Kennesaw State University's Jerry Mack has been named the recipient of the American Heart Association's 2025 Paul "Bear" Bryant Newcomer Coach of the Year Award. The award honors a first-time head coach at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level who has demonstrated exceptional leadership and success.
Mack will be recognized during the 40th Annual Paul "Bear" Bryant Awards ceremony, presented by Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System, on January 21, 2026, at Houston's Post Oak Hotel. The event will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network at 12:30 a.m. CST on January 22. The Newcomer Coach of the Year recipient is voted on by members of the National Sports Media Association, the Bryant Awards' Executive Leadership Team, and the Bryant Family.
The American Heart Association presents the Bear Bryant Awards annually to celebrate excellence in coaching, honor the legacy of Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, and raise awareness and critical funds for its mission. Bryant, a coaching legend, died from a heart attack in 1983, just 28 days after his final victory and retirement.
In his first year at the helm of the Kennesaw State program, Mack engineered perhaps the best turnaround in college football this season, taking a team that finished 2-10 in its first year of FBS play to a 10-4 record and a Conference USA championship. The 10 wins for the Owls mark only the fourth time that a team has won 10 or more games in its second year of FBS reclassification, following Sam Houston State University in 2024, Appalachian State University in 2015, and Marshall University in 2017. It also represents the seventh-biggest year-over-year turnaround in college football history at +8 games.
During its historic season, the Owls defeated five programs with .500 records or better and finished the regular season receiving votes in both the Associated Press and USA Today top 25 polls. Kennesaw State, which played its first college football games in the 2015 season, concluded its historic 2025 campaign with a matchup against Western Michigan in the Myrtle Beach Bowl. For his on-field success, Mack was also honored as the Conference USA Coach of the Year.
As previously announced, Phillip Fulmer, the legendary former head coach of the University of Tennessee, and the late Mike Leach, innovator of the Air Raid offense and former head coach at Texas Tech, Washington State, and Mississippi State, will also be recognized with special awards at this year's gala event. Fulmer will receive the 2026 Paul "Bear" Bryant Lifetime Achievement Award, and Leach will be honored posthumously with the 2026 Paul "Bear" Bryant Heart of a Champion Award, presented by St. Luke's Health.
