Rensselaer will look for a new head coach.
The school announced earlier this week that it fired head coach Dave Smith. Per sources, Smith had time left on his deal. Assistant coach Chuck Webber posted a goodbye to RPI on social media Tuesday night, indicating that he won’t return either.
In one sense, Rensselaer’s timing couldn’t be better.
Eric Lang is technically a free agent after AIC’s season ended over the weekend to top-seed Holy Cross in the AHA Tournament. AIC is dropping its program back to Division II starting next season, and while Lang’s contract isn’t up, I’m sure he’d be interested in open Division I jobs.
Is Lang RPI’s top candidate?
If he’s not, he should be.
Who else might the Engineers target?
Eric Lang, American International head coach
I’ll put this as simply as I can:
If Eric Lang wants this job, he should be the next head coach at RPI.
He should be their first call. Frankly, they should have already called him. It’s been two days.
Who has proven he can win with fewer resources than Lang did at AIC?
I don’t believe Lang is interested in coaching AIC at the D-II level. It’s fair at this point to consider him a free agent. He should be the hottest free agent on the market.
Lang was a culture-builder at AIC and if he brings that formula to RPI, the program can find a way to be successful in the ECAC. Will they become dominant like Quinnipiac? Probably not. But can they consistently be competitive? I think so.
