Abell Led Wildcats into Uncharted Territory, onto Solid Ground

Scott Abell is leaving Davidson College after seven seasons on the sideline, but the football program he leaves behind is on an upward trajectory many once considered impossible.

Abell, who announced Tuesday that he was accepting the head coaching job at FBS program Rice University, was introduced as Davidson’s head coach on Jan. 9, 2018. At the time, Davidson hadn’t had a winning season in more than a decade and had won seven games – total – in the previous five years. There wasn’t a lot of positive energy around an outdated Richardson Stadium.

Coach Scott Abell with the seniors on the 2021-22 Wildcat Football Team.

Abell, though, embraced the inherit challenge of turning around the non-scholarship, elite-academic program. Almost immediately, he changed the mentality and culture. He honed a winning formula and brought excitement with an unorthodox shotgun triple-option offense that has now led the nation in rushing six of the last seven years. It was clear long before his first season concluded with a dramatic, final-play, goal-line stand against Butler to secure a 6-5 record that the Wildcats were moving in the right direction.

Abell’s Davidson teams didn’t just do the unlikely; they did the once-unthinkable. His 2020 team broke the seal by making the FCS playoffs … and then the Wildcats went to the NCAA postseason again in 2021 and 2022. They won two Pioneer Football League titles, strung together a program-best seven winning seasons and won a Davidson-record 47 games. And largely because of that success, the state-of-the-art Davidson College Stadium went from lofty dream and blueprints to brick-and-mortar reality this year.

Abell is now taking his upbeat, charismatic style to Houston, Texas. He’s trading in his red and black gear for some navy and silver and making a significant jump to the FBS level, where he’ll share the American Athletic Conference with Army, Navy and the Charlotte 49ers, among others. There, he’ll try to revitalize an Owls program that hasn’t had a winning season in a decade. Sound familiar?

Meanwhile, the Wildcats emerge from the Abell era on solid ground (and still-new turf) and like never before, are set up for long-term, consistent success. There’s much more to offer the program’s 29th head coach, including a winning tradition and a collective belief that the possibilities are now just that — possible.

Abell gets credit for that.

Editor’s Note: We published the following article about Scott Abell in 2021. He will be missed on and off the field.