Goldrich taking next step
- Updated: August 23, 2026
By ALLEN LESSELS
DURHAM – Sean Goldrich led the University of New Hampshire football team to great heights on the football field as a quarterback.
A little over a decade later, starting Friday in the earliest season opener ever for the Wildcats, Goldrich will take the next step in seeing what he can do as the team’s head coach.
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UNH kicks off the season at Albany on Friday at 7 p.m.
To add to the intrigue, the Wildcats open the season with league game, a Coastal Athletic Association contest against a group much like their own, featuring a whole new coaching staff and numerous roster changes.
Not only that, but UNH does not get another shot at a league opponent until it plays at CAA newcomer Sacred Heart on Sept. 26.
“(Albany) is going to be a fun contest, for sure,” Goldrich said at UNH’s Media Day. “They’ve got to build from the ground up, too. I think I saw online that they have about 40 transfers with their new coach and staff. I think they did a good job, seeing some of the names they brought in.”
UNH finished 8-5 overall last season and tied for third in the league with a 6-2 record.
Two weeks after the season ended with a second consecutive appearance in the FCS playoffs, it was announced that coach Rick Santos was moving on to the Ivy League as head coach at the University of Pennsylvania.
Just over two weeks after that, on Dec. 29, UNH named Goldrich, like Santos a former Wildcat standout quarterback, as head coach. Goldrich led the Wildcats into the FCS playoffs each of his four years as the team’s starter and twice to the FCS semifinals and came back to Durham from an assistant coaching position at the University of Delaware.
Albany was 2-10 overall and 1-10 in the CAA. In December, Tom Perkovich, who built Susquehanna University into a Division III power over the past decade, was named the new head coach of the Great Danes.
The Wildcats will have no time to work their way into a 12-game season, evenly split between home and road contests.
“We’ve got to play sound football coming out of the gate,” Goldrich said. “It’s a must win for us, going out to Albany, in conference to start the year. We’ve got to be ready to go for that one.”
Brooks Bentley, who competed closely for the starting job at quarterback last year, is in the running again for the post. Last year, Matt Vezza started from Day 1 and took off with the opportunity and led the Wildcats back into the FCS tournament.
Vezza entered the transfer portal and is now at Ohio University, an FBS school in the Mid-American Conference where he and his teammates are preparing for their opener at Nebraska on Sept. 5.
Bentley is competing for the UNH starting job with, among others, Tommy McLeish, a junior out of Norfolk, Mass. and King Philip Regional.
Bentley transferred to UNH after leading Division II Wingate University to the playoffs in 2024. He passed for 3,869 yards with 28 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in two seasons at Wingate.
After the opener at Albany, UNH plays its FBS game at Syracuse on Sept. 5 at noon.
The Wildcats play their home opener against Stonehill on Sept. 12 (6:03 p.m. kickoff).
Harvard comes to Durham for the first time on Sept. 19 for a 1 p.m. game. The Wildcats and Crimson have played eight times and Harvard has won them all, mostly recently 28-23 at Harvard Stadium on Oct. 4, 2024.
UNH closes out the month at Sacred Heart on Sept. 26.
The Wildcats play Elon at home on Oct. 3, are at North Carolina A&T on Oct. 10, home against Monmouth on Oct. 17, at Merrimack on Oct. 24 and off on Oct. 31.
They play Rhode Island, which is picked to win the CAA in the preseason coaches’ poll, at home on Nov. 7 and Stony Brook at home on Nov. 14.
UNH closes out the regular season at Maine on Nov. 21.
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