MOUNT VERNON — Cornell College will have a new head football coach next season.

Director of Athletics Keith Hackett announced Tuesday in a news release that Rams Coach Vince Brautigam will not return to lead the program next season.

Brautigam led Cornell for 10 seasons, posting a 42-56 record. The Rams were 4-5 overall and 1-3 in the Midwest Conference South Division this season

The release said a national search will begin immediately.

“We are grateful to Coach Brautigam for his efforts over the last 10 years and wish him the best in his future endeavors,” Hackett said in the release. “My expectations are that we can and will do better. Our student-athletes and their experiences on and off the field at Cornell are my highest priorities at all times.”

Brautigam turned around a struggling program that was winless in his first season. The wins total increased to three in 2011, four in 2012 and then a 7-3 mark with a second-place conference mark in 2013.

The Rams won at least four games in each of his final eight seasons. They were 5-4 in 2014 and owned a .500 mark in 2015, 2016 and last year.

He coached 60 all-conference performers, including 28 first-teamers, and three all-region performers. Sam Cluck (2014) and Andrew Joseph (2017) earned Midwest Conference Player of the Year honors, while Kale Kuhiili was named Newcomer of the Year last season under Brautigam, who ranks fifth all-time at Cornell with 42 victories.

Brautigam is 132-161 in 29 years as a college head coach, including Iowa Conference/American Rivers Conference program University of Dubuque from 2001-08.

Comments: (319) 368-8679; kj.pilcher@thegazette.com