Navy head football coach Ken Niumatalolo has been named the 2019 winner of the Stallings Award, which is awarded annually to a college football head coach who is both a humanitarian and an exceptional coach. The award is named in honor of Gene Stallings to pay tribute to his son, Johnny, and those who triumph no matter their circumstances.
Niumatalolo, who was also named the American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year for the third time in time years, has led Navy to a 10-2 record, the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy, a share of the American Athletic Conference West Division title and a spot in the prestigious Liberty Bowl opposite Kansas State. Saturday’s win over Army made him the winningest coach in the history of the Army-Navy game.
Navy has improved by 7.5 games from last year, which is the biggest improvement in the Football Bowl Subdivision, and a win over Kansas State in the bowl game would tie the school record for wins with 11 (Niumatalolo led Navy to 11 wins in 2015).
Niumatalolo, Navy’s all-time winningest coach with 97 career wins, has led Navy to a national ranking of 21st in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches polls. Navy has been ranked in the top 25 on 15 different occasions over the last five years, prior to that Navy was ranked one week (at the end of the 2004 season) the previous 35 years.
A unique aspect of the Stallings Award is that each winner is selected by the past recipients, who know about what it takes to simultaneously build a winning football program, build young men and to make a positive impact on their community.
Past recipients of the award include: Mack Brown (Texas, 2012), Mark Richt (Georgia, 2013), David Cutcliffe (Duke, 2014), Dabo Swinney (Clemson, 2015), Mark Dantonio (Michigan State, 2016), Chris Petersen (Washington, 2017), Gary Patterson (TCU, 2018) and Brian Kelly (Notre Dame, 2019).
Coach Niumatalolo will be honored at the annual Stallings Award dinner in May at the Dallas Country Club.
