CCSU nominees for National awards

[aceinthehole]

Jeff McInerney Named a Sports Network Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Finalist

Fourth-year head coach Jeff McInerney was named a Sports Network Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year finalist on Monday. McInerney is one of 20 coaches in the nation on the FCS level to be named to the list. Voting for the winner will be conducted this week and the winner will be announced on Thursday, Dec. 17 during the 23rd Annual Sports Network Awards Dinner at the Marriott Hotel in Chattanooga, TN.

McInerney (30-14 in four years) pushed Central to another level during the 2009 season, leading the Blue Devils to a 9-2 mark, their first Northeast Conference title since 2005 and their first berth in the Gridiron Classic. He is the fastest coach in Central history to record his 30th victory. Included in that mark is a 17-2 mark at home in four years, including three perfect home seasons (2006, 2008, 2009).

The nine wins in 2009 match a school-record for the Blue Devils and the 20 wins in a four-year span are the most-ever for the Blue Devils over four seasons. The senior class graduates as the winningest class in school history for Central.

McInerney directed his club to four wins this season by a total five points, including the 14-13 victory in the regular season finale that clinched the Gridiron Classic bid for CCSU. The Blue Devils also had a victory over Lehigh, which tied for second in the Patriot League this year and received the 29th most votes in The Sports Network poll.

McInerney's team was ninth nationally in rushing and 25th in total offense and 22nd in total defense. This is McInerney's first appearance on the Robinson Award ballot. http://www.ccsubluedevils.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=17600&ATCLID=204839465


Senior Running Back James Mallory Named One of 20 on the Ballot for the Walter Payton Award

The accomplishments and accolades are just beginning for senior running back James Mallory. On Monday, Mallory was named one of the 20 players on the ballot for the Walter Payton Award, announced by the Sports Network. Mallory and the Blue Devils won the 2009 NEC title with a 14-13 win at St. Francis (PA) on Saturday. He now has 1,243 yards on the ground through the first 10 games of the season. Mallory joins several of the nation's best student-athletes on the Payton Award list.

Mallory will enter the final game of his career, Dec. 5 at Butler in the Gridiron Classic, with 3,136 career rushing yards and 33 career touchdowns, good for 200 career points. He is second all-time in scoring and rushing at Central.

...

Mallory becomes the second Blue Devil in the last four seasons to be named to the Payton Award list. Former Blue Devil Justise Hairston, who set a single-season rushing record with 1,847 yards rushing in 2006, finished eighth in the final voting for the award.

Mallory's last two seasons have been nothing short of spectacular. Last year he rushed for 1,520 yards and 15 touchdowns. This season he has rushed for 1,243 yards and 15 more scores, leading the Blue Devils in both categories.

Mallory has rushed for 100 or more yards in a game 15 times in the last two seasons, including six times this year in 10 games. He has rushed for 539 yards in the last four weeks. He is averaging 113.0 yards per game in 2009, and 4.8 yards per carry. http://www.ccsubluedevils.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=17600&ATCLID=204832191

[aceinthehole]

There is another Blue Devil on that list!

Congrats to Al Bagnoli's for his record setting win last week and his nomination for the the Robinson Award list. Bagnoli is a 1975 graduate of Central Connnecticut.


Pennsylvania was a good place to be a Devil Saturday
Sunday, November 22, 2009
By BART FISHER
Special to the Herald

Pennsylvania was a great place to be Saturday, if you were a Blue Devil. In Loretto, CCSU earned the first outright Northeast Conference title in school history and with it the university’s first football postseason appearance with yet another come-from-behind win, this one at St. Francis. At the other end of the state, Al Bagnoli was making a little history of his own.

Actually, it would not be an exaggeration to say the former Central defensive back made a lot of history at Franklin Field, the nation’s oldest football stadium. On the same sunny, breezy, Pennsylvania day that saw his alma mater clinch a nine win season for the first time since he and his Blue Devil teammates did it under the legendary Bill Loika in 1973, Bagnoli and his University of Pennsylvania Quakers established an Ivy League standard that has never been achieved before.

Not by Tad Jones, Jordan Olivar, Carm Cozza, or even Walter Camp himself, at Yale; not by Joe Restic at Harvard; Lou Little at Columbia or Fritz Crisler at Princeton.

With nearly 10,000 fans in the stands, Bagnoli’s senior-laden Quakers crushed Cornell, 34-0 and made him the first coach in "Ancient Eight" history to win seven outright Ivy League championships.

The win, which saw most, if not all of those fans rush the field at the conclusion of the game also marked Bagnoli’s fifth unbeaten Ivy League season and no one has ever done that before either.http://www.newbritainherald.com/articles/2009/11/22/sports/doc4b0a08407b712267413799.txt?DB_OEM_ID=17600


Al Bagnoli, Penn

Now in his 18th season at Penn, Bagnoli (208-75 lifetime, 122-56 at Penn) led his Quaker team to a 8-2 record, and perfect 7-0 mark in league play to win its first Ivy League Championship since 2003 and its seventh during his tenure. The Quakers, who are ranked 21st in The Sports Network poll, faced daunting injuries for most of the season, particularly at quarterback. At one point Penn was forced to give significant time to its fourth-string quarterback. Penn's defense ranks first in FCS and first in opponents' scoring. Penn held No. 2- ranked Villanova to one offensive touchdown in a 14-3 loss and its only other setback was to a ranked Lafayette squad in overtime. This is Bagnoli's third appearance on the Robinson Award list, after he finished ninth in 2002 and eighth in 2003.

[Native]

Congrats to the Blue Devils! xthumbsupx