Edwards Receives the 2009 NCFAA Contributions to College Football Award

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ORLANDO -- Legendary BYU football coach LaVell Edwards was honored today with the 2009 Contributions to College Football Award by the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA). Edwards received the award from Lee Corso during the ESPNU College Football Awards Show broadcast live from the Atlantic Dance Hall at Disney World in Florida.

Edwards retired after the 2000 season with 257 career victories, making him the sixth all-time winningest coach in the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A). In 29 seasons at BYU, he guided the Cougars to 20 Western Athletic Conference titles and 22 bowl games. Edwards was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004.

Presented annually since 2002, the NCFAA Contributions to College Football Award was created to recognize exceptional contributions to the game of college football. Former recipients include Darrell Royal (2002), Keith Jackson (2003), Vince Dooley (2004), Tom Osborne (2005), Chuck Neinas (2006), Frank Broyles (2007) and Bobby Bowden (2008).

The 2009 season marks the 25th anniversary of BYU’s 1984 National Championship. That season, Edwards led the Cougars to a perfect 13-0 record and was named the national coach of the year by the American Football Coaches Association and the Football Writers Association of America.

In 1972, Edwards took over a fledgling BYU football program that had recorded just one conference championship and 14 winning seasons in its 47-year history. Before long, he revolutionized college football with his prolific pro-style passing attack. From 1976 to 1985 Edwards developed five-straight All-American quarterbacks, including Gifford Nielsen, Marc Wilson, Jim McMahon, Steve Young and Robbie Bosco. Several others, like Ty Detmer and Steve Sarkisian, would follow.

During his career, Edwards’ players won a Heisman Trophy, four Davey O’Brien Awards, seven Sammy Baugh Trophies and two Outland Trophies. At the end of the 2000 season, prior to Edwards’ final home game, Cougar Stadium was renamed LaVell Edwards Stadium in his honor.

The National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA) was founded in 1997 as a coalition of the major collegiate football awards to protect, preserve and enhance the integrity, influence and prestige of the game's predominant awards. The NCFAA encourages professionalism and the highest standards for the administration of its member awards and the selection of their candidates and recipients.

For more information on the Contributions to College Football Award, contact NCFAA president Danielle Moorman (817-338-3488 or Danielle@DaveyOBrien.org).