Candidate Profile: Danny Rocco

Danny Rocco is no stranger to Wake Forest University, as he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in 1984 and a Master's degree in 1987. Rocco is in his second season as head coach of the Richmond Spiders. After inheriting a 3-8 (0-8 in conference) Spiders team Rocco went 8-3 and won the Colonial Athletic Association with a 6-2 conference record. This years team has not had as much success, finishing with a 6-6 record (4-4 in conference). Prior to his stop at Richmond, Rocco was an assistant coach at Wake Forest (GA&DL), Colorado (LB), Tulsa (AC), Boston College (DL), Texas (AC), Maryland (AC), Virginia (Assoc. HC), the New York Jets (AC), and most notably Liberty where he was the head coach.

While at Liberty, Rocco posted an overall record of 47-21 and a conference record of 26-5. Rocco won the Big South Conference 4 times in his 6 year stint, was Big South coach of the year 3 times and never finished lower than third in the conference. From 2007-2010 Rocco's offensive ranked first in the FCS with 37.28 points per game and the defense ranked seventh by allowing a meager 19.17 points per game. Rocco was also able to produce NFL talent while he was at Liberty with such names as Vince Redd (Chiefs), Stephen Sene (Patriots), Trey Jacobs (Redskins), and Rashad Jennings (Jaguars).

Coach Rocco is only 53 years old and comes from a football family, being the son of former Penn State assistant Frank Rocco Jr. Rocco is also very familiar with the area as he produced a top 10 recruiting class while offensive coordinator at Virginia. Wake Forest will be a young team next year and they could really use a coach who has as much success as Rocco. He seems to have a lot of upside, but there is risk involved as he has not been a head coach in a BCS conference. Given the team's youth and struggles on the offensive side of the ball Rocco's seems to make a lot of sense.

Would Danny Rocco make a good replacement for Jim Grobe or would we be better suited going in a different direction?