The University at Albany has elevated Jared Ambrose to the title of interim head football coach for the 2025 season.

Ambrose, who has served as quarterbacks coach, offensive coordinator and associate head coach under Greg Gattuso, has been with the program since 2022. Gattuso announced last month that, after 11 seasons as Great Danes head coach, he will join Penn State’s program as a senior defensive analyst and defensive line coach.

The Danes’ new interim coach was offensive coordinator in 2023, when UAlbany won the Coastal Athletic Association championship and reached the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) national semifinal round, its deepest postseason run in modern program history.

Ambrose, a 2007 graduate of Shepherd University, also spent time on the coaching staffs at Shepherd, Delaware and Towson. He was the play-caller for the 2013 Towson team that reached the FCS national championship game, and held the same position for Delaware in its 2020 run to the FCS semifinals.

“Jared has a proven track record of success throughout his coaching career, especially within the CAA,” UAlbany Director of Athletics Mark Benson said in a statement. “He’s helped lead three different programs to deep playoff runs and was an integral asset to this team’s success in 2023. We are confident that he is the right person to lead the UAlbany football program this upcoming year.”

Ambrose will be just the third head coach in the modern history of the UAlbany program; before Gattuso’s tenure, Bob Ford was head coach from 1970, when the program was reinstated after 46 years, until the end of the 2013 season, winning 268 games at the club, Division III, Division II and FCS levels.