Will Healy, a former head coach at Charlotte and Austin Peay and the 2017 Football Championship Subdivision national coach of the year, has been named a senior offensive analyst and advisor to UCF head coach Gus Malzahn.
The Chattanooga, Tennessee, native engineered a remarkable turnaround at Austin Peay. In his second season as the Governors' head coach in 2017, he led his team to an 8-4 mark, an 8-1 record versus FCS opponents and a program-record seven Ohio Valley Conference wins—after Austin Peay had won only a single football game in the previous four years combined (at one point snapping a longest-in the-country 29-game losing streak).
Those eight wins in 2017 tied the all-time Austin Peay single-season record—and his last two seasons with the Governors produced a combined 13-6 mark versus FCS teams. In addition to being named OVC coach of the year in 2017, he received the Eddie Robinson Award by STATS as the top FCS coach in the country. His 2017 recruiting class was rated number one in the country by 247Sports.
After three seasons (2016-17-18) leading the Governors, Healy took over as head coach at Charlotte. His initial 49er team in 2019 achieved the first winning record and postseason bowl invitation (the Bahama Bowl against Buffalo) in program history, also producing the school's first All-American (defensive end Alex Highsmith).
The 49ers won four of their first six games in 2021, defeating Duke for their initial victory over a Power 5 opponent—following their first Football Bowl Subdivision win (over Massachusetts) in 2019. At the time he took the Charlotte head coaching job Healy was the second-youngest head coach in NCAA Division I football.
Healy's coaching career began at Chattanooga as quarterback coach in 2009. He spent seven years (2009-15) on the staff, switching to coach wide receivers in 2010 and also working as passing game coordinator and recruiting coordinator. He produced consecutive recruiting classes rated best in FCS football.
While with the Mocs, Healy helped develop quarterback Jacob Huesman into a three-time Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Year and second-team FCS All-American—and also worked with quarterback BJ Coleman who eventually became a seventh-round pick of the Green Bay Packers in the 2012 NFL Draft.
After originally attending the Air Force Academy in 2003, Healy transferred to Richmond and was the starting quarterback as a senior in 2008 on the Spiders' FCS national championship team. As a team captain he played in the championship game (a 24-7 win over Montana) in his hometown of Chattanooga.
He threw for more than 7,700 yards—still the all-time career record for the Chattanooga area—at Boyd-Buchanan High School in Chattanooga. He was twice selected honorable mention all-state.
Healy graduated from Richmond in 2008 with a degree in rhetoric and communication studies.
He and his wife Emily (Broyles) are parents of Eli and Wynn.