FootballScoop is proud to announce that Patrick Donley and Trevor Miller are the 2017 FootballScoop NAIA Coordinators of the Year presented by AstroTurf as selected by prior winners.
A year ago, Saint Francis won the NAIA national championship while its co-defensive coordinators took home FootballScoop's NAIA Coordinators of the Year honors. This year, Saint Francis again won the NAIA national title and Saint Francis's other coordinators are the FootballScoop honorees.
This year's Cougars squad roared to a 14-0 record while topping 30 points in every regular season game and 12 of 14 contests overall. Saint Francis scored 43 points or more in seven of his 14 games, and on the year ranked eighth in NAIA at 43.6 points per game.
The Cougars specialized in throwing the ball, led by quarterback Nick Ferrer. The senior connected on 307-of-453 passes (67.8 percent) for 4,195 yards (9.26 per attempt) with 39 touchdowns against just four interceptions. Those numbers ranked him ninth nationally in passing yards per game and third in passing efficiency -- and second among all players with at least 265 passing attempts.
Ferrer's top target was wide receiver Dan Ricksy, who hauled in 73 grabs for 1,172 yards and 10 touchdowns.
But Saint Francis was more than just passing. Running back Justin Green carried 351 times for 2,031 yards (5.9 a carry) and 29 touchdowns, all of which placed second nationally.
As a team, Saint Francis placed fourth in passing efficiency, 39th in rushing offense, and ninth in total offense at 490.1 yards per game (6.8 a play).
The Cougars also produced 24.1 first downs per game, good for 12th in NAIA, and converted 51.7 percent of their third down tries, third nationally. Saint Francis coughed the ball up only 16 times across its 14 games, allowing the club to create a 1.0 turnover margin that tied for sixth in NAIA.
Perhaps the best performance of the year by Donley and Miller's offense came in the NAIA title game. Playing against a Reinhardt defense that led the nation in scoring and total defense, Saint Francis put up 390 yards on 6.39 a play (Reinhardt allowed 235.6 per game and 3.8 a play on the season) en route to a 24-13 win, which was 10 points above Reinhardt's scoring defense average.
Ferrer was named the NAIA's National Player of the Year, while Green was a First Team AFCA All-American as an all-purpose player. Ferrer, the Mid-States Football Association Offensive Player of the Year, was joined on the All-MSFA First Team by Green, wide receiver Sean Boswell, offensive lineman Alex Woods and offensive lineman Jaylen Gamble.
Donley, son of head coach Kevin Donley, serves as the Cougars' co-recruiting coordinator and outside receivers coach in addition to co-offensive coordinator. A Saint Francis graduate, Donley began his career as the offensive coordinator at Michigan's South Side High School before returning to work at his alma mater, where he has remained for the past 13 seasons.
Miller has been on Saint Francis's staff for 10 seasons, where he also works as offensive line coach and strength coach. He was a four-year starter and a second-team all-conference center at Kutztown University before jumping into coaching at Saint Francis.
The FootballScoop Coaches of the Year awards presented by ProGrass are the only set of awards that recognize the most outstanding position coaches in college football. The finalists (Ken Fasnacht [Southern Oregon], Shane Housekeeper [Georgetown], Lucas Lueders [Morningside], Jeff Lebby [Southeastern], Calvin Miller [Langston], Tommy Scott [Reinhardt] and Donley and Miller) were selected based off of nominations by coaches, athletic directors, and athletic department personnel. The prior winners selected this year's winner.
Donley and Miller will receive their awards and be recognized at an event at the AFCA Convention in January.
Previous winners of the NAIA Coordinator of the Year award are Joe Woodley (Grand View [Iowa], 2013), Ken Fasnacht (Southern Oregon, 2014), Scott Power (Marian [Ind.], 2015) and Joey Didier and Eric Wagoner (Saint Francis [Ind.], 2016).
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