Ed Doherty took over for his first year as head coach.
[1] Holy Cross competed as an independent despite having announced in May 1971 that the Crusaders, along with the Boston University Terriers, would join the Yankee Conference.
Because their previous scheduling commitments would not allow them to play the full Yankee round-robin in 1971 and 1972, HC and BU continued to compete as football independents and were not eligible for the Yankee Conference championship.
[2] Holy Cross did play non-conference games against two longstanding Yankee teams in 1971, losing to both Connecticut and Massachusetts.
All home games were played at Fitton Field on the Holy Cross campus in Worcester, Massachusetts.