The American Football Coaches Association will cap its 2014 convention by presenting its top coaching award — AFCA Coach of the Year — to five outstanding coaches.
Duke’s David Cutcliffe, North Dakota State’s Craig Bohl, Northwest Missouri State’s Adam Dorrel, Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Lance Leipold and Grand View’s Mike Woodley are the 2013 AFCA National Coach of the Year winners. Cutcliffe in FBS, Bohl in FCS, Dorrel in Division II, Leipold in Division III and Woodley in NAIA.
The winners are selected by a vote of the Active AFCA members (coaches at four-year schools) in the Association’s five 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.
David Cutcliffe led Duke to a 10-4 record and an appearance in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. He has a 75-73 career-record in his 12 seasons as head coach at Duke and Ole Miss, with two Conference Division titles. Cutcliffe led the Blue Devils to the Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division championship in 2013, the program’s first conference title since 1989. In 2012, Cutcliffe was named the ACC Coach of the Year after leading the Blue Devils to the program’s first bowl game appearance since 1994.
In 2013, Craig Bohl led the Bison to a 15-0 record, a second straight Missouri Valley Football Conference title and a third straight Football Championship Subdivision national championship. In his 11 years at North Dakota State, Bohl had a 104-32 record, and those 104 victories make him the all-time winningest coach in North Dakota State history. He earned AFCA FCS National Coach of the Year honors in 2012, FCS Regional Coach of the Year honors in 2011 and 2013, and was named Missouri Valley Football Conference Coach of the Year for the third straight year in 2013.
Adam Dorrel led the Bearcats to a 15-0 record in 2013 and the program’s fourth NCAA Division II national title, the first since 2009. Dorrel brought his overall record to 36-3 in his three years as head coach. Being one of the first players to start on the offensive line under legendary former head coach, Mel Tjeerdsma in 1994, Dorrel continued the Bearcat excellence in his first season as head coach, returning the Bearcats to the playoffs for an eighth straight season. Northwest Missouri State has made the playoffs for 10 straight years, the longest current streak in NCAA Division II football.
Lance Leipold led Wisconsin-Whitewater to a 15-0 record, a sixth Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship and its fifth NCAA Division III national title in 2013. He has a seven-year record of 94-6 at Whitewater. The Warhawks recorded their fourth 15-0 season under Leipold in 2013. He also earned AFCA Division III National Coach of the Year honors in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Mike Woodley led Grand View to a 14-0 record, their third straight Mid-States Football Association (MSFA) Midwest Conference title and the program’s first NAIA national championship to earn AFCA NAIA National Coach of the Year honors for the first time. He also earned AFCA Regional Coach of the Year honors for the fist time in 2013. Woodley has a record of 46-22 in his six seasons at Grand View. Woodley has won MSFA Midwest Coach of the Year honors in 2013, 2011 and 2009.
The winners will be honored Tuesday evening at the AFCA Coach of the Year Dinner at the Indiana Convention Center.
— AFCA Press Release —