Grass Earns FCS-Record 5th-Straight Region Coach of the Year
12/18/2018 10:22:00 AM | Football
WACO, Texas – For the fifth-straight season, Jacksonville State head coach John Grass has been named the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Regional Coach of the Year by his peers.
The fifth-year head coach of the Jacksonville State football team has earned the honor in each season he has served as a college head coach after the AFCA released its 2018 Regional Coach of the Year winners on Tuesday morning. He becomes the first FCS coach to win five-straight Region Coach of the Year honors and ties two others for the second-most consecutive honors in the award's history.
The AFCA will announce the 2018 National Coaches of the Year winners in FBS, FCS, Division II, Division III and NAIA at the American Football Coaches Awards on Tuesday, January 8. The Regional winners in each division are finalists for National Coach of the Year.
Grass is one of three winners among the 10 Division I (five FBS and five FCS) winners that repeated his 2017 honor, joining Brian Bohanon (Kennesaw State) and Matt Campbell (Iowa State).
The 2018 award makes him just the fifth coach in the Association's history to win at least five-straight Regional Coach of the Year honors and just the second Division I coach to do so. Div. III's Mount Union's Larry Kehres has the most consecutive with seven from 2006-12, while Grass joins Nebraska's Bob Devaney, Northwest Missouri State's Mel Tjeerdsma and Morningside's Steve Ryan as the coaches with five consecutive honors.
Grass continued the unprecedented start to his career in 2018, leading JSU to a league-record fifth-straight Ohio Valley Conference title. The Gamecocks went 7-1 in league play to win that unprecedented fifth-straight crown. His 52-12 career record gives him the second-highest career win percentage (.813) among all active FCS coaches and is tied for the third-highest among active Div. I coaches with at least 30 games under their belt.
His 52-12 start to his head coaching career is the second-best start to a career in FCS history and has seen him lead the Gamecocks to become the first program to win five-straight OVC titles. The 2018 crown broke a tie with three others as the only programs to win four in a row.
The Gamecocks earned their sixth-straight appearance in the FCS Playoffs in 2018, the third-longest active streak behind North Dakota State's 15-straight and South Dakota State's seven in a row.
JSU has gone 38-1 in OVC play under Grass, including a 36-game OVC streak that was the second-longest in FCS history before it was snapped in 2018.
The Gamecocks finished the regular season ranked No. 8 in the STATS FCS Top 25 and No. 9 in the AFCA FCS Coaches polls. They've been in the Top 25 for the last 72 weeks, the third-longest active streak in the FCS.
The fifth-year head coach of the Jacksonville State football team has earned the honor in each season he has served as a college head coach after the AFCA released its 2018 Regional Coach of the Year winners on Tuesday morning. He becomes the first FCS coach to win five-straight Region Coach of the Year honors and ties two others for the second-most consecutive honors in the award's history.
The AFCA will announce the 2018 National Coaches of the Year winners in FBS, FCS, Division II, Division III and NAIA at the American Football Coaches Awards on Tuesday, January 8. The Regional winners in each division are finalists for National Coach of the Year.
Grass is one of three winners among the 10 Division I (five FBS and five FCS) winners that repeated his 2017 honor, joining Brian Bohanon (Kennesaw State) and Matt Campbell (Iowa State).
The 2018 award makes him just the fifth coach in the Association's history to win at least five-straight Regional Coach of the Year honors and just the second Division I coach to do so. Div. III's Mount Union's Larry Kehres has the most consecutive with seven from 2006-12, while Grass joins Nebraska's Bob Devaney, Northwest Missouri State's Mel Tjeerdsma and Morningside's Steve Ryan as the coaches with five consecutive honors.
Grass continued the unprecedented start to his career in 2018, leading JSU to a league-record fifth-straight Ohio Valley Conference title. The Gamecocks went 7-1 in league play to win that unprecedented fifth-straight crown. His 52-12 career record gives him the second-highest career win percentage (.813) among all active FCS coaches and is tied for the third-highest among active Div. I coaches with at least 30 games under their belt.
His 52-12 start to his head coaching career is the second-best start to a career in FCS history and has seen him lead the Gamecocks to become the first program to win five-straight OVC titles. The 2018 crown broke a tie with three others as the only programs to win four in a row.
The Gamecocks earned their sixth-straight appearance in the FCS Playoffs in 2018, the third-longest active streak behind North Dakota State's 15-straight and South Dakota State's seven in a row.
JSU has gone 38-1 in OVC play under Grass, including a 36-game OVC streak that was the second-longest in FCS history before it was snapped in 2018.
The Gamecocks finished the regular season ranked No. 8 in the STATS FCS Top 25 and No. 9 in the AFCA FCS Coaches polls. They've been in the Top 25 for the last 72 weeks, the third-longest active streak in the FCS.
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