Marrone Named AFCA Regional Coach of the Year
12/6/2010 1:17:12 PM | Football
Syracuse head football coach Doug Marrone is the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Region I Coach of the Year, as announced by the AFCA today. The second-year Orange head coach guided the Orange to a 7-5 overall record and a bid to the inaugural New Era Pinstripe Bowl – SU's first postseason appearance since 2004.
SU's 7-5 record marked the first winning season for the team since 2001 and the second seven-win season since 2000. The team set a program record with four BIG EAST road wins while logging four-straight away victories for the first time since 1996. SU's four conference wins were the most since 2004, while its five road victories are the most since 1992. The team secured its first season-opening win since 2003 while starting 2-0 at home for the fourth time in 16 seasons and 4-1 overall for the first time in 14 years. The Orange also won at West Virginia for the first time since 2000 and secured its first BIG EAST wins against USF and Cincinnati.
The Orange won the 2009 BIG EAST Academic Excellence Award for having the best grade point average of any conference football team and three student-athletes were selected to the 2010 ESPN Academic All-District Team.
The Orange will play Kansas State on December 30 (3:20 pm, ESPN) in the 2010 New Era Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium. Syracuse has a 12-9-1 record in its 23 bowl games and is 3-2 bowl record against Big 12 opponents, including a 26-3 victory against Kansas State in the 2001 Insight.com Bowl.
Marrone joins five other Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) AFCA Regional Coach of the Year honorees, including Auburn's Gene Chizik, Michigan State's Mark Dantonio, Baylor's Art Briles, Oregon's Chip Kelly and Stanford's Jim Harbaugh. Kelly and Harbaugh tied for the honors in Region 5.
The AFCA recognizes five regional Coach of the Year winners in each of the Association's five divisions, including the Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Championship Subdivision, Division II, Division III and NAIA. The winners are selected by Active members of the Association who vote for coaches in their respective regions and divisions.
The 2010 Regional Coach of the Year winners will be recognized at the AFCA Coach of the Year Dinner at the 2011 AFCA Convention in Dallas, Texas. The dinner is scheduled for Tuesday, January 11.
The AFCA began recognizing district coaches of the year following the 1960 season. The awards were established the same year Eastman Kodak agreed to sponsor the AFCA Coach of the Year award. Prior to 1960, the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain had sponsored the program, which recognized one national Coach of the Year.
