Division I-AA, II, III, NAIA and Junior College Coaches of the Year.

DIVISION I-AA WINNER
JACK C0SGROVE
MAINE

It’s never fun to lose in the quarterfinals of a tournament, but for a Maine football program that experienced its most memorable season ever, just reaching the NCAA Division I-A quarterfinals gave the Bears cause to celebrate and look forward to bigger, better things in the future.

In their 10th season under Coach Jack Cosgrove, the Black Bears went 9-2 in the regular season and won nine games for just the time in the program’s 111-year history. They also earned their first-ever postseason win, a 14-10 road victory at 10th-ranked McNeese State.

Along the way, Cosgrove received his second Atlantic 10 Co-Coach of the Year after leading Maine to a 7-2 conference record mark and a share of the Atlantic 10 title. He also emerged as a finalist for the 2001 Eddie Robinson Award, given annually to the nation’s best Division I-AA coach.

“This is an exciting time for Maine football,” says Cosgrove.

Cosgrove’s football roots run deep in Maine soil, and he has worked long and hard to make Maine a national football power. When he became the head coach, Cosgrove, an All-ECAC quarterback in 1976 and Maine captain in 1977 and a former Maine assistant (from 1987-92), inherited a program in need of rebuilding. His efforts are reflected in his overall record. Even though he is 41-57 in 10 seasons at Maine, he is 36-29 over his past six seasons.

Cosgrove is also coaching in the midst of the longest tenure by a Maine football coach since Walt Abbott coached nine years from 1967 until 1975.

DIVISION II WINNER
BRIAN KELLY
GRAND VALLEY (MI) STATE

In all due respect to NCAA Division II national champions North Dakota, Grand Valley State coach Brian Kelly and his Lakers will always wonder what would have happened if record-setting quarterback Curt Anes if he had stayed healthy for the entire season.

Instead, the lakers lost Anes to a season-ending knee injury and advanced all the way to the championship game before losing to North Dakota. But that one loss doesn’t make Grand Valley State’s season a failure in any way. It’s not a failure for a team to go 13-1 and reach the national championship game for the first time in the program’s history, or for a team to win 19 consecutive games or become the nation’s highest-scoring college football team, using a no-huddle offense to roll up 58.4 points and 600.8 total yards per game.

Before he went down with an injury, Anes led all Division II quarterbacks with 48 touchdown passes and a 221.6 pass-efficiency rating, a division record, and emerged as a finalist for Harlon Hill Trophy, presented annually Division II’s top player.

While the offense got all the attention, the Grand Valley State defense also carried its share of the weight, finishing seventh in Division II in rushing defense, allowing 4.8 yards per carry, and 16th in scoring defense, allowing 14.2 points per game.

With that combination of offense and defense, it’s no wonder that Kelly is Grand Valley State’s all-time winningest football coach with an overall record of 90-34-2 in 11 seasons. Kelly, 38, also carries the sixth-best winning percentage (.725) among all active Division II head coaches.

DIVISION III WINNER
BILL ZWAAN
WIDENER (PA.) UNIVERSITY

Widener’s football season finally came to an end with a loss to Bridgwater in the NCAA Division III quarterfinals, but the season will live on one of the best in school history.

With a 12-1 record, coach Bill Zwaan and the Pioneers recorded the second most wins in school history. Also, The Pioneers won their conference-leading 15th Middle Atlantic Conference title, enjoyed a national ranking of No. 2 for four weeks throughout the regular season, posted their first undefeated regular season in 20 years, and moved into a tie for second place in NCAA Division III history with 587 all-time wins following a 46-30 NCAA second round playoff victory over Washington & Jefferson, the nation’s third-ranked team at the time.

Winning is nothing new for the Widener program, and Zwaan has certainly done his part to continue that tradition, with two consecutive Middle Atlantic championships, a trip to the NCAA Division III semifinals in 2000, a 24-3 record over the past two seasons and a 45-13 mark in five season under Zwaan.

Along the way, Zwaan earned his second consecutive Middle Atlantic Conference and Region II Coach of the Year awards.

Zwaan has worn several hats since first arriving at Widener in 1992. He served as the team’s defensive coordinator for five seasons, and spent five seasons with the baseball program, including four seasons as the head coach (from 1993-96). He became the head football coach in 1997, and three months later took over as athletic director of the University’s 22-varsity sport program.

NAIA WINNER
BOB YOUNG
UNIVERSITY OF SIOUX FALLS (S.D.)

Playing for the national championship is enough to make any coach a candidate for a national Coach of the Year award, and while reaching the NAIA national championship game definitely helped Sioux Falls coach Bob Young win the NAIA award, it’s not the only reason.

The Cougars did a lot of things right from start to finish, going 12-2, reached No. 5 in the national rankings, running off 10 straight wins at one point, winning a share of the Great Plains Athletic Conference title and reaching the national championship game for the second consecutive season before losing to Georgetown (Ky.) in the finals.

“It was a fine season,” Young says, “but no coach ever does it by himself. We had a lot of good players, we had a lot of things go our way and the Good Lord gave us plenty of help along the way.”

Championship games are nothing new for Young and the Cougars, who won the national championship in 1996. The same is true for overall success at a program where the Cougars are 138-66-3 in 19 seasons under Young, who played offensive guard and linebacker at USF from 1957-61 and returned to his alma mater in 1983 after a successful high school coaching career.

Young, the winningest coach in school history, went on to become the NAIA Coach of the Year in 1996, as well as the South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference Coach of the Year award in 1984, ‘88, ‘94, ‘96’ and ‘99. He now owns 10 conference championships and a SDIC-conference record with 27 consecutive conference victories from 1994-99.

JUNIOR COLLEGE
TOM MAHER
PASADENA CITY COLLEGE

When Tom Maher came to Pasadena seven years ago, he found a football program with few players and fewer resources. No wonder the program’s official web site (www.lancerfootball.com) features the theme song from Mission: Impossible.

The struggle to rebuild the program into a winner is reflected in Maher’s 17-34 overall record, but the results of that process are evident in the success of the 2001 season. Maher’s Lancers went 10-1 last fall, their best record since 1993; earned the program’s Mission Conference Northern Division Championship since 1980; and defeated Grossmont 38-17 in the South County Bowl for the school’s first bowl victory since 1992.

In the process, All-American running back Jonathan Smith set the national community college single-season record with 2,589 all-purpose yards and All-American quarterback Nathan Chandler set a school record with 26 TD passes.

Not bad for a team that was snubbed by voters from participating in the Southern California Bowl, which determines the state juco champion.

“I don’t care what any poll says and there is not a system around that can tell you how good you are,” Maher told his team following the Grossmont victory. “But the way you dominated that team, especially in the second half, showed that there is not a better team in the state. We won’t get the chance to prove it, but the people that saw us this season know the truth.”

The truth is that Maher and his coaches have transformed the program into a winner. In his six seasons at PCC, Maher has coached three of the college’s top six all-time leading passers and two of the top five receivers.