#coach-of-the-year

#coach-of-the-year

In practice, it's a yearly argument about expectations and whether we're rewarding actual coaching or just the greatest surprise. But this year's race is a little different. The pool of candidates is unusually deep. It's been the season of turnarounds. The league has been messy, with recent division winners falling away and recent also-rans all rising together. In an ordinary year, Sean Payton guiding the Broncos to the top

After the downfall of Bill Belichick and the disaster that was the Jerod Mayo era in New England, it was important for Robert Kraft to hire an experienced and proven head coach to bring the Patriots back to relevance, and quickly. It's a big reason he was in on Mike Vrabel from the start, and is the foundation for which he was hired.

In the past 12 months, Collier helped the Lynx win the Commissioner's Cup final, earned her second Olympic gold medal, was WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, played in her first WNBA Finals and co-founded a 3-on-3 pro league.