Three days of fan voting remain in the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year competition, which features St. Thomas football coach Glenn Caruso as one of five finalists in NCAA Division III.
Glenn Caruso
Caruso won the honor in 2010 and is a finalist again this year. Fans can vote once per day through Thursday at coachoftheyear.com. The other finalists are Steve Johnson of Bethel, Lance Leipold of UW-Whitewater, Keith Emery of Western New England and Stan Sweifel of Dubuque.
Fan voting accounts for 20 percent of the tally in determining the winner, with 55 percent from the College Football Hall of Fame selection committee and 25 percent from a national media panel. The winner will be announced Jan. 9 before the BCS title game in New Orleans.
Last year at age 36, Caruso became the youngest winner of the Liberty Mutual Award. The program has honored 17 coaches from FBS, FCS, Division II and III since 2005 based on their on-field leadership and achievements as well as community service and charity involvement.
The 2011 Coach of the Year Award again will include a $50,000 gift to the winner’s designated charities and a $20,000 donation to the winning school's alumni association.
Last year, the alumni funds went to scholarships, and Caruso designated his charity funds to the Yale-New Haven Cancer Center as well as a local charity, Bucky’s Pride, which he created with his wife Rachael to support families of children affected by cancer and blood disorders. Caruso had a life-threatening blood disorder when he was 5, and he credits the doctors at Yale-New Haven for helping save his life. He previously set up a living trust with the hospital as the beneficiary.
