LITTLE ROCK — The Broyles Award selection committee has chosen TCU defensive coordinator Dick Bumpas, Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst, Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen, Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn and Stanford offe n s ive coordinator Greg Roman as award finalists.
The award is named after longtime Arkansas Coach and Athletic Director Frank Broyles, and honors the nation’s best collegiate assistant coach.
Bumpas, of Fort Smith, graduated from Arkansas in 1973, where he was a three-year letterman, an All-American and Southwest Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 1970 at defensive tackle. He also started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Arkansas in 1977. Bumpas was a Kansas State defensive line coach in 1981 when current TCU Coach Gary Patterson was a senior linebacker. Bumpas joined TCU in 2004, and has the Horned Frogs top ranked nationally in pass defense (126.3 yards per game), total defense (215.4) and scoring defense (11.4) this season.
Chryst is in his sixth season at Wisconsin. He has coached three of the program’s top four quarterbacks statistically. Wisconsin leads the Big Ten in scoring offense (43.3 points per game) and is fourth nationally.
Holgorsen is in his first year at Oklahoma State, where he has the Cowboys in the top three in passing offense (354.7 yards per game), total offense (537.6) and scoring offense (44.9). He was previously offensive coordinator at Houston, which averaged 562.8 yards per game last season, the second-most in the nation.
Malzahn is in his second season at Auburn. In Malzahn’s first year, Auburn set records for points in a season (433) and total yards (5,613). The team also scored 26 touchdowns on scoring drives of two minutes or less. This season, the Tigers are averaging 41.6 points per game to lead the SEC, and also top the league in rushing offense (291.3) and total offense (490.1). Malzahn, from Fort Smith, was also an offensive coordinator at Arkansas in 2006 and coached at Hughes, Shiloh Christian and Springdale high schools.
Roman is in his second season at Stanford. His offense is averaging 467.3 yards per game and 40.3 points. Last season was his first collegiate coaching position following 13 combined seasons in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers, Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens.
The award winner will be announced Dec. 6 at 11:30 a.m. in Little Rock. Last year’s winner was Kirby Smart of Alabama.
Sports, Pages 20 on 11/30/2010