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We’re eight weeks away from the start of college football which means the preseason watch lists will start rolling out. It was announced recently that Ohio State head coach Ryan Day has been named one of the 21 coaches to make the cut for the Dodd Trophy.
The 2024 preseason Dodd Trophy watch list goes to the head coach “whose team excels on the field, in the classroom, and in the community.” The Dodd Trophy has been handed out annually since 1976 by the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation and the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. Jim Tressel won the award in 2002 after upsetting Miami for the national championship. Tressel is the only Ohio State coach to be given the trophy, however, former Buckeye Luke Fickell won the award in 2021 as the head coach of Cincinnati.
The Dodd Trophy describes the selection process as follows.
“The watch list was created through a selection process by the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation and Peach Bowl, Inc. taking into consideration each program’s Academic Progress Rate (APR), Graduation Success Rate (GSR), commitment to service and charity in the community, as well as projected success for the 2024 season.”
Ryan Day certainly exemplifies the qualities the Dodd Trophy embodies.
The 2024 #DoddTrophy Preseason Watch List🏆
This list features 21 of the nation’s top college football coaches representing all Power Four conferences and an independent who are hopefuls for college football's most coveted coaching award 👏 @PNCBank
📰: https://t.co/acOYYstys5 pic.twitter.com/VPf17cL90w
— The Dodd Trophy (@thedoddtrophy) July 8, 2024
It is the fifth straight year Day has appeared on the Dodd preseason watch list. Included in the list of 21 are fellow Big Ten coaches James Franklin of Penn State and Kirk Ferentz of Iowa.
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