The awards have poured in for TCU coach Gary Patterson since the Horned Frogs went 12-0 and earned a spot in the Fiesta Bowl on Monday against Boise State.
Patterson already has been named National Coach of the Year by the Associated Press, the Walter Camp Football Foundation and Sporting News.
But Thursday’s announcement that he was selected the Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Year was different and "very special," Patterson said.
Georgia State coach Bill Curry, who played for Dodd and is the president of the Bobby Dodd Foundation, recently went to Fort Worth, Texas, to congratulate Patterson. They were joined by Dutch Baughman, the executive director of the Division I-A athletics directors association. The three men taped a segment announcing the award that appeared at halftime of Thursday night’s Chick-fil-A Bowl.
“Anybody who gives their life to coaching understands what Coach Dodd stood for,” said Patterson, who is 85-27 in nine seasons at TCU. “When Coach Curry comes to see you and talks about Coach Dodd, you know that you’ve just received something very special. Coach Dodd stood for doing things the right way. I believe we are doing things the right way at TCU.”
Patterson was an assistant for three seasons at TCU and took over as head coach when Dennis Franchione left to become the head coach at Alabama. He has taken the Horned Frogs to eight bowl games, and this season TCU posted its first undefeated regular-season record since 1938. Its No. 4 finish in the final BCS standings represents the highest-ever ranking for team from a conference not among the big six. This will be TCU’s first appearance in a BCS game.
Patterson's teams have won 13 of their past 16 games against the six conferences with automatic bids to the BCS. TCU is 5-2 in its past seven games against teams from the Big 12.
The Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Year was first presented in 1976. Each year the award goes to the coach “In recognition of a higher and more noble aspect of college coaching ... a style that emphasizes something more than winning a game ... a belief that the game of football should be kept in perspective with college life in general.”
“That’s important to me,” said Patterson. “We are trying to win games here, but we are also trying to help our players to become good men.”
The Horned Frogs should be good again in 2010 as they have only 13 seniors and only six in the starting lineup.
Past winners of the award include Georgia’s Vince Dooley, who was the first recipient in 1976, Georgia Tech’s Paul Johnson (when he was at Navy in 2004), and Mack Brown of Texas.
The award will officially be presented to Patterson next spring at a banquet on campus. He will receive a bronze trophy replica of Dodd plus a $10,000 check for the school’s scholarship fund.
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