Honors for young and old
Kevin Steele was in his first season as a full-time assistant football coach at Tennessee when Jim Leonhard was born Oct. 27, 1982.
Steele, Auburn’s 59-yearold defensive coordinator, and Leonhard, Wisconsin’s 35-year-old defensive coordinator, are among five finalists announced Monday for the Broyles Award.
“I love it, that’s awesome,” said David Bazzel, creator and director of the Broyles Award. “That’s a great reflection of what this award is about.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a guy that’s been coaching for 35 years or you’re early in your coaching career. This award doesn’t look at your age, your background. The bottom line is you’re an assistant coach who’s done a great job this season.”
Other finalists this year are Bill Bedenbaugh, 45, Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator and line coach; Tony Elliott, 38, Clemson’s co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach; and Troy Walters, 40, Central Florida’s offensive coordinator.
The winner of the 22nd annual Broyles Award — named in honor of Frank Broyles, the Arkansas Razorbacks’ former coach and athletic director and
presented to the nation’s top assistant — will be announced Dec. 5 at a banquet at the Little Rock Marriott Hotel.
This year’s class has all first-time finalists, and each of their teams are playing in conference championship games this weekend.
Auburn Coach Gus Malzahn, the 2010 Broyles Award winner when he was the Tigers’ offensive coordinator, has been lobbying for Steele to win the award after he narrowly missed being a finalist last year.
Steele’s defense helped Auburn beat two No. 1-ranked teams this season, 40-17 over Georgia and 26-14 over Alabama.
Auburn has a rematch with Georgia in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta.
“With what Kevin is doing right now with our defense, I think he deserves the award,” Malzahn said after the Alabama game.
Steele, who played at Tennessee, was Baylor’s head
coach from 1999-2002, when the Bears went 9-36. Since then he has been an assistant coach at Florida State, Clemson, Alabama, LSU and Auburn.
Leonhard was a walk-on at Wisconsin, where he became an All-Big Ten safety. He was awarded a scholarship as a senior in 2004, when Bret Bielema — the Razorbacks’ coach the past five years — was the Badgers’ defensive coordinator.
After playing in the NFL for 10 years, Leonhard became Wisconsin’s defensive backs coach in 2016, then was promoted to defensive coordinator this season when Justin Wilcox got California’s head coaching job.
Wisconsin will play in the Big Ten Championship Game against Ohio State.
Bedenbaugh was an offensive lineman at Iowa Wesleyan, where his position coach was Mike Leach, now Washington State’s head coach.
Oklahoma Coach Lincoln Riley — the 2016 Broyles Award winner — continues to call plays on offense, but Bazzel said he’s glad a position coach such as Bedenbaugh is recognized as a Broyles
Award finalist.
“Bedenbaugh is the oldschool offensive line coach,” Bazzel said. “It shows you don’t have to be calling plays to do an outstanding job.”
Oklahoma is playing in the Big 12 Championship Game against TCU.
Elliott could give Clemson back-to-back Broyles Award winners. Tigers defensive coordinator Brent Venables won the award last year.
Clemson is playing Miami in the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Game.
Walters, a former Stanford and NFL wide receiver, has helped Central Florida to an 11-0 record. The Knights will play Memphis in the American Athletic Conference Championship Game.
Bedenbaugh will attempt to become the fourth Oklahoma assistant coach to win the Broyles Award along with Riley, Mark Mangino (2000) and Kevin Wilson (2008).
This is the 21st consecutive year an SEC team has had a Broyles Award finalist. The exception was the award’s first year in 1996 when Florida State defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews won and the other finalists were Norm
Chow (BYU), Steve Dunlap (West Virginia), Greg Mattison (Michigan) and Charlie McBride (Nebraska).
The Broyles Award selection committee includes a group of several former coaches. Bazzel said narrowing the finalists to five is always a challenge.
“This is so subjective,” Bazzel said. “There are so many good assistants and you could make the argument for about 20 of these guys being finalists. Of course, we get hammered sometimes. Folks go, ‘How can our guy not be there?’ And they all make legitimate points.
“To me, if you’re nominated, it’s a great honor and shows what a good job you’ve done. If you’re one of the 15 semifinalists, that really is exceptional. Then if you make the top five, it’s incredible.”
Bazzel said the interest and passion generated by the Broyles Award demonstrates how it has grown in prestige.
“I’ve had head coaches call me to lobby for their guys,” Bazzel said. “It shows the award means a lot to people because they want their guy to win.”