Ivy League Championships: 1998, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2016
Recruiting Areas: Central Pennsylvania (Mifflin, Union, Northumberland, Schuylkill Counties), California (Los Angeles-Valley, NorCal), Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington
Rick Ulrich enters the 19th year of his second tenure at Penn in 2025. He previously coached the Quakers from 1995-99 and currently serves as running backs coach and special teams coordinator. He spent 16 seasons as the Quakers' wide receivers coach. Ulrich brought more than 20 years of coaching experience back to Penn, including stints at Albany, Princeton, Fordham, Army, Georgetown, Trinity and Ursinus.
Penn began the 2024 season battling FBS-bound Delaware close on the road before picking up victories against Colgate, Bucknell, Brown, and Cornell. In his final season coaching the wide receivers, Ulrich coached Jared Richardson to his second-consecutive All-Ivy selection, earning second team honors following another strong season. Richardson finished the year with 46 receptions for 684 yards—fifth among Ivy receivers—and seven touchdowns. He became the first player in program history to record a pair of three-touchdown games in a career when he caught nine passes for 141 yards and three scores at Cornell. Ulrich also oversaw the production of Bisi Owens, who broke out with 35 catches, 538 yards, and five TDs.
In his first year as special teams coordinator, Ulrich witnessed senior punter Albert Jang take home first-team All-Ivy laurels after averaging 44 yards on 27 attempts with nine inside the 20-yard line. He had nine punts of 50 yards or more and had a career-long 71-yard punt against Harvard, the program’s longest since 2015. Jang led the Ancient Eight in punting average and was tied for first in 50+ yard punts. As a unit, Penn led the nation in punt return defense (0.20) yards per attempt and 13th in net punting (41.0). In addition, senior returner Julien Stokes earned second-team All-Ivy honors after leading the conference with 550 return yards. Junior kicker Sam Smith excelled in the first collegiate action of his career, playing all 10 games and converting 73.3 percent (11-for-15) of his field-goal attempts and was perfect (9-for-9) between 20 and 30 yards.
The Quakers wrapped up a 6-4 overall record in 2023, going 3-4 in one of the most competitive Ivy campaigns in conference history, in which Penn had a shot to play for an Ivy championship up until the final whistle of the penultimate weekend of the year. The Red and Blue began the season with back-to-back road victories over Colgate (20-6) and Bucknell (37-21) and rounded out the unbeaten non-conference slate with a 42-39 overtime win over Georgetown at Franklin Field. Penn knocked off Columbia, 20-17, and took down Yale, the reigning Ancient Eight champs, for a second straight year, 27-17. The Quakers won on Homecoming by defeating visiting Cornell, 23-8, to hold onto the Trustees' Cup for the second year in a row.
Ulrich was instrumental in the development of sophomore Jared Richardson, who broke out and turned into a first-team All-Ivy receiver by season's end. Richardson totaled 67 receptions (2nd in Ivy) for 788 yards (2nd in Ivy, 31st in FCS) and eight touchdowns (2nd in Ivy, 12th in FCS) with four 100+ yard receiving games. A two-time Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week selection, he averaged 7.4 receptions per game, ranked fourth in the nation, and 87.6 yards. His career performance came on the road at Yale, catching a single-game record 17 passes for 191 yards and a TD.
In 2022, Penn completed a very successful season, going 8-2 overall with a 5-2 record in Ivy play. Recording the program's most victories since 2010, the Quakers ended the year with a second-place finish in the Ivy standings. Penn won its first six games, going 6-0 to start a season for the first time since 2003. Victories included a double-overtime, 23-17 thriller against Dartmouth on national television, a 34-14 home win over Columbia, a 20-13 homecoming victory against eventual Ivy champion Yale and a come-from-behind, 20-19 win at #22 Princeton to close out the year. Two players, running back Trey Flowers and wide receiver Rory Starkey, Jr., earned All-Ivy honors. With Ulrich's help, six different players finished the year with 20 or more catches including a team-high 56 receptions for Starkey, Jr.
In 2021, Penn went 3-7 with non-conference victories at Bucknell and at home versus Lehigh. The Quakers defeated Bucknell, 20-0, and it marked Penn's first shutout since the 2009 team capped a perfect Ivy League season with a 34-0 win over Cornell. The Red and Blue scored an Ancient Eight win at home versus Brown thanks to defeating the Bears, 45-17. During the year, Isaiah Malcome was honored as the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week on October 11 and Garrett Morris was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week on November 1. Seven Quakers brought home All-Ivy honors, highlighted by Prince Emili and Brian O'Neill bringing home first-team accolades.
From 2014-17, Ulrich helped guide Justin Watson to record-breaking heights. A three-time STATS FCS All-American, three-time unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection, and three-time finalist for Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year, Watson set Penn's single-season record for receptions (89) and receiving yards (1,115) in 2016 and graduated as Penn's all-time leader in receptions (286), receiving yards (3.777), receiving touchdowns (33) and all-purpose yards (4,116) while twice being named a finalist for the Walter Payton Award as FCS Offensive Player of the Year.
In April of 2018, Watson would go on to be drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the fifth round of the NFL Draft.
In 2019, Ulrich saw Ryan Cragun garner Second Team All-Ivy honors. Cragun was second in the Ivy League and 14th in all of the FCS in receptions per game (6.3).
Ulrich's wide receiver corps was dangerous because of its depth in 2016. In addition to Watson's prolific campaign. Christian Pearson caught 40 passes (7th in the Ivy League) and his 7 touchdown passes were tied for second in the Ivy League behind Watson's 8.
Ulrich coached Justin Watson to one of the best seasons by a Penn wideout in program history in 2015, becoming just the third receiver in program history to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark (1,082, second on Penn’s single-season list). Through just two seasons, Watson already ranks seventh all-time at Penn in receiving yards with 1,579. His 74 receptions in 2015 rank fourth all-time by a Quaker, and his 116 receptions through two seasons are already seventh-most by a Penn player in program history. Watson consistently found the end zone in 2015, finishing with 10 touchdowns -- nine via reception, the third-most in program history. Through two seasons, Watson already is tied for eighth in touchdown receptions in a career by a Quaker.
Prior to 2014, where he spent time with the tight ends and guided Ryan O'Malley to second-team All-Ivy accolades, Ulrich spent 12 seasons with Penn's wide receivers. Two of his most recent proteges, Ryan Calvert and Conner Scott, scattered their names throughout the school record book. Calvert, a first-team All-Ivy selection, finished 2011 second in the Ivy League with the eighth-highest single-season reception total in program history (58), and was second in the league and ninth all-time in single-season program history with five receiving touchdowns. Scott earned second-team All-Ivy honors in 2012 and soared into Penn's all-time top 10 in career receptions and career receiving yards.
In 2010, the Quakers led the Ivy League in total offense and scoring offense with much thanks to Ulrich’s receiving corps. David Wurst and Matt Tuten each posted 20-plus receptions and more than 300 receiving yards as six different Quakers caught Penn’s eight touchdown passes.
A year earlier, en route to the Ivy League title, Kyle Derham earned All-Ivy status as he led the team in catches, receiving yards and touchdown receptions. But it was the depth created at the position that resulted in Penn’s success. Three Quakers caught 24 or more passes and seven different players had at least 10 receptions. There were also eight different members of the Red and Blue that had at least one touchdown catch.
Thanks to Ulrich, the Quakers also had good balance at the wide receiver position in 2008. Three wideouts on the team finished the season with 20 or more catches. The year prior, Ulrich mentored Braden Lepisto to his second straight season with All-Ivy honors. Lepisto became just the sixth Quaker to bring in 50 receptions in a season.
Prior to rejoining the Red and Blue in the spring of 2006, Ulrich spent two seasons as the offensive coordinator at Ursinus and took his team’s offense from last in the league to ranking in the top three in nearly every offensive category. He was the offensive coordinator at Georgetown in 2001 after spending four seasons at Penn, where he was a major part of the Quakers’ NCAA record 24-game winning streak.
Before coaching tight ends at Army (1994) and quarterbacks/receivers at Fordham (1993), Ulrich spent three seasons at Rocky Mountain College in Montana where he was first an offensive coordinator and later promoted to head coach. He was named Frontier Conference Coach of the Year in 1991 after leading his team to the conference championship.
Ulrich was running backs coach at Princeton from 1987-88 and was a graduate assistant coach at Albany in 1985-86. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in health/physical education from West Chester University, where he was a four-year letterwinner and a second-team All-Pennsylvania Conference running back.
Ulrich lives with his wife, Julie, in Parkesburg, Pa., and has a daughter, Alyson.
THE ULRICH FILE
Coaching Experience
Wide Receivers Coach — Penn, 2015-Present
Tight Ends Coach — Penn, 2013-14
Wide Receivers Coach — Penn, 2006-2012
Offensive Coordinator — Ursinus, 2004-05
Offensive Coordinator — Trinity, 2002-03
Offensive Coordinator — Georgetown, 2001
Wide Receivers Coach — Penn, 1995-99
Tight Ends Coach — Army, 1994
QB/Receivers Coach — Fordham, 1993
Head Coach/Off. Coord. — Rocky Mountain, 1990-92
Running Backs Coach — Princeton, 1987-88
Graduate Assistant — Albany, 1985-86
First season at Penn — 1995
Hometown — Elizabethtown, Pa.
Residence — Parkesburg, Pa.
Education — 1985 B.S. — West Chester; 1986 Masters — Albany
