BATON ROUGE — LSU’s Nick Saban, who guided the Tigers to their first outright Southeastern Conference title since 1986 this season, is one of seven finalists for the 44th annual Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year Award.
The winner will be announced tonight at a banquet at the Hyatt Regency in Houston.
Saban is joined on the list of finalists by Gary Barnett of Colorado, Mike Bellotti of Oregon, Larry Coker of Miami, Ralph Friedgen of Maryland, Frank Solich of Nebraska, and Ron Turner of Illinois.
This year, in just his second season at LSU, Saban guided the Tigers to a 10-3 overall mark and to the SEC title with a 31-20 victory over then-No. 2 ranked Tennessee. LSU capped its season with a 47-34 win over then-No.7 Illinois in the Sugar Bowl.
LSU finished the year ranked No. 7 in the nation in the Associated Press poll and No. 8 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll. The top 10 final ranking marked the first for the Tigers since finishing No. 5 in 1987. The win in the Sugar Bowl marked LSU’s first New Year’s Day bowl victory since a 20-13 victory over Wyoming in the 1968 Sugar Bowl.
LSU also closed the season by winning its final six games, a feat last achieved by an LSU team in 1961 when the Tigers won its final 10 games that season.
In two years with the Tigers, Saban has guided LSU to a 18-7 overall mark and a 10-6 record in SEC action. Saban has led LSU to seven wins over top 25 teams, with four of those victories coming this season.
The Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year dinner and award presentation has become a major annual fund raiser for the Houston Division of the American Heart Association, with many business and community leaders and sports figures annually lending support to the event. Proceeds from last year’s dinner assisted in the funding of more than 10 Houston-area research grants totaling more than $1.4 million.
While the Coach of the Year Award has been an annual tradition since 1957, the American Heart Association adopted and re-named the award in 1986 to honor Paul “Bear” Bryant, who died of a heart attack in 1983.