Ted Stanley's Lords had one winning season in his nine-year tenure, after he inherited a program that had won six games in four seasons. Kenyon athletics photo

Ted Stanley resigned as Kenyon's head football coach on Monday, after nine seasons at the helm. Stanley leaves Kenyon after several years in which the football program has struggled to attract recruits and to find success on the field. The team posted 0-10 records in each of the past two seasons. Stanley's overall coaching record at Kenyon is 20-70.

Stanley told the Mount Vernon News he resigned "in lieu of termination."

Stanley was hired in 2003 during a similarly troubled period. The number of players had dwindled dangerously, and wins were scarce. By 2005, the new coach had rebuilt the roster and led the Lords to a 6-4 overall record and a second-place 6-1 finish in the North Coast Athletic Conference.

Since then, however, team depth has diminished as recruiting has suffered. From 2006-11, the Lords have gone 10-50 and have an active streak of 23 consecutive losses. The team's closest game this season was a 16-13 loss at Hiram.

Stanley disputed the insinuation that recruiting was the issue. 

“Look at the teams that I have had,” Stanley told the paper. “We had some of the best Kenyon offenses ever. And that was due to my ability to recruit ... and the assistant coaches with me. Unfortunately, in the last two years, we were not able to bring in the type of kid that we wanted to bring in to help us be competitive. And they were, in my mind, admissable students, and could certainly handle the Kenyon workload. They chose not to allow those kids in.”

The school recently announced it was launching a review of the football program with the goal of improving it.