Coming off the most successful season in Fordham football history, head coach Joe Moorhead was recognized by his peers today, being named AFCA Regional Co-Coach of the Year as well as one of five finalists for the NCAA FCS Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year award.
The AFCA?recognizes five regional Coach of the Year winners in each of the Association’s five divisions:?Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Championship Subdivision, Division II, Division III and NAIA. The winners are selected by Active members of the Association who vote for coaches in their respective regions and divisions.
The 2013 Regional Coach of the Year winners will be recognized at the AFCA?Coach of the Year Dinner at the 2014 AFCA?Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. The dinner is scheduled for Tuesday, January 14.
Moorhead shares the AFCA Regional Coach of the Year award with Maine’s Jack Cosgrove.
The Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award recognizes college football coaches who demonstrate Responsibility, Integrity, Sportsmanship and Excellence both on and off the field. Endorsed by the College Football Hall of Fame and now in its eighth year, the program awards one winning coach from each NCAA division (I-FBS, I-FCS, II, and III) with $50,000 to donate to a charity of their choice, a $20,000 grant to each school’s alumni association, and the Coach of the Year trophy.
Coach Moorhead has identified The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as his charity of choice, a decision that hits close to home for the Fordham mentor as his nephew is a cancer survivor.
Voting for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year will reopen for fans opened this morning atwww.CoachoftheYear.com and will continue through December 22. Fan votes will account for 20 percent of each finalist’s final score. Ballots from two committees, college football media, and College Hall of Fame players and coaches, will account for the remaining scoring weight. Winners will be publicly announced at a media event on the morning of January 6, prior to the BCS Championship Game.
Moorhead, an Eddie Robinson Award finalist as the NCAA FCS Coach of the Year for the past two seasons, just completed his second season at Fordham as the Rams went 12-2 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA FCS Championship for just the second time in school history.
This fall, Moorhead led the Rams to unprecedented success, winning the first ten games of the year for the first time in school history and being ranked as high as fifth in the NCAA FCS polls, Fordham’s highest ever ranking on the FCS level. The Rams set a school record for most wins in a season in the modern era (since 1920) and accomplished a plethora of firsts, including the first win over an NCAA FBS team (Temple), the first win over a top-ten ranked NCAA FCS team on Jack Coffey Field (Villanova) and the school’s first ever home NCAA FCS championship win on Jack Coffey Field (Sacred Heart). For his accomplishments, Moorhead was named the 2013 Patriot League Coach of the Year.
A former Fordham quarterback, Moorhead and revamped the Rams’ offense, a unit that leads the NCAA FCS in pass completion percentage, is second on total first downs, third in passing offense, and seventh in total offense this fall.
In his first year at Rose Hill, Moorhead led the Rams to one of the top turnarounds in the NCAA FCS. Inheriting a team that had gone 1-10 in 2011, Moorhead guided Fordham to a 6-5 record in 2012, the second best turnaround in the NCAA FCS that fall. The six wins were the most for a first-year Fordham head football coach since Jim “Sleepy” Crowley also won six games in his first season at Fordham in 1933.
Moorhead led the Rams to back-to-back winning non-conference records, including a perfect 6-0 mark this year. The six non-conference wins are the most in school history, surpassing the five by the 2003 squad.
