PHILADELPHIA-Thursday, Maxwell Football Club executive director Mark Wolpert announced BYU Football head coach Kalani Sitake is one of 12 semifinalists for the 2020 George Munger College Coach of the Year award.
Sitake, who is 38-26 (.594) after completing his fifth season as the Cougars’ head coach, led the Cougars to a 49-23 win over Central Florida in the roofclaim.com Boca Raton Bowl Tuesday.
BYU was the only school in FBS to finish in the Top 10 nationally in scoring offense (5th, 43.5 points per game), scoring defense (4th, 15.3 points per game) and total offense (7th, 522.2 yards per game).
Voting for this ward commenced Thursday and runs through January 2.
The finalist round consists of the top three coaches, as selected in the semifinalist round and run from January 3-12.
The winner will be announced January 15.
Eligible voters include Maxwell Football Club members, NCAA head football coaches, sports information directors and selected national media.
The winner of the 2019 award was LSU head coach Ed Orgeron, who led the Tigers to the national championship.
The George Munger Award is annually presented to the best coach in FBS college football and is named after former Pennsylvania head coach George Munger (1938-1953, 82-42-10, .649).
Munger was renowned for his devotion to ethics in athletics and his commitment to education.
Other semifinalists for the award include the following:
-Indiana head coach Tom Allen
-San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan
-Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell
-Coastal Carolina head coach Jamey Chadwell
-Ohio State head coach Ryan Day
-Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell
-Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher
-Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze
-Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly
-Alabama head coach Nick Saban
-Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney
In other BYU football news, left tackle Brady Christensen was named to several All-American football teams.
Christensen was announced as a first-team All-American by USA Today Sports, ESPN, CBS Sports and Bleacher Report in news released late Wednesday.
Christensen is the first Cougar to earn multiple first-team All-American honors since 2009 consensus All-American tight end Dennis Pitta, who later starred with the Baltimore Ravens from 2010-2016.
