Missouri football defensive line coach Craig Kuligowski earned National Defensive Line Coach of the Year honors from FootballScoop.com, as announced by the national website on Friday (Dec. 19). The FootballScoop Coaches of the Year awards presented by ProGrass are the only set of awards that recognize the most outstanding position coaches in college football. Kuligowski coached a defensive line that helped Mizzou rank sixth nationally with 42 sacks and 11th with 96 tackles for loss.

Mizzou set a school record with 41 sacks a season ago, the majority coming from the defensive line, but Kuligowski and the rest of the Tiger coaching staff was tasked with replacing unanimous All-American Michael Sam (11.5 sacks in 2013) and second-round NFL Draft pick Kony Ealy (9.5 sacks in 2013) on the line. Despite the loss of those two players, Mizzou’s defensive line may have been even better in 2014 behind All-SEC performers Shane Ray (Kansas City, Mo.) and Markus Golden (St. Louis, Mo.) as Kuligowski’s tutelage led to 38.5 sacks and 70.5 tackles for loss from the Tiger defensive line this season. Kuligowski coached Ray to consensus First Team All-American status, Mizzou’s second consensus All-American in as many seasons.

Another mark of the defensive line presence was Mizzou’s rush defense, which allowed an SEC low 115.0 yards per game in league contests this season. The Tigers also ranked first in the SEC in total defense (300.8 yards per game) in their eight league games.

Mizzou’s defensive line has arguably been the best in the nation over the last two seasons under Kuligowski, who has coached with head coach Gary Pinkel for 23 seasons, dating back to their time at Toledo. Mizzou is fifth nationally with 83 sacks over the last two seasons and is one of just four schools in FBS to total 40 sacks in each of the last two seasons. Of those 83 sacks, the defensive line has accounted for 77.5.

— MU Sports Information —