University of New Hampshire director of athletics Marty Scarano said Tuesday there’s no timetable for Sean McDonnell’s return to the sideline, but added that the team is preparing as if McDonnell will be away from the program for an extended period of time.

Scarano announced Monday night that McDonnell, who is in his 21st season as UNH’s head coach, would take an immediate leave of absence to deal with a health-related issue. Associate head/quarterbacks coach Ricky Santos, 35, has been named interim head coach.

UNH will open its season Sept. 7 at Holy Cross.

“We don’t know if Sean will be back coaching this year,” Scarano said. “We’re presuming that’s probably not going to happen and Ricky Santos is going to be the head coach along with all the coaches. It’s going to be a collaboration.

“Don’t misunderstand. We expect him to be back coaching, and we want to hand this (the program) back to him just as he left it.”

Scarano said he expects McDonnell to provide details about his health situation in the near future.

“I’m not going to comment on that (the specific health issue), all I would say to you is it’s obviously a serious enough situation that he needs to step away for an indefinite period of time,” Scarano said. “I think at some point in time Sean will probably elaborate on that. I’m not comfortable talking about it without his divulging what it is.”

Whenever you think of a UNH team one thing you always see is the grit and fight in every player that suits up! And that all comes from the man up top instilling that into us. Coach is a fighter and will get through this. Your UNH family is rallying behind you! Prayers up ?? https://t.co/mNzclEov51

— Rj Harris (@RjHarris15) August 27, 2019

McDonnell, 62, was on the field coaching during Sunday’s Blue/White scrimmage but informed his players Monday night that he would be taking a leave of absence.

“He told us he was going to take some time for himself and (Santos) will be taking over until he gets back,” UNH cornerback Isiah Perkins said. “He told the players and staff to have a business-as-usual mentality all the time.”

McDonnell has a 154-95 career record as a college head coach (all at UNH), including a 98-65 record in conference play. His 98 conference wins rank third all-time.

He guided the Wildcats to 14 consecutive winning seasons from 2004 to 2017, and the Wildcats advanced to the FCS playoffs each year. UNH reached the FCS semifinals in 2013 and 2014.

McDonnell, one of three two-time recipients of the Eddie Robinson Award as the FCS Coach of the Year, played defensive back at UNH from 1975 to 1978. He was an assistant coach at UNH under Bill Bowes, who was McDonnell’s college head coach. McDonnell’s was elevated to head coach when Bowes retired in 1999.

Santos, a former UNH quarterback, joined the UNH staff earlier this year. He was UNH’s wide receivers coach from 2013 to 2015 and spent the last three years as an assistant coach at Columbia. 

“I’ll be the point man with a lot of this stuff, but the good thing is we have a really veteran staff,” Santos said. “We have a singular focus right now. The only thing we’re worried about is making sure that these student-athletes are well taken care of mentally, and that we can keep everything going in the right direction. It’s his program -- it’s always going to be his program -- and our job is to do our part, myself included and all the other coaches and players, so that it’s ready to go when he’s ready to return.”