.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Billy Wood: When did you first find out about Toerper’s departure, and what was the process like after he left?
Brandon Maguire: It was just a few days prior to when [Toerper] went and let the athletic director know. Then we met, and just kind of planned the next steps forward. It was a super quick turnaround. After that, the AD [athletic director] laid out the plan for the search and how long that was going to take to our players. We had the team meeting, I think the news went out on December 14. The meeting ended, and we started to walk out, and one of the [players], Nick Matos, jumped up and said, “Players stay.” They did a players-only meeting, and they left that in a really good place.
BW: Is Toerper’s departure something that the coaching staff knew could be a possibility with all the familiarity over at Cornell?
BM: No, it wasn’t something we were really anticipating.
BW: When did you get the news that you were going to be the next head coach, and what was your reaction to that?
BM: I found out [Feb. 2] at about 10:30, and I just felt shock, disbelief [and it] still doesn’t seem super real. I think part of it is because we felt like we were the guys from day one, and that’s the approach we took. So it’s not like ‘oh, now what?’ Now it’s a bunch of emails and phone calls and texts from alums and all positive people that are supportive of the program. So that is new, but that’s exciting. I couldn’t be in a better place at age 34. Two years ago, when I came here as the OC [offensive coordinator], I would have never thought that this would be how it all transpired.
BW: Going into the coaching search, what was that like for you? How involved was the coaching staff, and how wide was the scope?
BM: My understanding is there were over 150 applicants, I heard ranges up to 180. That wasn’t something that [the coaching staff] were a part of. Early on, I said I wanted to have my name in the hat. [The administration] did a good job; they sat down, they knew what they wanted to target. They asked us what our thoughts were coming off an 8-2 season, and they talked to the players. They included a bunch of people to gather information to try and pair with what they were looking for.
BW: Toerper called the defense. Is the team searching for another defensive play caller, promoting someone, or what’s that kind of looking like, and what will you be looking for in a defensive coordinator?
BM: We’ll be searching for one. The defense was good. We don’t want to change anything too much. We want these guys to be able to go out there and still play ball. You won’t see us become something radically different from what we were. You didn’t see a lot of cover 3 from our operation … mainly a four-down group, we’d like to stay that. We want to make sure it’s something that comes in and fits our players, fits this school, and understands how to recruit to a place like this. Then development, it will be critical in all this. That’s our little secret niche thing; we have to develop guys.
BW: How did your relationship with Toerper and prior coaches you’ve worked for prepare you for this role here?
BM: It still does. We talk almost every day, and there’s things that, even being here for two years, there’s things that you just don’t get exposed to as an assistant as much as someone tries to give you that. People don’t always want to talk to the assistant; it’s the head guy they want to talk to. So being able to bounce things off him [was nice]. But Toerper, Bob Chesney, Bart Andrus, Woody Blevins, Chris Smith, Jon Boyer, all these guys that I look up to, it’s all just been a build to this point.
BW: What is your vision for the program moving forward? What do you want the mentality of this team to be?
BM: We want to take this thing to the next level and compete nationally. You look at the history of this thing, Toerper won 70% of his games, which might be top winning percentage other than [Jim] Butterfield, Dan Swanstrom 68% of his games. Mike Welch, before that, 65 to 70%. Winning is an expectation here. Everything is in place to get that done. We don’t need anything more to be successful. It’s on us now as coaches to make sure we’re putting the players in the right position to do that.
BW: How important was it for the players that they’re kind of getting this familiarity back and they’re not having this whole new regime coming in?
BM: From the beginning, we wanted it to be like “this is your guys’ program,” regardless of what happens with who’s hired. Whether this whole staff gets to stay or someone else comes in, they kept it together. Toerper announced he was leaving, 98 players stayed. No one went into the portal after Toerper announced. That says a lot about how they feel about each other and the work that they put in. It was pretty evident that this is their program. Familiarity is great because they don’t have to learn anything new, and they just have to keep forging ahead.
BW: It seems like the team has retained most of the assistant staff. How important is that for you going into your first year head coaching?
BM: Super important. We do things different than a lot of places from a practice standpoint, from how we do off-season. Having people around that know what [running the program is] like. Coach Drew Miller played here; he’s worked here for four years. Coach Will Margraff comes from the Toerper Tree and [Johns] Hopkins University, Swanstrom, all that. So this isn’t new to him. Coach Kerry Grigsby’s been here seven years. Very familiar with the community and it’s not just football. The admissions, financial aid, how we recruit, the retention, all of that comes into play. So keeping everyone together is super important. Keeping a guy like Gladney around, too. You saw the development that our receivers had in the off-season and how that showed up on the field.
BW: What are your goals for your tenure overall? What do you want to achieve?
BM: Keep being a consistent power in the Liberty League and then nationally. Everyone should want to play Ithaca. The Ithaca brand should mean something. You know what you’re getting when you get them on the schedule. It should be a dogfight, and you’re going to feel it afterwards. I just want to make sure that this continues being a consistent force in the Division III landscape.
