Alabama coach Nick Saban is among nine finalists for the 2008 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award, announced on Thursday by the Football Writers Association of America.
The organization's membership will vote on the award among a group that includes Saban, Texas' Mack Brown, USC's Pete Carroll, Texas Tech's Mike Leach, Florida's Urban Meyer, Penn State's Joe Paterno, Boise State's Chris Petersen, Oklahoma's Bob Stoops and Utah's Kyle Whittingham.
The finalists will be placed on a ballot which will be sent to the entire FWAA membership.
Of the nine finalists, four have previously been named the FWAA's National Coach of the Year, led by Paterno, who has been honored by the FWAA three times (1978, '82 and '86). Paterno has been a finalist on two other occasions (1997 and 2005). Meyer (2004 at Utah), Saban (2003 at LSU) and Stoops (2000) are the other previous winners.
While USC's Pete Carroll has never won the award, he has been a finalist three times in three consecutive years (2003-05). This also is the third time Texas' Mack Brown has been named a finalist, the second time at Texas (2005). In 1997, he was a finalist for the award at North Carolina. Boise State's Petersen is a finalist for the second time in three years, while Texas Tech's Leach and Utah's Whittingham are the only two first-time finalists.
The FWAA began naming its coaching award in honor of the late Robinson, the legendary Grambling State University coach, in 1997.
