BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (WMBD/WYZZ) — For the first time in nearly four decades, Illinois Wesleyan is heading into the football season with a new coach.
Jared Williamson is getting ready to coach his first game as the Titan head coach next month. It’ll be the first IWU game in 38 years without Norm Eash, who retired last fall.
Hired in January, Williamson come to IWU after leading the programs at Robert Morris University (Ill.) and Roosevelt University for the past 15 years. He was an assistant coach under Eash from 2006-2010, helping guide IWU to College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin titles in 2007 and 2009.
Don Larson coached the Titans from 1954-1986, then Eash took over. Williamson is just the third head coach at IWU in seven decades.
“When you have two coaches for 71 years, you want to do a lot of the things they did really well and a lot of the traditions they have,” Williamson said at the team’s media day on Wednesday. “So Coach Larson and Coach Eash’s traditions will absolutely still be here and be around. That’s what makes this place special.”
IWU hosts Central (Iowa) in the season opener on Sept. 6.
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