Mid-American Conference football individual awards
The conference gives out a total of five awards, the Offensive, Defensive, and Freshman Players of the Year, the Coach of the Year, and the Vern Smith Leadership Award, which is given to the league's MVP in that season.
Source:[23] The Vern Smith Leadership Award was started in 1982 by the Downtown Toledo Athletic Club.
In that year, it was known as the Jefferson Award and the name was changed to honor the University of Toledo Athletic Director Vern Smith in 1987.
Only four players have won the award multiple times, with the most recent winner, Larry English, being the only non-quarterback to win it.
Bill Hess won the award in 1968 in his 11th year of coaching the Ohio Bobcats and Herb Deromedi won the award in 1990, his 13th year of coaching Central Michigan.
Byron Leftwich is one of the few multiple award winners. He earned a Super Bowl ring with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2009.
Nate Davis led the Ball State Cardinals to an undefeated regular season in 2008, earning him the award in that year.
Larry English won the award in 2008. He also won the Vern Smith award in that same year.
Dave Zastudil is one of two two-time award winners. He shared the award with the other two-time winner, Steve Azar.
Justin McCareins, shown here playing for the Tennessee Titans, is one of three Northern Illinois players to win the award.
Scott Secor, 2014 Special Teams Player of the Year award winner.
Ben Roethlisberger won the award in 2001. Today, his number 7 is retired by the Miami RedHawks and he has led the
Pittsburgh Steelers
to two
Super Bowl
victories.
Tim Hiller, the 2005 winner, was one of NFL.com's Top 5 senior quarterback prospects in 2009.
Brad Maynard is the only special teams player to win the award.
Garrett Wolfe won the award in 2006 after setting many MAC rushing records.
Urban Meyer won the award in 2001 with Bowling Green, before coaching at Utah, Florida and Ohio State.
