Peter Vaas (born April 26, 1952) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach and former player. He served as the head football coach at

Allegheny College he, תגל ערבה ותפרח כחבצלת , mottoeng = "Add to your faith, virtue and to your faith, knowledge" (2 Peter 1:5)"The desert shall rejoice and the blossom as the rose" (Isaiah 35:1) , faculty = 193 ...

from 1986 to 1989 and at the

College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a private, Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Boston. Founded in 1843, Holy Cross is the oldest Catholic college in New England and one of the oldest ...

from 1992 to 1995, compiling a career

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

record of 43–41–1. He played football as a

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

at Holy Cross from 1971 to 1973.

Playing career

Vaas was a walk-on quarterback at Holy Cross. He was a three-year starter and set nine individual school passing records in his senior season. As a senior, he completed 135 passes for 1,631 yards and 13 touchdowns (and five touchdowns in one game). His career numbers included 2,642 passing yards and 21 touchdown passes.

Coaching career

Vaas immediately began his coaching career following his graduation from Holy Cross in 1974. He served as an assistant coach at

Meadville, Pennsylvania Meadville is a city in and the county seat of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. The city is within of Erie and within of Pittsburgh. It was the first permanent settlement in Northwestern Pennsylvania. The population was 13,388 at the 2010 censu ...

for five seasons. In 1979, Vaas was hired as the

offensive backfield The offensive backfield is the area of an American football field behind the line of scrimmage. The offensive backfield can also refer to members of offense who begin plays behind the line, typically including any backs on the field, such as the q ...

coach at the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, mo ...

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county *Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...

. He spent four seasons in that capacity before being promoted to the position of

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

in 1983. Vaas later went on to serve as the Running Backs and Quarterbacks Coach at the University of Notre Dame in 1990 and 1991 respectively. He left Notre Dame to return to his Alma Mater, Holy Cross, serving as their Head Football Coach in 1992. Following Holy Cross, Vaas went to the Canadian Football League as the Offensive Coordinator for the Montreal Alouettes. In 1998, Vaas joined NFL Europe as the QB/WR Coach with the Barcelona Dragons. Following a World Bowl bid in 1999 with the Dragons, he was named the Head Coach of the Berlin Thunder. Vaas would lead the Thunder in back-to-back World Bowl Championships in 2001 and 2002. Vaas was named the NFL Europe Coach of the Year in 2002. In 2004, Vaas was named Head Coach of the new NFL Europe franchise, the Cologne Centurions. Vaas left a successful professional coaching stint to return to Notre Dame in 2005 to serve as QB Coach. In 2007, Vaas was named the QB/Offensive Coordinator at Duke University. Vaas continued his coaching journey at Miami-Ohio serving as the OC in 2009 until he joined the University of South Florida football staff in 2010. Vaas returned to professional coaching in 2020, serving as the Offensive Coordinator for Team 9 of the XFL. In 2021, he was the Head Coach of The Spring League Alphas. Presently, Vaas is the Ass’t Supervisor-Replay for the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Prior to accepting that role on April 1, 2022, Vaas was an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Instant Replay Official and the Supervisor of Colonial, Ivy Patriot League Replay (starting in the 2020 season). In 2022, Vaas served as the Instant Replay Official for the National Championship Game between The University of Georgia and The University of Alabama. Vaas previously served (2014-2019) as a replay official and communicator for the American Athletic Conference (AAC). Peter Vaas is the owner of Everything Football, LLC.

Allegheny

Vaas returned to Allegheny College as the Gators' head coach in 1986, a position he held for four seasons, until 1989. He led the team to back-to-back

North Coast Athletic Conference The North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) is an NCAA Division III athletic conference composed of colleges located in Ohio and Indiana. When founded in 1984, the league was a pioneer in gender equality, offering competition in a then-unprecede ...

championships in 1987 and 1988 and earned conference "Coach of the Year" honors both years. His coaching record at the school was 29–11–1. ().

Holy Cross

He spent four seasons as the head coach at Holy Cross from 1992 to 1995. His only winning season came in 1992, when he led his squad to a second-place finish in the

Patriot League The Patriot League is a collegiate athletic conference comprising private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United States. Outside the Ivy League, it is among the most selective gr ...

XFL

In 2020, Vaas was announced as the offensive assistant coach for Team 9, the internal farm team/practice squad of the revived XFL.

Head coaching record

College

Professional

References

External links

Allegheny profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaas, Peter 1952 births Living people Allegheny Gators football coaches American football quarterbacks Barcelona Dragons coaches Berlin Thunder coaches Cologne Centurions (NFL Europe) coaches Duke Blue Devils football coaches Holy Cross Crusaders football coaches Holy Cross Crusaders football players Miami RedHawks football coaches Montreal Alouettes coaches New Hampshire Wildcats football coaches Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coaches South Florida Bulls football coaches People from Westwood, Massachusetts Players of American football from Massachusetts