Sports Media Report
The USA TODAY NETWORK, part of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), will host the first ever livestream of the American Football Coaches Association Awards Show (AFCA) and green carpet on Tuesday, January 9 beginning at 6:00 pm ET from Charlotte, N.C. The event will air live on USA TODAY.com and on USA TODAY Sports’ Facebook page.
The American Football Coaches Awards Show, presented by Amway, will be hosted by Rick Neuheisel, the former UCLA coach and Rose Bowl-winning quarterback for the Bruins, as well as former ESPN broadcaster Bonnie Bernstein. More than 8,000 coaches and former coaches will gather to present end-of-season awards, including FBS Coach of the Year, Allstate AFCA Good Works Team® Honorary Head Coach, and USA TODAY Sports Coach’s Play Call of the Year.
The show will include appearances by Central Florida’s (and now Nebraska’s) Scott Frost, former Huskers coach Frank Solich, Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Virginia’s Bronco Mendenhall, Wisconsin’s Paul Chryst, Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald, Iowa State’s Matt Campbell, Fresno State’s Jeff Tedford, and Liberty’s Turner Gill. Former Marshall coach Jack Lengyel will be honored, along with Jenks (Okla.) High School coach Allan Trimble, who will receive the Power of Influence Award as he fights ALS. Coaches from FCS, Division II, Division III and NAIA will also be recognized.
Preceding the awards show, there will be a green-carpet event hosted by USA TODAY Sports Pulse’s Trysta Krick and Adam Woodard, along with USA TODAY Sports national college football writer George Schroeder. The hour and a half green-carpet event will be livestreamed via Facebook beginning at 6 p.m. ET from the NASCAR Hall of Fame. It will feature interviews with coaches as they arrive and will debut original videos shot at this year’s convention by USA TODAY Sports.
“USA TODAY NETWORK is excited to be the inaugural livestream host of the AFCA Show. We have the opportunity to live-broadcast the event from USA TODAY and the NETWORK’s local news sites,” said David Meeks, managing editor of USA TODAY Sports. “We are honored that the AFCA chose us as a platform to air this exciting show recognizing the best in college football.”
