By Caitlin Rubsamen, Sports Editor
After a 7-43 record over the past four seasons, Athletic Director Troy Dell felt that a change of personnel was needed within the football program in the form of a new head coach.
Dell gathered a committee with two members of the Board of Trustees, two Athletic Department administrators, an Admissions representative, a member of the faculty, a representative from the College’s advancement team, and a representative from Marketing and Communications. In addition to this committee, a sub-committee consisting of approximately nine students, including this year’s 2025 team captains and representation from the football team’s freshman, sophomore, and junior classes, as well as an additional alumni and parent panel.
After reviewing over 150 applications, with between twelve and fourteen final candidates, the committee ultimately felt that Michael Green was the best fit to lead this program.
The committee was confident that Green checked all of the boxes that they hoped the next head coach would possess.
“His ability to articulate his vision, how he would build culture, how he would move the program from its current state to a greater success incrementally, his ability to articulate a plan for recruiting, for building a staff out,” said Dell. “All of those things were really important. For the alumni group, it was his ability to connect with them, and then the student athletes had the things that were important to them. We really feel like he checks all those boxes pretty well”.
Coach Michael Green is officially the head coach of the Bullets football team. (Photo Sofia Gutierrez/The Gettysburgian)
Michael Green comes from fifteen years of playing and coaching experience at Hobart and William Smith in New York. He was looking for an opportunity to advance his career in a head coaching position while also feeling like he had accessibility and opportunity.
“I was excited about the opportunity to come and coach in one of the most competitive athletic conferences in the country,” said Green. “I think the other big piece that stood out to me was the location for really strong recruiting. We’re in a really good area for recruiting, and I think it is what will allow us to be really successful here.”
Green steps into the role of head coach for the first time in his career, but he has a confident and powerful mindset that he feels will help him to find success in the position.
“I’ve always been an underdog. From going into college and being an undersized offensive lineman and working my way from a scout team player to a starter, captain, and All-American, to then becoming a coach and doing it as a volunteer when I first started and doing whatever I could for the opportunity,” said Green. “I’ve just always been somebody that rolls up my sleeves and figures out a way to get it done and learns it, so I think my work ethic in terms of my background, and being able to come to Gettysburg as an underdog right now, our growth moving forward is everybody is going to count us out, so let’s go out there and prove them wrong”.
Proving everyone wrong is exactly what Green is planning to do, and for him, that starts with playing complementary football.
“What you do in all three phases has to go hand in hand. We’re gonna talk about each week how to put together the best plan to win the game,” said Green.
According to Green, the game is won at the line of scrimmage, so he plans to ensure those players understand the role they play in each game. In addition, Green will spend time this spring learning his players’ styles and skill sets. From there, he hopes to further develop the talent already on this team.
This team has several strengths, including a strong mindset, an understanding of standards, and a strong foundational culture that Green noted.
“The biggest thing that has stood out to me is the camaraderie of the team. The guys enjoy being around one another. When we bring recruits to campus, the recruits immediately feel that there is a family value within the team”.
As the Bullets prepare for their non-traditional spring season, Coach Green has been implementing his own philosophy within the program. On X, Coach Green will use the hashtag “#BeGreat”.
This mantra has dual meanings. The first is centered around holding oneself to the highest standards that you can in every area that you can, on and off the field.
“Whether we win or whether we lose, we are always going to talk about the standard of how we play and did we play for sixty full minutes, did we run with the ball, did we play fast, did we play hard for the entire game and did the other team know that we were competing that day. Win or lose, we’ve got to walk off that field and be proud of the efforts that we put in,” said Green.
Bullets Football Team facing the Juniata Eagles. (Photo William Oehler/The Gettysburgian)
The last three letters of “#BeGreat”, “eat”, stand for effort, attitude, and toughness, according to Coach Green. He wants to challenge his athletes to these three values on the field, in the classroom, in the weight room and in the community.
“Those three things we think take no talent to do. You can be a 4.0 student or a 2.0 student, but you can bring your best effort to class every day,” said Green. “As we talk about toughness, that is consistency and resilience”.
The second meaning of “#BeGreat” is to #BeGr8, with the number eight. According to Green, this represents eight different areas that each player and member of the Gettysburg Football program will focus on for their holistic development as student-athletes.
“The first three focus on you, nutrition, sleep, and mental health. The fourth is academics, the fifth is strength and conditioning development, the sixth is football skills and knowledge, the seventh is social and community impact, and the eighth is career readiness,” said Green.
For this Bullets Football team, many of these eight categories the athletes have already been able to focus on, especially within the alumni network, in strength and conditioning, and by focusing on the individual. In fact, Green has been having his team attend winter teams’ competitions to show their support for fellow Gettysburg athletes.
“We’re going to be going out and supporting a variety of teams throughout the winter and spring. We want the other sports teams on this campus to know that we want the battlefield of Gettysburg to extend to every arena that we play in, and the football program is kicking that off this winter and spring with supporting and making their arenas a hectic place to play at,” said Green.
As the team begins to prepare for their non-traditional season, Green discussed how they are going to be working a lot with teaching players to compete and discussing as a team what winning looks like.
“We’re gonna work on how to compete every day from now until we go and face off against Juniata in September. What does it take to win, and how do you find a way or make a way to win.”
Green and his Bullets will begin non-traditional practices shortly as they prepare for their 2026 campaign, hoping to compete, find ways to win, and #BeGreat.
This article originally appeared on pages 13-15 of the February 2026 edition of The Gettysburgian magazine.
