PHILADELPHIA ---
First-year Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin was named a
semifinalist for the National Coach of the Year Award, the Maxwell
Football Club announced on Monday.
Sumlin was one of 16 semifinalists for the award,
and joins fellow Southeastern Conference head coaches Will Muschamp of
Florida and Mark Richt of Georgia on the list. Also being named
semifinalists were Dave Doeren of Northern Illinois,
Sonny Dykes of Louisiana Tech, Darrell Hazell of Kent State, Brian
Kelly of Notre Dame, Chip Kelly of Oregon, Mike MacIntyre of San Jose
State, Urban Meyer of Ohio State, Jim Mora of UCLA, Bill O'Brien of Penn
State, Mike Riley of Oregon State, David Shaw
of Stanford, Bill Snyder of Kansas State and Dabo Swinney of Clemson.
Sumlin has led the Aggies to a 9-2 overall record
which is the winningest debut season by a Texas A&M head coach in
school history. The previous high win total by a first-year coach was
eight victories by R.C. Slocum in 1989 and D.X. Bible
in 1917.
The Aggies will be seeking its first 10-win season since 1998 when they host Missouri in the regular season finale on Saturday. Other accomplishments by the 2012 Aggies include achieving the highest Bowl Championship Series ranking since
1998, and producing its first perfect regular season record away from Kyle Field since 1992.
