As a member of the Football Writers Association of America, we here at Insights are among those who vote for the Eddie Robinson coach of the year award and this year was a fairly tough vote.
Notre Dame's Charlie Weis wasn't on the ballot -- but we wouldn't have voted for him anyway. He won last season and his team hasn't improved all that much from it, so they'll be a new winner.
Our selections:
1. Jim Grobe, Wake Forest: Anyone who can make the Demon Deacons a BCS team, especially after losing their starting quarterback and running back early in the season, deserves consideration. Before this year, Grobe was the best coach you've never heard of. Can't say that now.
2. Lloyd Carr, Michigan: As Notre Dame fans well know, Michigan is a very, very good team this year. The Wolverines finally broke a string of seasons with questionable losses to become one of the nation's dominant teams. The one loss came to Ohio State -- but the Wolverines won't get a rematch. Florida gets its shot, although ultimately this year could end up being the start of a push for a playoff in college football. That, though, won't matter to this bunch of Michigan players, according to the Ann Arbor News.
3. Greg Schiano, Rutgers: Having grown up in the Big East conference corridor and having gone to a Big East school -- Syracuse -- we can attest how bad Rutgers football used to be. Schiano came in and started out-recruiting the rest of the conference in New Jersey and Florida. He also became the bearer of good fortune when Syracuse canned Paul Pasqualoni, which reopened the recruiting process for Ray Rice, who went to Rutgers and you know the rest. What Schiano has done is remarkable and in the best news for Rutgers thus far, it looks like he'll stay in New Jersey instead of bolting to Miami.
In other news, Notre Dame will see another new coach at yearly opponent Stanford next season. The Cardinal canned Walt Harris after two seasons on Monday. The Cardinal haven't been able to produce good football since Tyrone Willingham left for Notre Dame after the 2001 season and we all know what happened there.
-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette
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