Tag: Coach of the Year

Colts’ Shane Steichen received third-place votes for COY

Shane Steichen received some third-place votes for Coach of the Year.

Indianapolis Colts head coach Shane Steichen wasn’t among the finalists for the 2024 AP Coach of the Year award, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t recognized for his efforts.

Even though the Colts fell short of the playoffs in a nail-biting defeat against the Houston Texans in Week 18, the fact that they were even in a situation to enter the playoffs during the finale is a testament to how quickly Steichen won over the locker room.

The award eventually went to Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, who won a tiebreaker with Houston Texans head coach Ryan DeMeco because he had more first-place votes.

As for Steichen, he received four third-place votes despite not being on the list of finalists.

It won’t be a surprise if Steichen is much higher on this list next season. The potential of getting a full season out of Anthony Richardson could easily put the Colts in the conversation for a playoff spot.

Steichen proved he can handle the extreme ups and downs of an NFL season, and he should only continue to grow with a full season now under his belt.

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Colts’ Shane Steichen snubbed for Coach of the Year nomination

Shane Steichen was not nominated for Coach of the Year.

Indianapolis Colts head coach Shane Steichen won’t have the chance to take home some hardware despite the impressive campaign he led in 2023.

With the announcement of the finalists for the year-end awards, Steichen was not among the candidates for the Coach of the Year award. This was despite losing his starting quarterback and nearly making the playoffs right up until the end of the regular season.

Instead, here are the finalists for the Coach of the Year award:

  • Dan Campbell, Detroit Lions
  • John Harbaugh, Baltimore Ravens
  • DeMeco Ryans, Houston Texans
  • Kyle Shanahan, San Francisco 49ers
  • Kevin Stefanski, Cleveland Browns

No one should argue this isn’t a list of some of the best coaches in the NFL. What Dan Campbell has done in Detroit is inspirational. Meanwhile, DeMeco Ryans completely changed the perception of the Houston Texans, and Kevin Stefanski led his team to the playoffs with Joe Flacco at quarterback.

Steichen was never going to win the award after losing the Week 18 game against the Texans. But that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be nominated.

Kyle Shanahan and John Harbaugh proved to be the best coaches in their respective conferences. But the expectations were much higher for them. Both the 49ers and the Ravens were expected to be good teams.

Most analysts (including us), thought it would be a long shot for the Colts to even be in the running for a playoff spot before the season started. But Steichen changed the entire culture of the organization in just one offseason.

He turned a team that was the laughingstock of the league in 2022 into a squad that competed—even defeated—some of the best teams in the NFL in 2023.

That list of five coaches is incredibly tough to beat, and each has a strong argument for winning the award.

Don’t be surprised to Steichen’s name on this list next year if the Colts continue moving in the direction they’re headed.

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Sean McVay being snubbed as a Coach of the Year finalist is ridiculous

Sean McVay led the rebuilding Rams to the playoffs, yet he somehow isn’t one of the Coach of the Year finalists

Coach of the Year is a subjective award. There aren’t statistics you can attach to candidates the way you can Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year. It often doesn’t even go to the coach with the best team, but rather the coach who did the most with the least.

It’s why Brian Daboll won it last year after he helped turn the Giants around, as did Kevin Stefanski in 2020 when the Browns went from 6-10 to 11-5. Sean McVay won Coach of the Year in his first season with the Rams, too, leading them to an 11-5 record and playoff berth following 12 straight years of .500 or worse records for the Rams.

If the award is given to the candidate who did the best job with what he had available to him, McVay should at least be a finalist this year. Sadly, he isn’t – and that’s flat-out ridiculous.

The Associated Press announced its five finalists for Coach of the Year on Thursday: Dan Campbell, John Harbaugh, DeMeco Ryans, Kyle Shanahan and Kevin Stefanski.

All very good coaches who led their teams to the playoffs, but McVay should at least be in the conversation. Not only did the Rams have the second-youngest roster in the NFL, equipped with a whopping 15 rookies on their initial 53-man squad, but they far exceeded all of the low expectations set by the public before the season began.

Let’s just take a look at the pre-season over/under win totals from oddsmakers for each of the Coach of the Year finalists, compared to their final records. As you can see, one of these things is not like the others.

  • Browns: 8.5 (11-6)
  • Ravens: 9.5 (13-4)
  • Texans: 5.5 (10-7)
  • Lions: 9.5 (12-5)
  • 49ers: 11.5 (12-5)
  • Rams: 7.5 (10-7)

Shanahan is a great coach, but he should not win Coach of the Year. The 49ers had nine Pro Bowlers. Nine! Yet they only exceeded their pre-season win total by one game. The Rams had four Pro Bowlers, and that’s with two of them being rookies drafted in the third and fifth rounds (Kobie Turner and Puka Nacua).

The Rams’ pre-season win total was only 7.5 games, yet they went 10-7 and made the playoffs with the second-youngest roster in the NFL. Only the Packers were younger, and they also made the playoffs with a 9-8 record and a first-year starter at quarterback. Why is Matt LaFleur not in the conversation?

Again, Coach of the Year is subjective and this isn’t to say McVay should absolutely win it over the other contenders. But Shanahan – and even Harbaugh – getting more votes than McVay despite having loaded rosters is shocking.

McVay took a team that was projected to go 5-12 by some and led them to the playoffs despite losing his starting running back for four games, his quarterback for a game and a half, an All-Pro wide receiver for four games and having a defense that featured names many fans have never heard of with the exception of Aaron Donald.

McVay was awesome in 2021 when the Rams won it all, but this year might’ve been his best coaching job yet.

Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey both NFL MVP finalists

Brock Purdy and Christian McCaffrey are both MVP finalists. Other awards stuff here:

The 49ers have a few players and coaches among the top five finalists for the AP NFL post-season awards. Highlighting that group are quarterback Brock Purdy and running back Christian McCaffrey, both of whom are finalists for the AP NFL MVP award. McCaffrey is also an Offensive Player of the Year finalist, while head coach Kyle Shanahan is among the top five vote-getters for Coach of the Year according to the AP’s Josh Dubow.

While Purdy’s MVP case derailed some on Christmas night when he tossed four interceptions in a game where MVP favorite Lamar Jackson played exceedingly well, it’s noteworthy that he was still one of the top five in voting. There were cases made in media that he didn’t deserve credit for what San Francisco was doing, but he was always going to garner MVP attention for putting up 4,280 passing yards, 31 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while completing 69.4 percent of his throws and averaging a league-high 9.6 yards per attempt. He was also the NFL’s highest-rated passer at 113.0. His MVP case is strong, but he’s not likely to win the award over Jackson.

McCaffrey because of his position was always more destined to be the NFL’s OPOY. It’s hard for a running back to win MVP, as illustrated by the fact no non-QB has won that award since 2012 when Minnesota Vikings RB Adrian Peterson took it home.

The 2023 campaign was as good a run as any non-QB has made at the award since that Peterson season. McCaffrey finished the season with the league lead in rushing yards (1,459), touches (339), yards from scrimmage (2,023) and total touchdowns (21). Had Jackson not had such a stellar end to the season, or had the Ravens not had the best record in the NFL, there’d be an extremely strong case for McCaffrey to be the league’s MVP.

Other MVP finalists included Jackson, Bills QB Josh Allen, and Cowboys QB Dak Prescott.

McCaffrey is much more likely in line to land his first Offensive Player of the Year honor. He’s among the top-five in voting for that award as well, and the OPOY has become the de facto non-QB MVP award. Jackson and Prescott are also finalists here, along with Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill and Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb. Given his consistent dominance all year and his place among the MVP finalists it would appear McCaffrey is the frontrunner to take this trophy home.

The final 49er represented among the AP NFL award finalists is head coach Kyle Shanahan, who is one of the five finalists for Coach of the Year. It’s hard to envision him winning because the criteria so often leans toward a coach doing more with less. Had Purdy not been as good or had the team dealt with high-profile injuries, then Shanahan might have had a better case. But he’s in the running with DeMeco Ryans from the Texans, Kevin Stefanski from the Browns, Dan Campbell from the Lions and John Harbaugh from the Ravens.

That’s not to say Shanahan did a poor job. He coached a team to the No. 1 seed while that group put up sensational offensive numbers. However, Ryans turned around a franchise, Stefanski’s club went 11-5 despite perhaps the worst QB situation in the league, and Campbell got Detroit to the playoffs. All of them are more likely to win than Shanahan, who oversaw a dominant effort from a top-flight roster that was already expected to be great.

That the 49ers have three finalists for these awards is a testament to how good they were this season, and underscores why they find themselves in the NFC championship game.

Winners of the AP NFL awards will be announced February 8 at the NFL Honors ceremony at 6:00pm Pacific Time.

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Celtics Lab 236: Projecting season-long hardware at 2023-24’s midpoint with Kwani Lunis

We cover everything from Most Valuable Player to Executive of the Year and everything in-between,

Most of the teams in the NBA have played around half of their 82-game schedule, giving us enough of a sample size to get an idea of which players might be taking home some full-season hardware come April and onward.

And with the Boston Celtics currently the owners of the league’s best record, it is not unfair to expect the franchise to have at least a little bling headed their way at season’s end. To try to predict what awards Boston players and front office employees might be taking home come spring, the hosts of the CLNS Media “Celtics Lab” podcast got together with NBC Boston 10’s and  “The Big 3 NBA” podcast cohost Kwani A. Lunis to sort out which Celtics might be adding to their trophy case.

We cover everything from Most Valuable Player to Executive of the Year and everything in-between, and even come up with some of our own, team-specific awards for Boston’s 2023-24 season.

We also get caught up on all the latest news, and look back at an intense week of Celtics games.

The Celtics Lab podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

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Steve Sarkisian wins AP All-Big 12 Coach of the Year

Steve Sarkisian has led Texas to the College Football Playoff in his third year at the helm.

Steve Sarkisian was the only one deserving of the AP All-Big 12 Coach of the Year award, and no other coach should have come close. Continue reading “Steve Sarkisian wins AP All-Big 12 Coach of the Year”

Notre Dame legend Muffet McGraw to have statue outside Joyce Center

Congrats, Coach!

[autotag]Muffet McGraw[/autotag] coached herself to two national championships with Notre Dame and the Basketball Hall of Fame. Now, her likeness will live forever outside the Joyce Center. Joining the many Notre Dame coaching legends with statues on the school’s athletic complex, McGraw will have her own statue unveiled before the Irish’s Dec. 17 game against Purdue.

McGraw earned 848 of her 936 career victories at Notre Dame, where she coached the women’s basketball program from 1987 to 2020, finish below .500 only twice during that time. Only six coaches are ahead of her on the all-time Division I wins list. She was named the consensus national coach of the year three times.

McGraw coached 20 WNBA players, five Olympians and 22 All-Americans. Among her most notable players at Notre Dame were [autotag]Ruth Riley[/autotag], [autotag]Skylar Diggins[/autotag], [autotag]Brianna Turner[/autotag], [autotag]Jewell Loyd[/autotag], [autotag]Kayla McBride[/autotag] and [autotag]Arike Ogunbowale[/autotag].

Join us in congratulating this Irish coaching legend. May she serve as an inspiration for Notre Dame women’s basketball players and coaches in the generations to come.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

How many of Boston’s coaches have been named Coach of the Year – and who were they?

Can you name the trio of Celtics coaches who won the award? Even better — can you name the seasons they won it in?

The Boston Celtics have a storied history of NBA championships with plenty of other hardware to go with it, and when it comes to Coach of the Year, their legacy is literally written on the award — more on that shortly.

Over the course of its seven-decade history in the league and its origins in the Basketball Association of America that came before it, the club has garnered three such honors as that annually offered to the best head coach in the NBA as seen such by the media in charge of voting. Most Celtics fans can easily name one of the three, and Boston stalwarts two or even three former Boston coaches so honored.

But can you also name the seasons in which each was so honored? Make your best guess, and then scroll down to see how you did.

NBA summer forecast: Where ESPN ranks potential Rockets’ awards winners

#Rockets prospects Jabari Smith Jr. and Jalen Green each received NBA Most Improved Player votes from ESPN’s summer forecast panel, while Amen Thompson drew Rookie of the Year buzz.

Each year, ESPN asks the many members of its summer forecast media panel to rank their top three choices for the NBA’s six major awards. These involve a first-place vote earning five points, a second-place vote receiving three and a third-place vote receiving one.

The awards debated for the 2023-24 season are Most Valuable Player (MVP), Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Most Improved Player and Coach of the Year.

As Houston enters what it hopes is Phase 2 of its franchise rebuild, the Rockets are still a relatively young team. Thus, expectations for team success remain fairly minimal, at least from the outside.

But during this three-year run of prolonged losing, the Rockets accumulated some high draft picks. With that comes expectations for improvement as the years progress. Thus, Jalen Green (No. 2 pick in the 2021 first round) and Jabari Smith Jr. (No. 3 in 2022) each earned Most Improved Player votes. Smith drew particular interest after a brilliant 2023 summer league.

Here’s a look at the categories where Houston received votes.

ESPN experts predict OKC Thunder to win pair of 2023-24 awards

The Thunder were well respected in ESPN’s award prediction exercise.

Following an overachieving 40-42 campaign, expectations have risen for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

To prepare for the upcoming season, ESPN asked its summer forecast panel to vote on award winners. The winner was determined by totaling their points. A first-place vote counted for three points, a second-place vote counted for two points and a third-place vote counted for one point.

The Thunder had a pair of winners among the award predictions. This is a strong endorsement of how highly experts value the team.

Let’s look at which awards OKC is expected to bring home at the end of the 2023-24 season.