Marvelous Merit - Ryan earns national award

For the third time in his illustrious 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 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.

He's among a group of five NAIA coaches who've earned the accolade two-or-more times. In 2019, Ryan guided the Mustangs to a 14-0 record with their ninth consecutive Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) title and the school's second NAIA national championship included. Mside's skipper has an overall record of 184-36 in his 18 years and has led the program to 16 consecutive post-season appearances, including seven trips to the semifinals in the last nine seasons. Ryan won his first AFCA National Coach of the Year honor in 2012 after being at the helm of a 13-1 record and the program's first-ever national championship game appearance and gained his second in 2018 when the Mustangs claimed the national title with a 15-0 record. He's also a nine-time AFCA Regional Coach of the Year winner.

Ryan and the rest of the awardees were honored Tuesday afternoon during the American Football Coaches Awards at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee.