Buffalo State has hired Mike Neale as the head coach of the football team heading into the 2026 season.
Neale will be taking over for the previous head coach, Lazarus Morgan. Morgan went 6-34 with the Bengals during his four seasons here.
Coaching football is nothing new for Neale. He has been on the sidelines since 2000, where he started his coaching career at Valhalla High School in San Diego.
After a stint at Grossmont College, he found himself a role on Albright College’s coaching staff, a Division III program all the way in Reading, Pennsylvania. Neale hopped around positions, building an arsenal of experience before being announced as the team’s defensive coordinator in 2012.
The Albright Lions would boast a 32-13 record during Neale’s four seasons as defensive coordinator with the program. Neale was then hired as the head coach at Whittier College, a Division III program in Whittier, California. He coached six seasons here and left with a record of 4-50 after the Whittier football program was discontinued following the 2022 season. It has since been restarted.
Neale found himself as the special teams coordinator and defensive backs coach of the Franklin College Grizzlies in Franklin, Indiana, ahead of the 2023 season. This was Neale’s only season with the program, and the team finished 4-6.
Most recently, Neale has been at Delaware Valley University, a Division III school in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Here, his position was defensive coordinator, and the team found success with a record of 16-6 during his time there.
With Neale’s coaching experience, Buffalo State football players and fans seem excited for the upcoming 2026 season based on social media buzz. If this head coaching stint goes well, Mike Neale can call Buffalo State home for years to come.
