Liberty Mutual, coach of the year

I wanted to take a moment to offer a huge thank you to all of the fans who participated - reading, commenting and voting throughout the season. I particularly am thankful for the fans who took the time and energy to provide comments after my blog posts; your perspective was as authentic as it was enthusiastic.

I also wanted to thank Liberty Mutual for the unique and amazing opportunity to serve as the blogger guide to the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award this season. Like the rest of you, I love college football - to follow it through the lens of the LMCOY made it even more special.

The Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award has so much credibility with the fans, the media, the College Football Hall of Fame and coaches alike because it is rooted in its core values, whether it is the process to select finalists - or the spirit of the award itself:

There is an easy way to get things done, and then there is a right way - a responsible way. Wins and losses for college football coaches can come and go, but acting responsibly creates a template for success on and off the field - for the program they lead, for the players they develop and for the fans they inspire.

No matter who wins this year's Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award, it has become an aspiration for coaches and fans to strive for. Thanks again, and enjoy the award!

-- Dan Shanoff

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Illinois is playing in the Rose Bowl. If you consider where Illinois football was a year ago, that simple yet monumental statement is enough to understand why Ron Zook was named the 2007 Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year for Division I-A.

Illinois was 2-10 a season ago, Coach Zook's second as head coach in Champaign. The common perception was that the program was stalled out, perhaps even heading in the opposite direction.


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This is it! A season of performance, week-in-and-week-out, by every college football coach in the country, at every level from Division I-A to III, comes down to tomorrow's announcement of the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award winner.

As of today, all of the votes - from fans, from the College Football Hall of Fame Committee and from the panel of media experts - have been tallied, with the results to come tomorrow. It is the exciting culmination of a thrilling season in college football.
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All season long, this blog has been elevated by the participation of fans providing their own unique take in the Comments section of each blog post. From the season's start, East Carolina fans were fervent supporters of their coach, Skip Holtz.

Coach Holtz wasn't named to the list of 10 Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year finalists, and ECU fans were obviously (and loudly) disappointed. Last week, I gave Coach Holtz - and his legion of fans - a special shout-out in the blog. I think that we have reached a positive place together. Here is one comment from a blog reader/commenter, Den:

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As you can see from the huge clock on the front of coachoftheyear.com, the countdown is on for Saturday's huge announcement of who will be the winner of the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award.

I am really excited: It will be as big of a surprise to me as it will be to you.

Will it be Kansas' Mark Mangino, coach of the Cinderella Jayhawks? Or perhaps Ron Zook, who took Illinois from the bottom of the Big Ten to the Rose Bowl? Or how about my personal pick for Coach of the Year: Sylvester Croom of Mississippi State?
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Want to catch the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Finalists on the sidelines one more time this season? Here are their bowl games:
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