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Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly was named the ACC COY for the 2020 season. It was stunning decision, and it was the wrong one. It was so stunning that after Notre Dame’s 34-10 ACC Championship Game loss to, I didn’t even consider it a possibility.
With that said, I don’t want to take away from Kelly’s fine season. A 10-1 regular season with a win over Clemson, an ACC Championship Game appearance, and a playoff appearance are impressive. As I said back in mid-November, this is what was required for Kelly to win the award.
Brian Kelly – Notre Dame
You unseat Clemson as the ACC’s top team at any point in the season, and people will notice. Clemson may get another shot at Notre Dame, but for right now Notre Dame has the bragging rights. After a 47-40 2 OT classic, Notre Dame took over the ACC’s top spot from Clemson and inserted itself firmly in the playoff chase. Brian Kelly has the Irish 7-0, and ranked #2 in the country. He also has QB Ian Book playing the best football of his career. If Kelly wins the ACC and remains undefeated, you may not be able to deny him the award.
That did not happen.
Manny Diaz the leader for most of the year, got thumped by UNC in the Canes final regular season game of the year.
Jeff Halfey had an excellent first season at Boston College, but BC lost 3 of their last 5 games. That’s hard to overlook when awarding the conference’s top coaching award. With that said, Hafley has BC fans awfully encouraged.
Clemson’s Dabo Swinney always gets a look because of the Tigers sustained excellence, but this isn’t a career award.
That leaves who should have the award in 2020, and it shouldn’t have been close. NC State’s Dave Doeren went 8-3 this season. In a chaotic 2020 season where the Wolfpack were picked to finish 11th in the ACC, they ended up 4th. In 2019 the Wolfpack finished the season as the worst team in the ACC, and Doeren had the added pressure of possibly coaching for his job in 2020. Even during a pandemic year we saw a number instances where that did not save a coach either.
As I wrote a few weeks ago – this remains true…
They lost their starting QB Devin Leary for the season. Bailey Hockman didn’t look like the answer early in replacing Leary, but became a player the Wolfpack could win with.
Here’s what they did though… They won 5 games by 10 points or less, and were victorious in their final 4 games. This was after a heartbreaking 44-41 loss to Miami. NC State as they have done all year persevered.
The Wolfpack got better as the season progressed. They faced adversity and exceeded expectations. I’m not sure what the ACC voters were looking for with this award, but it seems Doeren checked all the boxes.
He’s the real ACC Coach of the Year.
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