Coaching awards: Texas' Tom Herman leads list of midseason stars

Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football (halftime hallucinogens sold separately in Ames):

[More Dash: Playoff picture | 6 bust teams | 5 spoiler teams]

THIRD QUARTER

YOUR COACH IS DOING A GREAT JOB … SO FAR

It’s only mid-October, so all this is subject to change. But these are The Dash’s midseason choices for Coach of the Year, conference by conference:

American Athletic: Luke Fickell (21), Cincinnati. Team record: 6-0 for the first time since 2012, 2-0 in the AAC. In Year 2, the former Ohio State assistant has remade the Bearcats into a defensive force — they’re third nationally in scoring defense (13.7 points per game), fourth in total defense (274.3 yards per game) and sixth in yards per play (4.26). Cincy also is doing it with a freshman quarterback in Desmond Ridder. The Bearcats have a tricky game Saturday at Temple.

Atlantic Coast: Dave Doeren (22), North Carolina State. Team record: 5-0 for the first time since 2002, 2-0 in the ACC. Doeren was one of several potential Tennessee coaching candidates the fan base didn’t care for last November, and he parlayed that flirtation into a contract extension at N.C. State. Since then, he’s undefeated. This year’s team remains a mystery, with a big game against West Virginia canceled by hurricane and only one road trip to date, to Marshall. Doeren will either take a huge step toward locking up ACC COY on Saturday at Clemson, or it will be wide open.

Big 12: Tom Herman (23), Texas. Team record: 6-1, best through seven games since the national runner-up season of 2009, 4-0 in the Big 12. What began badly with a stunning loss at Maryland has bloomed into a potential Texas Is Back season, with the Longhorns ranked in the Top 10 and well positioned in the second echelon of playoff contenders. It hasn’t come easily, with five of seven games decided by one score, but Texas is winning more of the close ones than it has in years.

Big Ten: Matt Canada (24), Maryland. Team record: 4-2, 2-1 in the Big Ten. Smartest thing would be delaying this award until after the Terrapins play at Iowa on Saturday, then bestowing it upon the winning coach. But The Dash has no such luxury, so Canada is the choice today. Thrust into a very difficult situation as the interim coach while D.J. Durkin is suspended, Canada started the season with a rousing upset of Texas and added a rout of then-unbeaten Minnesota to the record.

Conference USA: Bill Clark (25), UAB. Team record: 5-1, best start in school history, and 3-0 in league play. Only a perplexing second-half meltdown against Coastal Carolina separates the Blazers from being unbeaten — and this comes after the program was discontinued in 2015 and ’16. Home game Saturday against 6-1 North Texas will go a long way toward deciding who wins the C-USA West.

Mid-American: Lance Leipold (26), Buffalo. Team record: 6-1, best record through seven games since 1959, 3-0 in MAC play. Most impressive part of the Bulls’ breakthrough season is that star quarterback Tyree Jackson isn’t doing it all himself — Buffalo has a productive running game and the MAC’s top defense to complement Jackson’s field-stretching deep throws. This had the look of a dead-end job when Leipold arrived in 2015, but that has changed now.

Mountain West: Matt Wells (27), Utah State. Team record: 5-1 for the first time since 1978, 2-0 in the MWC. Wells was 19-9 his first two years following an 11-2 season under Gary Andersen, then the program lost momentum. The Aggies were 15-23 the past three seasons, but the school wisely stuck with Wells and has seen the reward with a veteran 2018 team. If it weren’t for a late touchdown drive in the opener by Michigan State, Utah State could be undefeated. The only team in America scoring more per game is Alabama.

Pac-12: Mario Cristobal (28), Oregon. Team record: 5-1 for the first time since the national runner-up team of 2014, 2-1 in league play. Promoting an assistant who had once been fired at Florida International didn’t seem like a slam-dunk hire at the time, but athletic director Rob Mullens is rocking the rim right now. The Ducks have a centerpiece quarterback in Justin Herbert, a star wide receiver in Dillon Mitchell and three running backs who have had 100-yard games. And every bit as important, Oregon hasn’t allowed more than 31 points in regulation through six games, something else that hasn’t happened since ’14.

Southeastern: Nick Saban (29), Alabama. Team record: 7-0, 4-0 in the SEC. Yeah, the Crimson Tide at 7-0 is not exactly an out-of-nowhere revelation. But consider this: Saban managed a delicate change at quarterback, integrated new coordinators on both sides of the ball, and has turned loose an offense that seems destined to go down as the best in school history. There has been a lot of remodeling done to the ‘Bama mansion, all of it perfect. Which is why he gets the narrow midseason nod over Kentucky’s Mark Stoops.

Sun Belt: Scott Satterfield (30), Appalachian State. Team record: 4-1, 2-0 in league play. Chad Lunsford is doing phenomenal work at Georgia Southern after taking over a floundering program mid-season last year, and he might ultimately be the end-of-season COY. But Satterfield is an overtime loss to Penn State short of perfect, and App State has destroyed all comers since that game by a combined score of 204-32. The Mountaineers will have to compensate for the loss of standout running back Jalin Moore to season-ending injury, but this looks like the class of the Belt.

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