RPI Football Adds 2 More Coaches To Offensive Staff

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Director of Athletics Jim Knowlton has announced the hiring of Dan Laughlin and John McDowell to the football staff. Both will assume responsibilities coaching the offensive side of the ball under head coach Ralph Insernia and offensive coordinator Kevin Trigonis.

Laughlin joins the Engineer staff after spending time at the high school, Division III, Division I, and professional levels. Laughlin began his coaching career in 2007, as the quarterback and wide receiver coach at Stuyvesant High School in New York City, before moving onto the professional ranks as a scouting intern with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2008.

Following his season with the Steelers, Laughlin coached three seasons at Columbia University as an offensive assistant. He returned to the NFL in 2011-12 with the New York Giants before making his way back to the collegiate coaching ranks last fall as the wide receivers coach at William Patterson University. Laughlin played scholastically at the Division I level at Duquesne University (1993) and Michigan State University (1994), seeing action at quarterback and receiver. He earned his B.A. in psychology from CUNY-Hunter College in 2008.

McDowell will enter his first season of the collegiate coaching ranks, after serving as a volunteer assistant offensive line coach at Bishop McNamara High School last fall. A 2012 graduate of Ferrum College in Virginia, McDowell was a four-year member of the Division III Panthers, where he was a two-time member of the USA South All-Conference First Team, and also earned All-Region Second Team honors from D3football.com in 2010 and 2011. Ferrum, and offensive lineman, was named to the Roanoke Times All-State First Team and the VaSID All-State First Team in 2011, and earned back-to-back USA South Conference All-Academic Team honors twice. He earned his B.S. in social studies and history from Ferrum in 2012.

The preceding information was provided by RPI Athletics.