AFCA Region 1 Coach of the Year (2022) D3football.com Region 2 Coach of the Year (2022) Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year (2022)
Michael Fredericks Toerper (born June 9, 1986) is an American college football coach. He is the head football coach for Ithaca College, a position he has held since 2022.
Toerper played college football for Pittsburgh. During his four-year stretch with the Panthers he played in 36 games mainly on special teams. He played in a career-high twelve games and had six tackles in 2007.[1]
Coaching career
Toerper began his coaching career with Duquesne as a defensive assistant in 2009 before joining Johns Hopkins as the team's wide receivers coach in 2010.[2] He spent his first three seasons as a wide receivers coach before becoming the special teams coordinator and defensive back coach in 2013 while adding also recruiting coordinator duties in 2014.[3] The team won the Centennial Conference all seven years he was part of the staff.[4]
In 2017, Toerper joined Ithaca as the team's defensive coordinator.[5] In his first season he held opposing teams to a team-low, since 2012, 15.3 points per game and 284.6 yards per game. Seven members of the defense went on to earn Liberty League postseason awards.[6]
In 2022, Toerper rejoined Ithaca after Dan Swanstrom announced his departure from the team.[10][11] In his first season with the team he finished 12–1, which was good enough for 1st in the Liberty League.[12] He helped lead the team past Cortland in the 63rd Cortaca Jug at Yankee Stadium in front of 40,232 fans.[13][14] The team had its first undefeated regular season since 1986 and capped off the season with a trip to the Division III playoffs.[15] In the first round the team beat UMass Dartmouth 63–20.[16] After beating Springfield 31–20 they would eventually lose to the eventual Division III champions North Central (IL) 7–48.[17][18][19] Sixteen players were named to All-Liberty League teams following the season.[20]
