St. John Fisher University Athletics

Ed Raby Jr.’s first season as St. John Fisher University’s head football coach delivered marked improvement and a palpable sense of rejuvenation to a program that had slipped from its once-consistent winning ways. 

The Cardinals authored one of the top turnaround stories in Division III in 2025, finishing 7-4 overall with a 5-2 mark in Empire 8 Conference play for their first winning season since 2016. Fisher, which went 3-7 in 2024, ended the regular season as one of 11 teams in the country with a plus-four jump in victories from the previous year. 

Raby’s team vanquished two of the program’s other nine-year droughts in beating SUNY Brockport in the Courage Bowl – 31-24 in an overtime thriller at Growney Stadium – and qualifying for a postseason game. The Cardinals hosted Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the ECAC Clayton Chapman Bowl to conclude the season. 

The Cardinals took steps forward in all phases in Raby’s first season, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Fisher’s defense went from allowing nearly 30 points and 370 yards per game in 2024 to 20.09 points and 339 yards per game in 2025. 

St. John Fisher finished the year with 10 All-Empire 8 selections and three D3football.com Team of the Week honorees – safety Timothy VanderBrink and linebackers Kyle DaMore and Jack Tanoory. Fisher hadn’t had three different players earn weekly recognition from D3football.com in a season since 2014. 

Raby became the eighth head football coach in St. John Fisher history in February 2025 after eight years at SUNY Morrisville. He spent four years as SUNY Morrisville’s head coach – the first two as the interim – and led the Mustangs to a pair of ECAC Bowl appearances. He joined the Morrisville staff in 2017 as defensive coordinator and safeties coach under the leadership of head coach Curt Fitzpatrick, a 2004 St. John Fisher graduate who won a Division III national title at SUNY Cortland in 2023. 

Following Fitzpatrick’s departure for Cortland in February 2020, Morrisville named Raby its interim head coach. The Mustangs went 2-8 overall (1-5 Empire 8) in 2021, the first season after the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the 2020 season, before improving significantly in 2022. They finished 7-4 (3-3 Empire 8) and reached the ECAC Robert M. Scotty Whitelaw Bowl. 

Morrisville had its best season under Raby in 2024, going 7-4 overall (5-2 Empire 8) and beating Stevenson University 21-18 in the Robert M. Scotty Whitelaw Bowl. The Mustangs’ five conference wins marked the program’s most E8 victories in a single season. 

The Mustangs consistently boasted stingy defenses under Raby’s direction. In 2022, the Mustangs allowed just 11 points per game, the fewest in the Empire 8, and 290.6 yards per game, the third-fewest in the conference. They ranked third in scoring defense (18 points per game) and total defense (310.7 yards per game) this past season. 

As head coach of the Mustangs, Raby produced 48 All-Empire 8 selections, including eight first-teamers. Linebacker Ernesto Mitchell earned Empire 8 Co-Defensive Player of the Year honors and became the first Morrisville player to be named an All-American by D3Football.com in 2022. 

Raby arrived at Morrisville after three years at Allegheny College, where he served as the defensive line coach for two seasons and the linebackers coach for one. He coached tight ends and defensive linemen at Alfred University in 2014. 

Raby, who was a defensive lineman, played collegiately at Division III Alma College for four years (2009-12). He earned his master’s degree in business administration from Alfred University in 2014.

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