Alabama head coach Nick Saban has been named the Walter Camp Coach of the Year for the 2018 season, the Walter Camp Football Foundation announced on Thursday. It is the second time Saban has won the award, with his previous award coming in 2008.
Saban is the first SEC coach to win the Walter Camp Coach of the Year since Les Miles of LSU won the award in 2011. Saban, of course, defeated Miles in the BCS National Championship that season. Miami head coach Mark Richt won the award last season. Saban will be one of three head coaches in the College Football Playoff this season to have won the Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award; Clemson’s Dabo Swinney won the award in 2015 and Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly won the award in 2012. Ironically, Saban defeated both in the national championship game those respective seasons too.
Saban is the latest two-time winner of the Walter Camp Coach of the Year. Other two-time winners of the award include Bob Stoops (2000, 2003), Gary Patterson (2009, 2014), and the only three-time winner, Joe Paterno (1972, 1994, 2005).
Saban has collected a plethora of coaching awards over the course of his career but despite all of the success he has had with Alabama being a perennial national title contender, Saban doesn’t have a ton of hardware for his coaching success in more recent seasons. Saban was named the winner of the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award in 2014 and the George Munger Award in 2016. Saban also has collected a pair of AP College Football Coach of the Year Awards in 2003 and 2008, the Home Depot Coach of the Year Award in 2008, the Sporting News Coach of the Year in 2008, and the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award in 2003 and 2008. He also received the Paul “Bear” Bryant Award in 2003. He has taken home four SEC Coach of the Year awards, with the most recent one coming in 2016 and the previous ones coming in 2003, 2008 and 2009.
