Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy was announced as the Associated Press 2018 NFL Coach of the Year last night.
The award follows Nagy’s Coach of the Year award by the Pro Football Writers of America.
For both awards, Nagy succeeds last year’s winner, Sean McVay, head coach of the Los Angeles Rams.
Frank Reich got the second highest number of votes (eight) followed by the Chiefs Andy Reid (five). Nagy received 24 votes.
Matt Nagy cut his teeth with Central PA high school squads. Nagy was quarterbacks coach at Cedar Crest in 2002 and 2003, and offensive coordinator at Palmyra High School in 2008 and 2009.
Matt Nagy spent a single morning as a practice quarterback for the Eagles, before a controversy regarding a contract Nagy held with the Arena Football League pushed him out of play and onto a coaching track. Read more.
Before he ended up on the coaching track, Nagy found a godsend in Lancaster’s Larry Wilson, who gave Nagy a guaranteed income when he was just starting out as a sales manager for Keystone Custom Homes. And when Nagy finally got the call from the Eagles (see above), Wisdom was there to say, “Go chase your dream.”
Frank Reich won his first game as head coach of the Colts in September. Before that he worked for Jim Caldwell, Tony Dungy, Mike McCoy, and Doug Pederson. Today he works for Jim Irsay, who owns the Colts.
DID YOU KNOW… Frank’s father was Frank J. Reich of Steelton. A Marine who served in Korea, he graduated from Penn State in 1956 where he was a co-captain and among the last players at Penn State to play a full 60 minutes in a game. Reich was head coach of Lebanon High School and an assistant coach at Lebanon Valley College.
Reich played for Cedar Crest and can be seen in this August 1977 picture of the varsity squad.
According to Lebanon sportswriter Jeff Falk, Reich is the only Lebanon native to ever hold a head coach position in the National Football League.