By Caitlin Rubsamen, Sports Editor
The morning of Monday, Nov. 17, Gettysburg Athletic Director Troy Dell sent an email to the entire football team, informing them that Head Coach Maurice Banks, Offensive Coordinator Nick Turchyn, and Defensive Coordinator Mike Hoyt had been fired, effective immediately.
Banks, who was hired in Feb. of 2020, is leaving the Bullets with a record of 7-43. He came to Gettysburg having previously been an assistant coach at Georgetown University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Nick Turchyn arrived in Gettysburg in 2022 as the wide receiver coach, but was later added as the offensive coordinator. Turchyn came from Princeton, where he served as the offensive senior analyst and quality control coach. During his time in the role as Offensive Coordinator with the Bullets, Turchyn’s offense averaged 21.5 points a game in his four years here.
Defensive Coordinator Mike Hoyt joined the ranks in the spring of 2018. He spent previous time working in the Centennial Conference, serving as the head coach for McDaniel College and assistant coach at Franklin and Marshall. Under his direction, the Bullets have averaged allowing their opponents to score 39.5 points a game since Hoyt has been with the squad.
The Bullets haven’t had a winning season since 2015, when they finished 7-3. After five years in charge at Gettysburg without finding results, the message sent by Troy Dell is that it’s time for a change within the program, and that starts with a new head coach and two new coordinators.
As of now, the school is retaining most of the positional staff including Bryce Perkins (Offensive Line), Dan Beard (Linebackers), Khaliq Coleman (Wide Receivers), Brian Dunlap (Defensive Backs), Jermey Fetterhoff (Running Backs), Victor Lopez (Strength and Conditioning), and MacQuarrie Stone-Folmar (Football Operations), but that is also subject to change depending on what the next head coach wants for this program.
“We appreciate the years of service that they have given the college and the time they have invested in our football student-athletes,” said Athletics Director Troy Dell. “A national search is underway to identify the next head coach of the Gettysburg College Football Program.”
(Editors Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the average points per game – E. Prieto)
November 19, 2025
It’s hard to imagine how much operating the football program costs. All that staff, all those players and all the accessory expenses. Seems like too much for a small liberal arts school. I’ve asked the administration, but no response. I’m not surprised. It can’t be justified.
November 19, 2025
Are you implying that the school should drop the football program?
November 28, 2025
The current administration is generally not responsive to concerns or opinions but they still expect/want us to donate. Crunch the numbers and it is hard to justify large football staffs. On average how many recruits does each football coach bring in each year? Now compare that to the size of the staffs of other sports. What is their average intake? What is the average amount of money spent per athlete for football and lacrosse at Gettysburg? Now compare that to the average expenditure per athlete of other Gettysburg sports.
November 23, 2025
You need to word the average points correctly, they didn’t average that many points per season but that many points per game.
November 25, 2025
I am an unabashed fan of Gettysburg College football. I did not play football for the bullets, but I’ve been watching them in person and on the Internet since 1976. This is my absolutely biased perspective on the previous post about Gettysburg dropping football.
Football, believe it, or not, is a near essential part of the Gettysburg College student experience. If you take the football team, the marching band, the cheerleaders… You probably have 150 students whos primary out of classroom experience is tied to football. I would guess that that may be the largest cohort of any interest group at the college. I would dare to say, without access to any statistics, that that cohort brings to Gettysburg families who pay more than the average tuition and are contributing to the fabric of daily life on campus. The current demographic of fewer men coming to liberal arts colleges would certainly be affected if we did not have football.
Gettysburg College has a great football game day experience. There are 2000 fans or more each Saturday at Musselman, and they are treated to good quality, at least from the opponents perspective, a marching band, and decades of tradition. It is a blast to sit in the stands, listen to the band, and look beyond the opposite field bleachers at the beautiful campus of Gettysburg College. Very few division three colleges offer such an experience..
Division three football is difficult, And we play in an excellent conference. The Centennial traditionally has strong national football teams like Johns Hopkins, and Muhlenberg, Dickinson and F&m have good teams. Carnegie Mellon is now part of the mix, and despite their academic excellence, is also a nationally ranked team. We should take notice that our conference, with schools that look very much like us, are able to put a real quality football product on the field almost every year. There is nothing that says that Gettysburg cannot do this, we have the tradition, the alumni, and the platform to do so.
I wish the outgoing coaching staff my best wishes. They were good men who wanted the best for Gettysburg. But now we must flip the page. We have an outstanding new athletic Director, who is a Getty sburgian. Let’s go get a coaching staff and give them what they need to be successful… If Muhlenberg and Dickinson can do it, then why can’t we bring that to gettysburg.
Let’s do a hard reboot, change our trajectory, and open up the tailgates. Let’s make Gettysburg football The experience our students deserve
experience
December 8, 2025
I like your entire statement!!! Go Bullets!