AFCA Selects Coker Among 2001 National Coach Of The Year Winners
Jan. 8, 2002
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The American Football Coaches Association capped its 2002 convention by presenting its top coaching award – AFCA Coach of the Year – to four outstanding coaches today.
Miami’s Larry Coker, Maryland’s Ralph Friedgen, Furman’s Bobby Johnson, North Dakota’s Dale Lennon and Mount Union’s Larry Kehres are the 2001 AFCA National Coach of the Year winners. Coker and Friedgen in Division I-A, Johnson in Division I-AA, Lennon in AFCA Division II (NCAA Division II and all NAIA schools) and Kehres in AFCA Division III.
The winners are selected by a vote of the Active AFCA members (coaches at four-year schools) in the Association’s four divisions. The AFCA has named a Coach of the Year since 1935. The AFCA Coach of the Year award is the oldest and most prestigious of all the Coach of the Year awards and is the only one chosen exclusively by the coaches themselves.
Larry Coker led Miami to a 12-0 (1.000) record, the Big East Conference championship and the national championship in his first year as a head coach in 2001. He joins Maryland’s Ralph Friedgen as the third duo to tie for AFCA National Coach of the Year honors. Only second coach in major college football history to win a national championship in his first year as a head coach (Bennie Oosterbaan, Michigan, 1948). Coker spent 22 years as a college assistant coach with stops at Tulsa (1979-82), Oklahoma State (1983-89), Oklahoma (1990-92), Ohio State (1993-95) and Miami (Fla.) (1996-present).
Ralph Friedgen led Maryland to a 10-2 (.833) record, the Atlantic Coast Conference championship and a berth in the Sugar Bowl in his first year as a head coach in 2001. He joins Miami’s Larry Coker as the third duo to tie for AFCA National Coach of the Year honors. Maryland’s 10 wins this season mark the first time the Terps have reached that plateau since 1976. Their seven ACC wins are the most in school history. First coach in ACC history to win the league title in his rookie season.
Bobby Johnson led the Paladins to a 12-3 record, the Southern Conference co-championship and a berth in the championship game of the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs in 2001. He has a career record of 60-36 (.625) in eight seasons at Furman. Led the Paladins to three consecutive NCAA playoff berths and four total in his eight seasons at Furman and was recently named head coach at Vanderbilt University.
Dale Lennon led the Fighting Sioux to a 14-1 record, the North Central Conference title and the NCAA Division II championship in 2001. The national championship is the first in school history for the Sioux. He has a record of 31-6 (.836) in three seasons at North Dakota and a career record of 43-15 (.741) in five seasons at the University of Mary and North Dakota. Led Mary to an 8-3 record, a conference championship and a berth in the NAIA playoffs in his final season at the school. UND has earned at least a share of the NCC title and advanced to the Division II playoffs in two of Lennon’s three seasons as head coach.
Larry Kehres led Mount Union to a 14-0 record, a tenth consecutive Ohio Athletic Conference championship and a sixth NCAA Division III national championship to earn AFCA National Coach of the Year honors for a record sixth time in his career. Mount Union is 99-1 in the last ten regular seasons and had a Division III-best 120-7-1 (.941) record in the 1990s. Kehres has a career record of 178-17-3 (.906) in 16 seasons at Mount Union. Won his first five National Coach of the Year Awards in 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2000.
All five winners will be honored Tuesday evening at the AFCA Coach of the Year Banquet at the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel in San Antonio.
AFCA ScholarshipsThe four schools represented by the AFCA National Coach of the Year winners will each receive a $10,000 academic scholarship from the AFCA that can be used at the discretion of the athletic director to benefit the athletic department and its student-athletes.
Award HistoryLynn “Pappy” Waldorf, then of Northwestern, was named by the membership as the first AFCA Coachof the Year. One national winner was selected from 1935 through 1959. From 1960 through 1982, two national winners were selected – one representing the University Division and one from the College Division. Beginning in 1983, four national winners have been chosen.
Oldest AwardThe AFCA’s Coach of the Ye a r award is the oldest of all Coach of the Year awards and is one of only two Coach of the Year awards recognized by the NCAA in Division I-A and the only COTY award recognized in the NCAA’s three other divisions. The NCAA does not select a “coach of the year” for college football. When a coach is referred to as “NCAA Coach of the Year,” he is usually the AFCA Coach of the Year winner.
AlohaBobby Johnson, Dale Lennon and Larry Kehres have been invited to serve as assistant coaches at the 2002 Hula Bowl and Larry Coker and Ralph Friedgen will be invited to serve as a head coach in the 2003 Hula Bowl. This year’s game will be played at War Memorial Stadium on Maui on February 2 and will be shown on ESPN starting at 8 p.m. EST.
