STONY BROOK, N.Y. – Stony Brook University Director of Athletics Shawn Heilbron and President Maurie McInnis have named Billy Cosh the third head coach in Stony Brook football's Division I era, as announced on Wednesday. 
  
"This is an incredibly exciting day for Stony Brook and the future of our football program as we welcome Billy Cosh to Long Island as our new head coach," said Heilbron. "Billy is an innovative coach who will bring energy, intensity and a specific plan for building a championship-level program at Stony Brook. More importantly, he genuinely cares about creating a positive environment for our student-athletes, and I am so happy that he is joining our Seawolves family along with his wife Kelsey and daughter Charli." 
 
"We're so thrilled to welcome Coach Cosh and his family to ours here at Stony Brook. As a former accomplished student-athlete himself, he understands the importance of being a coach, as well as a teacher and mentor for his players to excel at the highest levels of competition. During the interview process, it was evident Billy is a dynamic leader and innovative coach who cares deeply about student-athletes contributing on the field as well as in the classroom and in the Stony Brook community. Today marks the beginning of an exciting chapter in Stony Brook's football history," said President McInnis.
 
Cosh joins Stony Brook for his first career head coaching job after spending the 2023 season at Western Michigan as the Broncos' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
 
"My family and I are excited for this opportunity to join the Stony Brook family and to lead this football program to new heights moving forward! I want to thank President McInnis, Director of Athletics Shawn Heilbron, and the search committee for giving me this tremendous opportunity," said Cosh. "Great location, academics, athletics and, more importantly, people really excites me about being the head football coach here. Being a FCS coach over the years, I have always admired Stony Brook from afar. I know we will develop these young men the right way and play a brand of football that will return us to the top in a great league in the CAA! I am ready to get to work and build the trust that is needed to have success."
 
With Western Michigan in 2023, Cosh guided the Broncos to top-five ranks in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) in five different statistics – second in passing offense (211.2), third in total offense (365.0) and first downs (19.8), and fifth in scoring (23.7) and offensive efficiency (123.3).
 
Individually, WMU quarterback Hayden Wolff ranked first in the MAC in completion percentage, completing 65.5 percent of his passes. Wide receiver Kenneth Womack led the league with 6.3 receptions per game and 691 receiving yards. Freshman running back Jalen Buckley ranked third in the league with 91.2 rushing yards per game and tied for fourth with 10 rushing touchdowns.
 
Cosh's offense was well-represented in the MAC's postseason awards, taking two First Team selections and three Third Team picks, while Buckley was also garnered as the league's Freshman of the Year and later selected to The Athletic Freshman All-America Team.
 
Prior to Western Michigan, Cosh spent three years as an FCS offensive coordinator, most recently with Richmond in 2022. That season, the Spiders went 9-4 and earned a trip to the second round of the FCS Playoffs, scoring 31.3 points per game, third-most in the CAA.
 
In the FCS ranks, Richmond finished top-25 in 10 offensive statistics, including second in completion percentage (73.2%), fifth in total first downs (314), and tied for sixth in fewest interceptions thrown (5) in 2022.
 
Cosh came to Richmond from VMI, where he led the Keydets to top-20 FCS ranks in scoring offense and passing efficiency as the offensive coordinator during his final two seasons. In his first season as offensive coordinator in Lexington, Va., Cosh led the Keydets' offense to seven different top-two SoCon statistical ranks including scoring offense, passing offense and passing efficiency, as VMI took a SoCon title in 2020-21 under his Air Raid offense.
 
Before becoming an offensive coordinator at VMI, Cosh served as the wide receivers coach in the 2018 and 2019 seasons. He coached 1,000-yard receivers each season, and had three receivers in the top 10 of the SoCon in receiving along with four All-Conference selections among his wideouts during those two seasons.
 
He started his coaching career at Concord University (Md.) as an offensive graduate assistant and quarterbacks coach. Later, he served as a graduate assistant at Indiana, assisting with the passing game plan and working with quarterbacks and wide receivers, among other duties.
 
Cosh played five seasons of college football as a quarterback, playing at Houston (2013-14), Butler Community College (2012), James Madison (2011) and Kansas State (2010). He led Butler C.C. to the 2012 NJCCA National Championship, throwing for 2,856 yards and 25 touchdowns that season. He graduated with a degree in sociology from Houston in 2015.
 
A native of Gambrills, Md., Cosh is the son of long-time college football coach Chris Cosh, who recently served as defensive coordinator at Delaware (2017-19) and Hampton (2022), and most recently served as a senior analyst for Western Michigan in 2023. He and his wife Kelsey have a daughter, Charli. 
 
Stony Brook will introduce Cosh as head coach on Thursday, Dec. 14 in the Goldstein Family Student-Athlete Development Center at 11 a.m. The event is open to the public, and press availability will be held for Coach Cosh following Thursday's event. Thursday's introduction will also be streamed on YouTube.

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