EASTON, Pa. (www.lafayette.edu) - Lafayette assistant football coach John Troxell ’94 has been named head football coach at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., it was announced Wednesday.

Troxell, the starting free safety on Lafayette’s 1992 Patriot League championship team, was an integral part of the Lafayette football program as the running backs coach for five seasons. Troxell helped head coach Frank Tavani return the Leopards to a championship level in the Patriot League, capturing trophies in 2004 and 2005, and made the first two postseason football appearances in school history. Lafayette earned the league’s automatic bid to the I-AA Playoffs two years ago, and claimed one of eight at-large bids to the 16-team field last fall.

Troxell replaces Shawn Halloran, who led a resurgence of the Diplomats during his three year tenure, compiling a 17-15 record. In 2004, he guided the team to an 8-3 record and a share of the Centennial Conference championship with a 4-2 mark in league play. Franklin & Marshall closed the season with a 37-20 win over Moravian in the ECAC Southwest Bowl. Halloran was named offensive coordinator at Penn last month, replacing current Lehigh head coach Andy Coen.

Lafayette and Franklin & Marshall have a long history dating to their first meeting on the gridiron in 1890. The Leopards own a 7-2 mark in the series and last met the Diplomats in 1953. The first non-Division I school to reach 1,000 games played, Franklin & Marshall joined Haverford, Lafayette, Lehigh, Swarthmore and Penn in 1886 in an association to organize the sport on an intercollegiate level. More recently, Tavani was the Diplomats’ offensive coordinator from 1976-85, helping guide the program to a 10-year record of 67-23-1.

As running backs coach, Troxell mentored Joe McCourt ’05 throughout his assault on the Lafayette record books. The 2004 Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year and 2001 Rookie of the Year, McCourt concluded his career as Lafayette’s and the Patriot League’s all-time leader with 50 rushing touchdowns, and second on the school’s all-time rushing list with 4,474 yards. McCourt led the Leopards in rushing in each of his four years and surpassed the 1,000-yard barrier for a third consecutive season. He led the Patriot League with 1,393 rushing yards in 2002, and compiled 1,193 yards and 16 touchdowns on the ground as a senior. Jonathan Hurt ran for 985 yards and 13 touchdowns as a junior in 2005.

Prior to the 2003 season, Troxell was named the Leopards’ recruiting coordinator. Last winter, he directed an off-season recruiting effort that netted 35 recruits for the class of 2010, including 11 from Pennsylvania and six from New Jersey. Under Troxell’s guidance, Lafayette implemented a strategy that has expanded the recruiting base to include Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

Troxell worked as an assistant coach at Muhlenberg from 1997- 2000, contributing to a turnaround that saw the Mules go from a 1-9 mark in his first season to a 9-2 record and the ECAC Southwest championship in 2000. He served as offensive coordinator in 2000, when the Mules set a school record by scoring 30 or more points seven times and tied another mark with four 40-point games.

Troxell joined the Muhlenberg staff after serving as an assistant coach for three seasons at Columbia University. He assisted with the Lions’ defensive backs from 1994-96, helping them record the third-best pass defense in Division I-AA in 1996. The assistant recruiting coordinator his final two seasons at Columbia, Troxell was the junior varsity head coach and defensive coordinator in 1996 and was elevated to running backs coach in the spring of 1997.

A 1994 Lafayette graduate with a bachelor of arts degree in Government and Law, Troxell was the starting free safety on the Leopards’ 1992 Patriot League championship team and received the program’s Unsung Hero Award as a senior. Troxell went on to earn a master of arts degree in Sociology and Education from Columbia in 1997.