Oregon's Chip Kelly won't face Auburn's Gene Chizik on the field for another 35 days, but he beat him out for the Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year award Monday.Kelly led the Ducks to a 12-0 record and No. 1 spot in the USA Today coaches' poll. Oregon finished second in the final BCS rankings and will play Auburn for the national championship in Glendale, Ariz., on Jan. 10.
Kelly is 22-3 in two years at Oregon, with a 17-1 record in the Pac-10 and two conference titles.
Chizik, who was named AFCA Region 2 Coach of the Year earlier Monday, was one of eight coaches up for the award along with Wisconsin's Bret Bielema, Michigan State's Mark Dantonio, Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy, Stanford's Jim Harbaugh, TCU's Gary Patterson and Boise State's Chris Peterson.
Kelly is Oregon's second winner of the award, joining Rich Brooks, who won it in 1994.
Terry Bowden is the only Auburn coach to win it, doing so in 1993.
7 comments:
Which award would you consider the more prestigious; Robinson or Bryant COTY?
How odes that work? Auburn was ranked lower at the beginning of the season, and has beaten 6 top 25 teams, compared to Oregon's 1 (Stanford). Chizik managed to accomplish this while dealing with the biggest distraction/scandal/smear job that I have ever witnessed in college football during a team's national championship run.
Andy please tell me you think they got this one wrong?
Don't know how you can go wrong picking Kelly or Chizik. They're both in the national title game.
If you look at what Kelly did, he overcame losing his starting quarterback last spring. That's impressive too.
Both were deserving candidates.
Agree with Andy, both coaches made the pinnacle this year. However, a strong case could be made that Chizik came from further out in the polls, with less preseason hype, in a tougher conference. Further, I have to agree with Walker, that Chizik's ability to keep the guys focused and winning during all the controversy makes his performance great in a way that Kelly just cant match. That, coupled with all the come from behind wins should have put CGC clearly at the top of the board in my opinion. I think this vote was an indictment of AU's involvment in the Cam Newton controversy. Essentially, they didnt want to give it to a coach who might have cheated. I am not saying he did, just sayin'.
It's a toss up. For handling the off the field stuff, you'd vote Chizik. But for preparation and on-the-field coaching, you'd vote Kelly.
Plus, Kelly doesn't have a Malzahn. He's the genius behind their offense.
Honestly, I'd probably vote Kelly too, in a close one. They got it right. Both are very very deserving. Hopefully Chiz will get a different one.
Kelly has done a nice job but his team was expected to be pretty good. On the other hand, some of these guys are looking for a way to penalize Auburn for the Cam question. Looks like they found one.
Yeah but Nancy the fact that his team was expected to do well is to Kelly's credit.
Come on now, let's not get all crazy. Kelly deserves the award. He's only been coaching for two years, and in those years he has back-to-back conference championships, and Rose Bowl and NCG appearances.
The world isn't out to get Auburn. Chip Kelly just won an award, that's all.
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