WACO, Texas (Dec. 2) -- Central Washington University head football coach Blaine Bennett has been named the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Regional Coach of the Year for the NCAA Division II Region Five, announced Wednesday.
Bennett, a 1987 graduate of Whitworth College, guided Central Washington to the program’s first number one national ranking since moving up to the NCAA Division II and helped the Wildcats finish the 2009 regular season as the only undefeated team in the nation. Central finished the year with a 12-1 overall record after falling in the national quarterfinals to second-ranked Northwest Missouri State last Saturday.
In his two seasons as Central’s head coach, Bennett has posted a 22-3 record for a .880 winning percentage -- the best 25-game start for a coach in CWU football history. Bennett’s three losses have been by a combined 11 points, with two of the defeats coming in the Division II playoffs and the other a three-point, last-second loss at Division I-FCS member Montana in 2008. Overall, Bennett has a 49-35 career head coaching record in eight seasons.
The Wildcats have had 22 first-team all-Great Northwest Athletic Conference selections in two seasons under Bennett’s tutelage, and the 45-year-old Bennett has been named the GNAC Coach of the Year both years.
Bennett is the second CWU coach in the program’s history to earn AFCA Regional Coach of the Year honors. Mike Dunbar, who finished his six-year tenure with the Wildcats with a .852 winning percentage (54-9-1 record), won the AFCA College Division II Region Five Coach of the Year award three times (1988, 1989, and 1991).
AFCA Regional Coaches of the Year