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AFM Magazine


Schutt Sports: Coaches of the Year

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Coaches of the Year

DIVISION I-AA
COACH OF THE YEAR

Doug Williams
Grambling State
Record: 10-2
SWAC champions
Best season in six years

Replacing a legend isn't easy. Just ask Doug Williams. But three years after the former NFL star returned to his alma mater to replace Eddie Robinson, Williams is starting to shake the shadow of the man who coached the Tigers for 56 years and prove he is more than capable of filling Robinson's oversized shoes.

A year after Williams put the Tigers back in the winning column, he this year led them to a Southwestern Athletic Conference championship. Amassing a 6-1 conference record and a 10-2 record overall, Grambling finished ranked first in the Black College Poll and was ranked in the top 15 of Division I-AA overall.

A Grambling legend in his own right for leading the Tigers to a SWAC championship in 1977 when he was one of the leading quarterbacks in the nation, Williams instituted a tough defense and a strong offense that gave up few turnovers. While they entered the season unranked, the Tigers finished ranked third in Division I-AA for rushing defense and 11th for turnovers. It was their best season since 1994 when they finished 9-3.

An extra bonus, that came days before Grambling became conference champs, was when Williams was inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame. While a tribute to his prowess as a Heisman Trophy candidate in college and a standout pro player, officials acknowledged that he has done what few stars have done - use what he learned playing to build winning teams.

DIVISION II
COACH OF THE YEAR

Chris Hatcher
Valdosta State
Record: 10-2
Gulf Coast Conference Coach of the Year
Snared playoff berth

Chris Hatcher is the latest proof that you can go home again - and be successful.

Leaving longtime mentor Hal Mumme at Kentucky to strike out on his own, Hatcher answered the call from his alma mater, Valdosta State, where he inherited a team that had the worst record in the school's 18-year history.

Using the skills he developed when he was a two-time All-American quarterback for Valdosta in the early 1990s and the training he got while coaching the likes of Daunte Culpepper at Central Florida and Tim Couch at Kentucky, Hatcher turned the program around.

A year after it finished near the bottom of the Gulf South Conference, the Blazers went 8-1 in conference play to share top honors with three other teams. Valdosta's overall 10-2 record earned it a berth in the Division II national championship tournament - something that had eluded the Blazers since Mumme left in 1996.

In returning home, Hatcher also got a rare chance to coach the player most likely to break the records he set in 1994 while quarterbacking the Blazers to their first-ever playoff appearance. Junior quarterback Dusty Bonner took over the Air Raid offense Hatcher made famous at Valdosta. By throwing seven touchdowns in one game, Bonner tied a school record Hatcher set twice in 1994. Then, Bonner did his 28-year-old coach one better and tied a 17-year-old national record by scoring five touchdowns in the second quarter of the Blazer's Nov. 4 game against Ouachita Baptist.

DIVISION III
COACH OF THE YEAR

Mike DeLong
Springfield (Mass.) College
Record: 11-2
Freedom Football Conference champion
FFC Coach of the Year

While other coaches dream of being undefeated in conference play, Springfield College head coach Mike DeLong is uncommonly accustom to seeing goose eggs in the loss column.

For the second time in three years, the Pride snared the Freedom Football Conference championship by racking up a 6-0 record against conference opponents. With an overall regular season record of 11-1, Springfield led the nation in rushing and established an NCAA Division III record by rushing for a total of 4,275 yards, or 427.5 per game. The Pride and previous record- holder Wisconsin-River Falls became the first Division III teams to rush for over 4,000 yards in one season. Springfield also finished the regular season ranked fifth in scoring offense (43.0 points per game) and seventh in total offense (481.2 yards per game).

Such rankings have become almost routine for DeLong, who has been head coach at his alma mater since 1984 and coached there since 1981. He is the winningest coach in the history of the 110-year-old school and proved why again this year when the Pride won 11 games — a new school record for number of wins in one season. The previous record, set in 1965, was nine.

Since joining the Division III ranks in 1995, DeLong, 47, has led the Pride to three FFC titles, and one Eastern College Athletic Conference championship. They went to the finals again this year losing to Widener in an heartbreaker, 61-27.

NAIA
COACH OF THE YEAR

Orv Otten
Northwestern (Iowa) College
Record: 9-4
Led NWC to best record in six years
Great Plains Conference co-champions

Things looked bleak for Orv Otten's Raiders at the end of September. Having lost three of their first five games it appeared the longtime NAIA powerhouse was on its way to a history-setting dismal season. Instead, under Otten's leadership, the Raiders rallied. They came back with seven consecutive victories, stomping opponents by averaging 27.2 points per game.

With a 9-4 overall and a 6-2 conference record, Northwestern College earned a trip to the NAIA national tournament for the first time in four years and ended the year as co-champions of the Great Plains Conference. After starting the year unranked in the NAIA, it ended being ranked No. 7 overall and 11th in total offense, after averaging 418 yards per game.

Since taking over for NAIA Hall of Fame coach Larry Korver in 1995, Otten has made sure his alma mater kept its winning tradition. He has compiled a 43-21 record during his five years at the helm.

A former wrestling coach, who produced three All-Americans, Otten this year coached junior tailback Dave Perrigo to GPAC Player of the Year honors. Leading the NAIA in rushing with 2,504 yards, Perrigo set a new national single-season rushing record. Under Otten's guidance, four other players were tapped as first team all-conference members.

JUNIOR COLLEGE
COACH OF THE YEAR

Bobby Franklin
Northwest Mississippi CC
Record: 10-0
Extended winning streak to 20 games
Ranked No. 3 by J.C. Gridwire

Perennial junior college power. Those words have been written so often about Bobby Franklin that they're almost part of his name: Bobby "Perennial Junior College Power" Franklin.

And over 20 seasons he's earned them. Since he began coaching at Northwest Mississippi Community College in 1980 Franklin has rarely lost any games much less had a losing season. This year was no exception as the Ranger compiled a 10-0 record.

In the always competitive Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges, a conference that produces more Division I-A football players per capita than nearly anywhere else in the nation, the 64-year-old left the field at the end of the season with a 20-game winning streak and a No. 3 rating from J.C. Gridwire.

And the Rangers just didn't win games, they pounded their opponents with such lopsided scores as 63-0, 72-7 and 70-0.

Franklin is known for using a pro-style offense that uses at least four wideouts on nearly ever play. The style obviously pays off. In 1999, the offense averaged more than 550 yards a game.

This year, while the numbers dropped slightly, the Rangers averaged 520.7 yards per game. With a passing offense that averaged 415.7 yards per game, fueled by national record-setting quarterback Will Hall, the Rangers had the best total offense in the MACJC.






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