Joe Castellitto Joins Football Staff as Nickels Coach

HANOVER, N.H. — Buddy Teevens, the Robert L. Blackman Head Football Coach at Dartmouth College, announced the hiring of Joe Castellitto as an assistant coach overseeing the nickelbacks for the Big Green.

Castellitto comes to Hanover after three seasons as an assistant at the University of Connecticut. For the 2020 and '21 seasons, he served as a defensive graduate assistant who worked with the defensive backs before being promoted to the outside linebackers as well as interim quality control. This past fall, he was promoted to defensive analyst, assisting with the linebackers and helping configure daily practice plans and scripts among other duties. His work this year helped the Huskies be invited to their first bowl game in seven years, the Myrtle Beach Bowl.

Please help us welcome, Joe Castellitto (@CoachJoeCas), our new Nickels coach to #TheWoods!

📰: https://t.co/udwwAfEyuJ pic.twitter.com/z6YibXYEhT
— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) March 7, 2023

Prior to his stint in Storrs, Connecticut, Castellitto was the outside linebackers coach at Central Connecticut State for the 2019 season. The Blue Devils finished that year ranked 22nd in the country with an 11-2 record and an undefeated mark in the Northeast Conference to win the league title, earning the conference's automatic bid to the FCS playoffs. Two of his linebackers were named All-NEC, including the league's sack leader, Tre Jones, and the defense as a whole ranked first in the country in interceptions and defensive touchdowns, and second in run defense and turnover margin.

Castellitto also spent the spring of 2019 at Western Connecticut State and began his coaching career as a graduate assistant for two seasons at his alma mater, Utica College, coaching the inside linebackers at both stops. Two of his players at Utica earned all-conference honors, and he helped the Pioneers win the Scotty Whitelaw Bowl over Ithaca College in 2018.

A four-year leadership council member at Utica as an undergraduate, Castellitto played multiple positions on Utica's defense and special teams. He was named to the Empire 8 All-Academic team three times (2015-2017).

Castellitto, originally from Mahopac, New York, earned his bachelor's degree in exercise science and a master's degree in special education at Utica. He was also a three-sport captain in football, baseball and wrestling, the only three-sport captain in the decade at Mahopac High School.