Steve Briggs Is Finalist for Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award

BOSTON, Dec. 10 -- Liberty Mutual Group has selected Susquehanna University football's Head Coach Steve Briggs as a finalist for its NCAA Division III Coach of the Year award, to be recognized at a media lunch reception with Archie Manning in Newport Beach, Calif., on Jan. 6--the eve of the Bowl Championship Series national title game.

Liberty Mutual recognizes a Coach of the Year in all four of the NCAA's football classifications. Ten finalists are selected from the Division I Bowl Championship Subdivision and five each from the Division I Football Championship Subdivision and Divisions II and III.

Joining Briggs as finalists for the Division III award are Case Western Reserve University's Greg Debeljak, Saint John's (Minn.) University's John Gagliardi, Coe College's Steve Staker and Franklin & Marshall College's John Troxell.

If Briggs were to win the award, Liberty Mutual would provide $50,000 to the charity or charities of his choice (United Way), and the Susquehanna Office of Alumni Relations would receive $20,000. Briggs would also claim the annual trophy.

To help Susquehanna win the award, fans can vote for Briggs at www.CoachoftheYear.com between Dec. 15 and 29. A reminder can be downloaded from that site to vote up to once per day.

Fan votes constitute 20 percent of a coach's final score. Twenty-five percent of his score comes from votes of a committee of college-football media members, and the other 55 percent comes from votes of a committee of College Football Hall of Fame members.

Launched in 2006, Liberty Mutual created its Coach of the Year Award to celebrate responsible coaching because it is one of the clearest examples of a positive influence on young people, their families and entire communities. Voting for the award will factor in not only on-field achievements but also a coach's commitment to academic excellence and community involvement.

Briggs and the Susquehanna football team won the first, last and only Liberty League championship in school history this past season in only the school's third year in the league. The team earned the title by going 6-1 in the Liberty, including a 28-17 win at Union College in the de facto league championship game on Nov. 14 that secured the school's first trip to the NCAA football playoffs since 1991.

Following the regular season, Susquehanna claimed four of the Liberty's five major yearly awards, including the Coaching Staff of the Year honor (unanimous choice), and earned 14 all-Liberty awards, including nine first-team players.

The team placed 11 players on the Liberty all-academic team this year as well, including the Offensive Player of the Year in senior running back Dave Paveletz (Warrior Run, Pa./Hanover Area).

Paveletz went on to earn ESPN The Magazine/College Sports Information Directors of America academic all-district honors for the second straight season and his first academic All-America honor this year.

Paveletz is a finalist for the 2009 Gagliardi Trophy--awarded to the Division III Player of the Year. He will also represent Division III football in Mexico's Tazon de Estrellas (Bowl of the Stars) on Dec. 19.

Briggs' career record after an 8-3 overall season in 2009 stands at 110-93. This past season marked his 20th as SU's head coach. He is the winningest football coach in school history, dating back to 1892.

Earlier this year, The National Football Foundation inducted SU's Matt Koziol '09 into the 2009 class of the Hampshire Honor Society for his outstanding accomplishments in the classroom, in the community and on the playing field. Teammate John Lunardi '09 was honored earlier in the year by the Central Pennsylvania Chapter of The NFF and College Football Hall of Fame for outstanding academic and athletic success. Lunardi also earned Susquehanna's Blair M. Heaton Award, given to the SU senior male student-athlete who best exemplifies a devotion to scholarship and athletics, along with self-discipline and courage.

Including Paveletz, four players have combined for five CoSIDA academic All-America honors under Briggs.

Briggs is involved in a bevy of charitable activities as well. Last year, his players donated weekly prize money earned through Player of the Week awards to a diverse number of organizations. This year, the team collected toiletries from hotels during each of their road trips to donate to the needy.

Also this year, SU football helped to raise over $1,200 for breast-cancer research in the name of Debra Lacy, late mother of one of the team's players who passed away early in the season after a battle with the disease. The SU football team wore pink ribbons on their helmets during a home game, while the SU cheerleaders wore football jerseys and collected donations. A large portion of the gate receipts from that game--as well as a lump sum from the SU Athletics department--made up the final amount of $1,206.26, which was sent to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization.

During the team's off-week in 2007, Briggs volunteered his time and labor to help build East Snyder Park in Susquehanna's community of Selinsgrove, Pa. Briggs has also donated personal time and money to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way, Big Brothers Big Sisters and more.

When Selinsgrove Area High School was undergoing renovations during the summer of 2009, Briggs volunteered Susquehanna's facilities for that team's offseason conditioning. Briggs has also loaned or donated a sound system, radio headsets, kicking net and more to the high school.

Next year, his son--currently the starting quarterback at Selinsgrove--will enroll at Harvard University and play football there.

Briggs also donates his time to SU's Catholic Campus Ministry, among many other on-campus activities.

"Coach Briggs embodies the college football spirit and the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year values," says Greg Gordon, senior vice president of consumer marketing at Liberty Mutual. "He has made a great impact on the lives of his student-athletes and his community, and we are proud to recognize him as a Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year finalist."

Past Coach of the Year winners include Rutgers University's Greg Schiano and the University of Alabama's Nick Saban.

Among those voting for this year's awards will be Manning, Lou Holtz, Vince Dooley, Ronnie Lott and Jerry Rice.

**UPDATE: Briggs has not been selected as the winner.