BATON ROUGE — LSU assistant football coach Jimbo Fisher has been named the 2001 Southern Sports Tonight Assistant Coach of the Year in a vote by Southern college football fans.
The award, which was presented at the Southeastern Conference annual meetings in Destin last week, is given by Valvoline and Southern Sports Tonight, a syndicated Southern college sports talk radio porgram heard on over 100 stations across the South and hosted by Max Howell and Scott McKinney.
Fisher, who is the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Tigers, is the fifth winner of the award, which has been given annually since 1998. Former Tennessee offensive coordinator and current Ole Miss head coach David Cutcliffe received the inaugural award in 1998. Florida assistant Dwayne Dixon was the 1999 winner, followed by Mississippi State defensive coordinator Joe Lee Dunn in 2000. South Carolina defensive coordinator Charlie Strong was the 2001 winner.
“Coach Fisher is very deserving of this award after an incredible year at LSU last season,” said Southern Sports Tonight co-host and CEO Scott McKinney. “He developed the LSU offense into one of the top units in the nation and brought both Rohan Davey and Matt Mauck into the forefront as two of the top quarterbacks in the league. This continues the list of outstanding assistant coaches who have been so deserving of this recognition.”
Over 50,000 Southern college football fans voted during the week-long voting period on the Southern Sports Tonight website (www.southernsportstonight.com) with Fisher receiving over 73% of the vote.
“This is a great honor,” Fisher said. “This honor is a tribute to the
coaching staff and the players at LSU. We have a great head coach in Nick Saban and an outstanding group of assistant coaches and I’m thrilled to represent LSU in winning this award.
“I’m also honored to be included in the company of some of the past winners of this award. I’m extremely proud, but this wouldn’t be possible without the great group of coaches that I work with as well as a lot of outstanding football players.”
Fisher continued to put his name alongside some of the nation’s top offensive coordinators in 2001 as he directed an LSU offense that set numerous school records in the Tigers’ championship season.
In his second-year with the Tigers, Fisher developed Davey into one of the nation’s premier players. Davey set a total of six school-records during the regular-season and then broke another seven Sugar Bowl
or LSU bowl records in the Tigers’ 47-34 win over Illinois. For the year, Davey completed 217 of 367 passes for 3,347 yards and 18 touchdowns. He connected on 31 of 53 passes for 444 yards and three scores in the Sugar Bowl. Throw in Josh Reed’s 94 receptions for
an SEC record 1,740 yards and LSU’s offense had two of the nation’s most potent players. Reed was named the winner of the Biletnikoff Award, the honor that goes to the nation’s top wide receiver, while Davey was a Second Team All-SEC selection.
In 2001, LSU’s offense ranked second in the SEC and 11th in the nation in total offense (451.5 yards per game) and passing offense (298.2). LSU set seven school-records during the regular-season in 2001,
including single-season yards of total offense (5,418), single-season passing completed (238), passing yards per game (298.5), total offense per game (451.5) and single-season passing yards (3,578).
Perhaps Fisher’s finest moments came in a 35-21 win over Alabama and a 31-20 victory over second-ranked Tennessee in the SEC Championship game. Against Alabama, LSU set a school-record with 528 passing
yards, the most-ever recorded against the Crimson Tide. Davey tied an SEC record with 540 yards of total offense in the game, while Reed set SEC records for receptions (19) and receiving yards (293).
Against Tennessee and with starting quarterback Davey out of the game with an injury, Fisher altered the Tiger game plan to better suit second team quarterback Mauck. Mauck took advantage of his rushing skills to leads the Tigers to a 31-20 win and the SEC title.
In the Sugar Bowl, the Tigers racked up a Sugar Bowl record 595 yards of total offense, including 444 through the air, in their 47-34 win over seventh-ranked Illinois. LSU also set a Sugar Bowl record with 34 first half points, including 27 in the second quarter.
For his efforts in 2001, Fisher was also named a finalist for the Broyles Assistant Coach of the Year Award.