. Upon graduating from Worcester State, Reno began his coaching career as a defensive assistant, under
Richard Mannello, for the
King's College Monarchs in
Pennsylvania. During that 1997 season, The Monarchs finished fourth in the
MAC Freedom Conference with a losing 3–7 record. A year later, in 1998, Reno returned to the Worcester State Lancers as a defensive coordinator under his former coach, Cullen. Reno remained there until 2002. While his first two years at Worcester State saw losing records, the last three were very successful, and resulted in winning the
Eastern College Athletic Conference Northeast Bowl in
2001. Reno's success with the Lancers opened the opportunity as a wide receivers coach, under
Jack Siedlecki, for the
Yale Bulldogs in 2003. Reno was shuffled to be the defensive backs coach a year later, a post which he held until 2008. The Bulldogs mostly hovered around a .500 win percentage during his time at Yale; however, the
2006 season resulted in the team being named co-
Ivy League champions, along with the
Princeton Tigers. In 2009, Reno transferred within the Ivy League to work for the
Harvard Crimson as a special teams and defensive backs coach under
Tim Murphy. The Crimson maintained a winning record throughout Reno's time there, and won the Ivy League in his final season in 2011. On January 12, 2012, Reno was hired as the
Joel E. Smilow '54 Head Coach of Football for the Yale Bulldogs. He replaced
Tom Williams and became the 34th head coach in the school's history. Notably, Reno also became the first native of Massachusetts since
Ted Coy in 1910 to coach the Bulldogs. So far, the team has won four Ivy League championships under the leadership of Reno (2017, 2019, 2022, and 2023), second most in Yale history behind
Carm Cozza. In 2014, Reno was among the finalists for the
Eddie Robinson Award, along with his former colleague, Murphy. The award ultimately went to
Sean McDonnell of the
New Hampshire Wildcats. ==Personal life==