Image courtesy of Yale Athletics

The word “repeat” isn’t being uttered anywhere within the Yale program.

Despite claiming the prestigious Ivy League title a year ago, Team 150 is solely focused on writing its own chapter to add to the history of the program, whether that history includes a second straight championship or not. Head coach Tony Reno, QB Nolan Grooms and defensive back Wande Owens were part of the league’s virtual Media Day on Monday.

RENO ON STATE OF THE PROGRAM

“Thank you to everyone in the Ivy League for putting together another great day to showcase our student athletes and the eight great institutions. Before I start I just want to wish Al Bagnoli well in his retirement. Al’s been a great mentor to all of us and a legendary coach in this league. Along with that, I want to wish Buddy Teevens and his family well. Hope for a speedy recovery. At Yale, we’ve been very fortunate here. We’ve got an amazing community. It starts with our president Peter Salovey and works down through his administration and our athletics office. They’re always so supportive of our student athletes and the experience they have here at Yale. Couldn’t ask for better people to be leading us. Our AD Vicky Chun and our Executive Deputy Director of Athletics Ann-Marie Guglieri, since they walked on campus their support has been incredible. What they’ve done for us as a football family and our players on a day-to-day basis is nothing short of extraordinary. Really fortunate to be apart of this amazing community at Yale. I don’t think a lot of times as college football programs and as coaches thank those that get us where we need to be. We’ve got an amazing group of alums. I spend each spring – as most coaches do – out on the road seeing these men and getting a chance to share their experiences. We’re very fortunate here to have a very supportive group of alumni who want to further our football family and share in the experiences of our student athletes….we’ve got three in the NFL and one who was the leading tackler in the league the last two seasons in Foyesade Oluokun. A rookie Rodney Thomas who had an extraordinary season for the Colts and Dieter Eiselen who’s playing for the Bears. Those three guys with countless others who have left here in the last 10 years to join this strong group of alumni, can’t tell you how proud I am of them.

“I’m really proud of our team’s impact off the field. We really have a group of guys who have said they want to be better for those around us and better for the community. We’ve partnered with ‘A Long Talk’ and also with ‘Set The Expectation’ as well as working with the ‘Be The Match Drive” and really trying to help in the community. Trying to be better for each other and those around us and really truly trying to develop future leaders of the world here at Yale. Really proud to be with (Grooms and Owens), who really exemplify what it means to be a Yale football player on and off the field. Two fifth-year seniors who took their time off from Yale as many others have in this league to come back and play with their teammates…for me, it just speaks volumes with the culture they’ve created here at Yale. I’m a small part of it but really proud to be with these two guys, the rest of their classmates and Team 150 this year. Recruiting is going great. We had a great year of recruiting and we’re excited about this freshman class coming on. Even more so, the guys who have seen what’s gone on here the last 150 years and want to be a part of it. Be part of this unique tradition we have here and I’m very honored to be the head coach of a team that’s the seventh-winningest team in Division1 college football history. When you put it in perspective of all the great teams in college football, we’re very fortunate to be in this line of teams and coaches that have really been part of helping steward this along and embracing success and hopefully, build on it each year.  Team 150 has been incredible since they came back. We came back to campus right after Thanksgiving and really put last year behind us and said ‘hey, how do we make this better for each other?’ One of the unique things about us is we number our teams. Team 150 is different than Team 151 or Team 145. We’re our own identity and we’re going to continue to build that each day this offseason and now as we progress into the preseason these next few days here. Who we’re going to be is really dependent upon the work we’ve put in and the work we’ll continue to put in. Our guys understand that each day is equally as important and we’re only going to be as good as our preparation which will influence our performance. Excited about what the guys have done. We’ve got a great group of sports performance coaches and sports medicine staff that have done nothing short of an extraordinary job with our guys since Day 1 and come back in healthy, stronger, faster and better for each other. The story of our team and the strength of our team is our players.”

ON DEALING WITH BEING THE HUNTED INSTEAD OF THE HUNTER

“Two things. When you’ve had the success Yale’s had in its history, the seventh-winningest team in NCAA D1 history, that’s part of wearing the ‘Y.’ The other part for us is that we truly feel like we play a game against ourselves each week. We focus on ourselves. We focus on the day-to-day and we focus on our processes. Whoever we play each week is an opponent and we respect everyone. We’ve got some exceptional opponents in this league, but we truly feel the success of our team is directly in our locker room. For us, everything points to us and our ability to be the best version of ourselves each day.”

ON OPENING AGAINST HOLY CROSS

“Obviously, we’ve got a ton of respect for Bob Chesney and Holy Cross. They were a national semifinal team, have an extraordinary group coming back and do things the right way up there. For us it’s a great opener. If you want to be an elite team, you’ve got to play elite teams. You’ve got to go in and put yourself up against the best. Were very fortunate they’re on our schedule and they’re our opener. We’ll have an opportunity to play a great team right off the bat. I think our guys have prepared all offseason well and we’ll continue that in the preseason. It’ll be a great opponent coming out of the tunnel coming out of the Yale Bowl, but at the end of the day it’s about us and how well we play our game on both sides of the ball, in the kicking game and how we do mentally.”

GROOMS ON COMING BACK

“For me, it was kind of an easy decision. Right when it was announced the Ivy League was cancelling (2020), I took that fall semester off. I took it right when the announcement came out. It was really just all about the relationships…I came in early as an incoming freshman and all stayed like one inch away here on campus. Relationships established that summer sort of dictated…it’s all throughout our class. Almost every single member of our class is back this year and we want to be elite as a class. We want to be remembered as the Team 150 senior class. It’s all about chasing elite here at Yale.”

OWENS ON BEIGN NAMED CAPTAIN

“It was very meaningful. It filled me up and made me warm inside knowing that my teammates look up to me not only as a leader, but someone that can represent them and someone that has their back no matter what.”

ON THE DEFENSE

“We have a very seasoned, experienced defensive backfield. We bring back a lot of guys from previous years…and our linebacker room as well…I think the big difference between this year and last year is we’re losing a lot of our defensive lineman. I think that’s one area we’re going to need people to step up in and we’ll figure it out during camp.”

ON OPENING AGAINST HOLY CROSS

“We can’t just stick our toe in the water, like figuring things out. we’ve got to come out and attack it. Holy Cross will have two games under their belt and would have ironed out some of the kinks that come with not playing for a while. I think defensively it’s tough when you’re playing a mobile quarterback with an arm who’s pretty physical. They have a very talented receiving room they bring back veterans there. The offensive line is very good. It’s going to be a really physical game. People are going to get punched in the mouth. They’re going to take some hits, we’re goin to take some hits and it’s a matter of who stands up through the adversity.”