Sources say Samuel to get top coaching award

Southeast Missouri State football coach Tony Samuel is poised to receive the biggest honor of his five-year tenure at Southeast.

Sources have confirmed that Samuel won the Eddie Robinson Award, which honors the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) national coach of the year.

The announcement will come tonight during The Sports Network's national awards banquet in Frisco, Texas, on the eve of the national championship game.

Samuel was one of 20 finalists for the Eddie Robinson Award. A panel of nearly 175 sports information and media relations directors, broadcasters, writers and other dignitaries selected the winner.

Samuel already had been named Ohio Valley Conference coach of the year and the American Football Coaches Association Region 3 coach of the year.

The AFCA recognizes five FCS regional coach of the year winners. They will be honored at the AFCA coach of the year dinner Tuesday as part of the 2011 AFCA convention in Dallas. The AFCA also will announce the national coach of the year at the convention.

Samuel directed the Redhawks' turnaround after they went 2-9 a season ago, including a last-place 1-7 OVC mark.

Southeast went 9-3 overall and 7-1 in league play this year, winning its first OVC title to earn the first playoff berth in the program's 104-year history.

The Redhawks posted the program's first winning season since 2002 and only the third since joining the FCS in 1991. They tied the school record for wins, matching the 1937 and 1955 squads that went 9-0.

Southeast, after receiving a first-round bye, lost at Eastern Washington in the second round of the FCS playoffs. Eastern Washington will play Delaware on Friday night for the national title.