Breaking: Clarkson head coach Casey Jones moving to Cornell as head coach in waiting

Jones is a Cornell alum and has been the head coach at Clarkson for the last 14 seasons

Clarkson head coach Casey Jones is headed back to Cornell where he will serve as associate head coach, and the head coach in waiting behind Mike Schafer, according to multiple sources.

Jones was a four-year defenseman for the Big Red (1986-00) and served as Cornell’s captain in 1990. He began his coaching career as an assistant with Cornell in 1991 and was the associate head coach for the Big Red from 2008-11 before he was hired as Clarkson’s head coach.

Jones has had significant success at Clarkson, going 234-185-56. He inherited a team in 2011 that had three straight losing seasons. Jones only has four losing seasons in 14 years, and only one since 2013 (2022-23, and the Golden Knights went 16-17-4).

Clarkson qualified for the NCAA Tournament under Jones in 2018 and 2019, and the Knights were primed to make the tournament in 2020 before it was canceled due to COVID-19. Clarkson was 23-8-3 that season when the pandemic wiped out the remaining games on the schedule. The Golden Knights won the ECAC Tournament in 2019 under Jones.

Clarkson becomes the second opening this week. Grant Potulny resigned from Northern Michigan earlier this week and will reportedly become the next head coach of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL).

I’ll have more on this story in the next edition of the newsletter.