New York, N.Y.----- For the first time in the 32-year history of the Associated Press college football coach of the year award, a San José State University football coach received a first-place vote.
Head coach Brent Brennan received three first-place votes and finished fifth in the balloting for the wire service's national college football coach of the year honor.
In the recently concluded 2020 season, San Jose State University was undefeated in the regular season, won the Mountain West championship and accepted a bid to represent the conference in the Offerpad Arizona Bowl won by Mid-American Conference champion Ball State, 34-13, on December 31.
San Jose State was one of the last four remaining undefeated teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) before the Offerpad Arizona Bowl defeat, and was ranked 19th in the Associated Press poll prior to the bowl.
Brennan was named the Mountain West coach of the year, the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Region 5 Coach of the Year and a finalist for the AFCA's national coach of the year award, a finalist for the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) Eddie Robinson coach of the year honor, and a semifinalist for the Munger Award awarded by the Maxwell Club of Philadelphia to its national coach of the year recipient.
Coastal Carolina head coach Jamey Chadwell is the 2020 winner of the Associated Press college football coach of the year award. Indiana University's Tom Allen placed second followed by Cincinnati's Luke Fickell and Nick Saban of Alabama.
Brennan, one of seven coaches to receive a first-place vote, was the only coach from a West Coast/Pacific Time Zone program to receive either a first, second or third-place vote.
Forty-nine (49) members of the Associated Press Top-25 writers and broadcasters panel submitted votes. Fourteen (14) coaches were named in the balloting.
The Associated Press began honoring a national college coach of the year in 1988.
2020 Associated Press college football coach of the year voting Coach, School Point Total 1. Jamey Chadwell, Coastal Carolina (16) 88 points 2. Tom Allen, Indiana (14) 66 points 3. Luke Fickell, Cincinnati (5) 44 points 4. Nick Saban, Alabama (8) 32 points 5. Brent Brennan, San Jose State (3) 25 points 6. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M (2) 7 points 7. Brian Kelly, Notre Dame (2) 7 points 8. Matt Campbell, Iowa State 7 points 9. Billy Napier, Louisiana Lafayette 2 points 10. Kalani Sitake, BYU 2 points 11. Ryan Day, Ohio State 1 point 12. Dave Doeren, North Carolina State 1 point 13. Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern 1 point 14. Dabo Swinney, Clemson 1 point First-place votes in parentheses