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Socha COTY AFCA 2023

No. 2 Football

Keiser’s Doug Socha Named AFCA NAIA Coach of the Year

The American Football Coaches Association announced its 2023 Coach of the Year winners on Tuesday with Keiser Head Coach Doug Socha earning AFCA NAIA Coach of the Year recognition.
 
The award marks the first for Coach Socha in his Keiser career.
 
Coach Socha joins Washington's Kalen DeBoer (FBS), UAlbany's Greg Gattuso (FCS), Harding's Paul Simmons (Division II), and Cortland's Curt Fitzpatrick (Division III) as this year's coach of the year recipients.

The winners are selected by a vote of the active AFCA members at four-year schools in the association's five divisions. The AFCA has named a Coach of the Year since 1935. The AFCA Coach of the Year award is the oldest and most prestigious of all the Coach of the Year awards and is the only one chosen exclusively by coaches.
 

AFCA NAIA Coach of the Year
 
Doug Socha, Head Coach – Sixth Season
  • Named the AFCA NAIA Coach of the Year for the first time in Keiser history.
  • Was named AFCA Region 1 Coach of the Year for the second time in his career.
  • Led Keiser to its first NAIA National Championship.
  • Finished the year with a school-record 12 victories.
  • Keiser made the NAIA Football Championship Series for the fifth straight season.
  • Named the Sun Conference Coach of the Year for the second straight season.
  • Keiser claimed its second straight Sun Conference title, going a perfect 7-0 in league action this season.
  • The conference crown was the second Sun Conference title for KU and the program's fifth straight league title (2019, 2020, and 2021 MSC Sun Division Champions).
  • Led Keiser to a perfect 7-0 league record, marking the fourth time the Seahawks ran the table in league play (2019, 2020, 2022, 2023).
  • Coached a school-record 18 all-conference honorees as well as the SUN Offensive Lineman of the Year, SUN Defensive Back of the Year, SUN Linebacker of the Year, SUN Special Teams Player of the Year, SUN Freshman of the Year, and the SUN Champion of Character.
  • Coached three AFCA NAIA All-Americans and four AP NAIA All-Americans.
  • The Seahawks remained perfect in Sun Conference action all-time (13-0).
  • Offensively, Keiser registered a school-record 3,169 yards on the ground with 47 rushing touchdowns (most in Keiser history).
  • The Seahawks defense limited 10 of the team's 14 opponents to under 100 yards rushing while recording a school-record 46 sacks and 24 forced fumbles.
 

Award History: The AFCA began recognizing district coaches of the year following the 1960 season. The awards were established the same year Eastman Kodak agreed to sponsor the AFCA Coach of the Year award. Prior to 1960, the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain had sponsored the program, which recognized one national Coach of the Year.

The AFCA first recognized eight district winners in each of two divisions: university and college. In 1972, a ninth district was added in each division. In 1983, the award was changed to recognize regional winners instead of district winners. The number of divisions was also increased from two to four and five regional winners were selected in each division. This resulted in a more equitable selection process and better represented the make-up of the membership. At the same time, the new system increased the number of honorees from 18 to 20. In 2006, the AFCA Division II Award was split into separate Division II and NAIA divisions, giving us the 25 winners we now recognize.
 

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