BREAKING: Coach Kelton Leaving for Williams

Aaron Kelton

Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Kelton, who stepped into the job when Lou Ferrari left suddenly during the summer of 2008, has been tapped as the new head coach at Williams.

This is a great honor for Kelton, but I and the players who really loved learning from him are going to miss him. This is also a double loss, because Kelton handles the secondary coaching duties as well as the overall defense.

I was always impressed by Kelton's enthusiasm and I also think he got results. The improvement the defense showed in the 2008 season was an outstanding achievement and the way the defense in 2009 stayed competitive despite a raft of key injuries was almost as impressive.

While Williams is a D-III school, the move makes sense for Kelton who is a Massachusetts native. Getting a head coaching job is also harder and harder to do these days. If Kelton succeeds at Williams, he'll be a strong candidate for a head coaching job in the Ivies and other schools in the Northeast.

Now the search for a new defensive coordinator at Columbia begins. When Ferrari left in 2008 it was in the middle of the summer, so there is more time to find or promote his replacement.

I'm not speculating, but just as a point of information, the remaining defensive coach with the most experience on this staff is linebackers coach Greg Sigler. Sigler has been a great recruiter, and he too is a popular figure in the organization.

The other two remaining defensive coaches are D-Line coach Denauld Brown, who joined the staff in 2007 and SAM linebackers coach Matt Hamme.

Again, we wish Coach Kelton all the success in the world.