Peter Vaas (born April 26, 1952) is an

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

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

Allegheny College Allegheny College is a private liberal arts college in Meadville, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1815, Allegheny is the oldest college in continuous existence under the same name west of the Allegheny Mountains. It is a member of the G ...

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, United States. It was founded by educators Benedict Joseph Fenwick and Thomas F. Mulledy in 1843 under the auspices of the Society of Jesus. ...

from 1992 to 1995, compiling a career

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

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

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

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 Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. The population was 13,050 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The first permanent settlement in Northwestern Pennsylvania, Meadville is withi ...

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, and players positioned there on offense who begin plays behind the line, typically including the quarterback and running backs ( halfbacks and fullb ...

coach at the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire, United States. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant coll ...

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city in north east England **County Durham, a ceremonial county which includes Durham *Durham, North Carolina, a city in North Carolina, United States Durham may also refer to: Places ...

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

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator (OC) is a Coach (sport), coach responsible for a gridiron football team's offense (American football), offense. Generally, the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second ...

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 assistant 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 intercollegiate athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III which is composed of colleges located in Ohio and Indiana. It sponsors 23 ...

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 List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference comprising primarily leading Private university, private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United ...

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 (NFL Europe) 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 The Spring League coaches People from Westwood, Massachusetts Players of American football from Norfolk County, Massachusetts American expatriate sportspeople in Germany American expatriate sportspeople in Spain American expatriate players of American football