National Merit - Ryan named top NAIA coach

For the second time in his illustrious coaching career, Morningside College head football coach Steve Ryan has been named the top coach in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics by the American Football Coaches Association.

Ryan, who was also elected to the association's Board of Trustees as an NAIA representative Monday, Jan. 7, was selected by a vote of the active AFCA members at four-year schools in the association's five divisions. The AFCA has named a Coach of the Year since 1935 which makes it the oldest and most prestigious of all the Coach of the Year awards and the only one chosen exclusively by coaches.

Among a group of five NAIA coaches who've earned the accolade two-or-more times, he guided Morningside to their greatest season in program history. In 2018, the Mustangs finished with a 15-0 record, won their eighth consecutive Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) title and earned the school's first-ever NAIA national championship. The Mustangs' skipper has an overall record of 170-40 in his 17 years as head coach and has guided Morningside to 15 consecutive post-season appearances, including six trips to the semifinals in the last seven seasons. Ryan won his first AFCA National Coach of the Year honor in 2012 after leading the Mustangs to a 13-1 record and the program's first-ever national championship game appearance. He's also an eight-time AFCA Regional Coach of the Year winner.

Ryan and the rest of the awardees were honored Tuesday evening during the American Football Coaches Awards at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas.