Kearney’s Interior Presence Helped Scots to NCAC Title

As the saying goes, defense wins championships. With players like Joe Kearney anchoring the defense, and one of the best running backs in NCAA Div. III history powering the offense, The College of Wooster football team reached new heights in the mid-2000s. 

Wooster had never made the NCAA Div. III Championship prior to 2004, and that year the Fighting Scots went 10-0 in the regular season, marking the first unbeaten regular season since a 5-0-3 ledger in 1938 (the 1923 team went a perfect 9-0). After surviving a 64-58 overtime shootout with archrival Wittenberg University, Wooster headed to Ohio Wesleyan University with the NCAC's automatic berth into the NCAA Div. III Playoffs and the perfect regular season on the line. Wooster dominated, with a Kearney-led defense allowing just six points, marking the seventh time a Scots' opponent scored 13 or fewer points on the year. Kearney did his part anchoring the defensive line with four tackles, two of which went for loss, and he was credited with three quarterback hurries against the Battling Bishops. 

Chunk yardage losses were always in play with Wooster's 2004 team, and Kearney was a big reason why. He logged 15 tackles for loss that set the opposition back 77 yards, and his six sacks set teams back 58 stripes. As a team, Wooster logged 103 tackles for loss that year, which went for negative 440 yards. Kearney's big playmaking earned the senior first-team D3football.com All-America, second-team Football Gazette All-North Region, NCAC Defensive Player of the Year, and first-team All-NCAC honors. Of note, Kearney was Wooster's third Hank Critchfield Award winner - the name of the NCAC's top defensive honor - in a six-year stretch. 

The three-time all-conference defensive lineman ranked sixth upon graduation with 15.5 sacks. He earned an elevation to first-team All-NCAC as a junior and finished with 62 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss, and 4.5 sacks despite playing with a broken foot. While helping Wooster to a 7-3 record, Kearney was part of a defense that allowed just 3.3 yards per rush. Wooster's rush defense was even better the following year, with the average carry going for just 2.5 yards. 

Raymond Gee, the special teams coordinator and defensive backs coach at the time, convinced Kearney to come for a visit, and "everything just felt right," after stepping foot on campus. Kearney eventually turned down an offer to attend Sacred Heart University and decided "I would have the best experience attending Wooster." 

After graduating with a degree in philosophy, Kearney traveled around the country trying to continue his football career. He has since pursued a career in hospitality and is a general manager for Alpine Restaurant Group at a country club in Massachusetts. 

Kearney resides in West Newton, Massachusetts, and is engaged to Laura Costello.