TOWSON, Md. – Already honored as the Colonial Athletic Association Coach of the Year and a finalist for the Liberty Mutual National Coach of the Year Award, Rob Ambrose of Towson University has been selected as one of five regional Coach of the Year award winners by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA).

The AFCA recognizes five regional Coach of the Year winners in each of the Association’s five divisions: 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 2011 Regional Coach of the Year winners will be recognized at the AFCA Coach of the Year Dinner at the 2012 AFCA Convention in San Antonio, Texas. The dinner is scheduled for Tuesday, January 10.

The AFCA will announce its five 2011 National Coach of the Year winners at the 2011 AFCA Convention. All head coaches who were eligible for regional honors are eligible for national honors as well.

While Ambrose is the Region 1 Coach of the Year award winner, Jeff Monken of Georgia Southern is the Coach of the Year in Region 2. Dean Hood of Eastern Kentucky earned the Region 3 award while Craig Bohl of North Dakota State won the Region 4 honor. Willie Fritz, the coach of number one-ranked Sam Houston State, earned the award in Region 5.

In his third season as the head coach at Towson, Ambrose led the “Turnaround Tigers” to their first Colonial Athletic Association championship. The most improved team in NCAA FCS football, the Tigers posted a 1-10 record in the 2010 season before bouncing back to compile a 9-3 record this past year. The Tigers went from 0-8 in the CAA to 7-1, winning the championship outright.

When the eighth-ranked Tigers qualified for the NCAA FCS playoffs, they became the first team ever to go to the NCAA post-season at the Division III, the Division II and the FCS levels. In the second round of the FCS playoffs, the Tigers dropped a 40-38 heart-breaker to Patriot League champion Lehigh.

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.

The AFCA first recognized eight district winners in each of its two divisions: university and college. In 1972, a ninth district was added in each division.

In 1983, the award was changed to recognize regional winners instead of district winners, and the number of divisions was increased from two to four, and five regional winners were selected in each division. This resulted in a more equitable selection process and better represented the make-up of the membership. At the same time, the new system increased the number of honorees from 18 to 20.

In 2006, the AFCA Division II Award was split into separate Division II and NAIA divisions, giving the AFCA 25 winners it now recognizes.

In the Football Bowl Subdivision, the five regional winners are Dabo Swinney of Clemson, Les Miles of Louisiana State, Kevin Sumlin of the University of Houston, Mike Gundy of Oklahoma State and David Shaw of Stanford.

In Division II, Raymond Monica of Kutztown, Ron Roberts of Delta State, Keith Otterbein of Hillsdale, Bill Maskill of Midwestern State and John Wristen of Colorado State-Pueblo were the regional winners. Sherman Wood of Salisbury, Jim Margraff of Johns Hopkins, Steve Mohr of Trinity (Tex.), Larry Kehres of Mount Union and Stan Zweifel of Dubuque are competing for the Division III award.

In the NAIA, Bill Cronin of Georgetown, Chris Oliver of Lindsey Wilson, Ted Karras Jr. of Marian, Jonathan Quinn of MidAmerica Nazarene, Matt Franzen of Doane College, Steve Ryan of Morningside and Mike Cochran of Southern Nazarene are competing for the National Coach of the Year award.