One day after the death of his father, Dante Reno stepped back onto the field and delivered the kind of performance that stops you in your tracks.
The former South Carolina quarterback, now Yale’s starter, threw for 298 yards and four touchdowns in a 41-24 comeback win over Merrimack on Saturday. He did it less than 24 hours after Yale announced that his father, Tony Reno, had died Friday at age 52 after battling a rare brain disorder.
Reno completed 22 of 39 passes and added a career-high 39 rushing yards as Yale erased a 21-7 second-quarter deficit and outscored Merrimack 34-3 the rest of the way. He was also intercepted once.
“I know my dad,” Reno said postgame. “He would want nothing (more) than for me to go out there and play, not miss practice.
Go out there, go to school, be around the guys. We have a culture here that not everybody has in the country.”
Tony Reno had spent 14 years as Yale’s football coach before taking a medical leave of absence in December and formally stepping away in February. Yale’s obituary said he died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which the Mayo Clinic describes as “a rare brain disorder that leads to dementia.” The Mayo Clinic says about one to two cases of CJD are diagnosed per million people around the world each year, and the disease has no cure.
Dante Reno’s day carried even more weight because he had missed Yale’s Sept. 26 game to be with his family. On Saturday, he returned for a game that included a pregame video tribute to his father.
Yale coach Kevin Cahill, who worked as an offensive coordinator under Tony Reno, said before the game, “Trying to keep him (Dante) off the field today was not an option,” according to NBC Connecticut.
The effort earned Reno recognition beyond the box score. He was named the Ivy League’s co-offensive player of the week and won the New England Football Writers Association’s Gold Helmet Award.
Tony Reno’s influence stretched far beyond this season. He was Yale’s coach from 2012-25 and finished as the second-winningest coach in program history with an 83-49 record. He guided the Bulldogs to five Ivy League titles and the league’s first automatic bid to the FCS playoffs last year.
Reno’s path to Yale also ran through South Carolina. He signed with Shane Beamer as a three-star Class of 2024 quarterback recruit, appeared in one game for the Gamecocks that season as a backup, and then transferred back home to play for his father.
Beamer opened his postgame news conference after South Carolina’s loss to Kentucky by offering condolences to the Reno family.
“Being a coach’s kid like myself, Dante and I have a special bond,” Beamer said. “It puts things in perspective. ... So much hurt for that family.”
Tony Reno is survived by his wife, Toni, and their three children: Dante, daughter Angelina, who is also a Yale student, and son Vince.
In an Instagram tribute posted Friday, Dante Reno wrote: “No words can describe this dude. He left this earth better than he found it.
My dad, my best friend, my guy. I love you forever pops.
Fly high.”
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Even with the uncertainty hanging over him, Sanchez is still around the program and working with the team. He has been practicing and, by Beamers account, has been a positive presence in the locker room, but the Gamecocks may need to keep planning as if they will have to move forward without him. [Read more 🡒]