Ryan Kelly - Senior Associate AD/Football Operations - Football Support Staff

Ryan Kelly

Title:
Senior Associate AD/Football Operations
Email:
rkelly19@syr.edu
Phone:
4817

Ryan Kelly, an experienced athletics administrator who most recently served as the Director of Athletics at Long Island University, joined Fran Brown’s Staff as the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Football Operations in March, 2024.

Kelly works hand-in-hand with Brown and manages all aspects of the Orange football program. In his first season with the program, Syracuse went 10-3, finished the season ranked inside the top-20 of the final AP Poll, and played in the DIRECTV Holiday Bowl.

Kelly became the AD after two years in the Sharks’ administration. He came to LIU by way of the American Athletic Conference, where he spent four football seasons as the league’s Director of Football Operations. He also worked in football operations at both Baylor and Temple, where he crossed paths with Brown.

Kelly oversees all aspects of the Orange’s football operations, including managing the program’s budget, capital projects, team travel and calendar. He also serves as the program’s liaison to entities both on and off campus.

While at Long Island, Kelly ran an athletic department that sponsored 38 varsity sports programs. He was responsible for 154 staff members and over 900 student-athletes. Prior to becoming the Athletic Director, he was the department’s chief of staff and sport supervisor for football, the men’s and women’s hockey programs, baseball and men’s and women’s golf from 2022-23. He additionally oversaw men’s lacrosse in his first season at LIU after joining the department as the Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Administration in 2021.

In these roles, he worked closely with the University’s advancement team on numerous fundraising initiatives that led to facility and program upgrades, managed all capital projects, including a new weight room, athletic training room, meeting rooms and locker rooms, while being responsible for all budgets, practice and game schedules, recruiting, scholarships and personnel for the sports he oversaw.

The Sharks earned numerous conference accolades in his tenure, including the department being awarded the 2022 NEC Commissioners Cup, and conference championships in men’s golf (2023), women’s tennis (2023), men’s volleyball (2023), women’s hockey (2023), and baseball (2022).

While at the American Athletic Conference, Kelly spearheaded the operations as the conference experienced unprecedented success. In 2021, Cincinnati became the league’s first College Football Playoff participant, 27 teams reached bowl eligibility in his four years, and the conference saw four-or-more teams ranked in the AP Top-25 in each of his first three seasons.

Kelly began his work in college athletics at Coastal Carolina, where he was an assistant football coach, before moving to Temple in 2015 as the assistant director of football operations. From 2016-18, Kelly served as the associate director of football operations at Baylor.

Kelly was a four-year member of the football and baseball teams at Norwich University. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education, with a concentration in coaching and health, in 2011.