PHILADELPHIA – Tulane head football coach Willie Fritz has been named the winner of the 2022 George Munger College Coach of the Year Award on Wednesday, by Mark Wolpert the Executive Director of the Maxwell Football Club after leading the program's first American Athletic Conference (AAC) title and its first victory in a major bowl game since the 1935 Sugar Bowl with the 46-45 thrilling victory over USC in the 87th Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic on January 2.

Coach Fritz beat out the other five final candidates for the award this year in Kirby Smart (Georgia), Jim Harbaugh (Michigan), Ryan Day (Ohio State), Sonny Dykes (TCU) and Josh Heupel (Tennessee). Four of the five other candidates led their teams to the College Football Playoff this year.

The George Munger Award will be formally presented at the 86^th Maxwell Awards Gala which will be held on Thursday March 9, 2023 at the Mohegan Pennsylvania resort. Event tickets are available for purchase at https://maxwellfootballclub.org/purchase-tickets/.

This is the second Coach of the Year honor that Fritz has been won as he was named the winner of the Dodd Trophy at the Peach Bowl on Dec. 31 by the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation. Coach Fritz is still an active candidate for three other Coach of the Year honors in the 2022 Paul "Bear" Bryant Coach the Year Award, the 2022 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award and the AFCA's 2022 National Coach of the Year Award.

Fritz had a truly historic and magical 2022 season. The program defeated then No. 22 CFP ranked UCF on Dec. 3 by a 45-28 score to capture the school's first-ever American Athletic Conference (AAC) title and earn Tulane its first appearance in a major bowl game since 1940 and the Sugar Bowl with the trip to Arlington, Texas to play in the 87th Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic against USC on Jan. 2. In that game, Tulane scored a historic 15 points in the last four and half minutes of game time to roll past USC for its first win in a major bowl since the 1935 victory over Temple in the Sugar Bowl. The win over USC was the third straight win over a fellow ranked opponent. Overall, this year was the school's 15th bowl appearance and the fourth time in the last five years that Tulane has reached a bowl game. The four bowl appearances with Coach Fritz leading the charge makes this the most successful stretch in school history. The program also had both the Most Outstanding Offensive Player (Michael Pratt) and the Most Outstanding Defensive Player (Nick Anderson) of the AAC Championship game and the Most Outstanding Offensive Player (Tyjae Spears) and Outstanding Defensive Player (Dorian Williams) at the Cotton Bowl Classic. Tulane set a school-record and had the most All-AAC selections in the conference this season this season with 15 plus the league's Offensive Player of the Year (Tyjae Spears).

Coach Fritz was named the 2022 AAC Coach of the Year for the first time in his career at the end of the regular season. It is also the first time that a Tulane coach ever been named the AAC Coach of the Year and only the second time overall that a Tulane coach has taken home the honor from a conference as Tommy Bowden was named the Conference USA Coach of the Year in 1998. Tulane had an overall 12-2 record including a mark of 7-1 in AAC play in 2022. The 12 wins this season tied the 1998 team for the school history. The seven wins in league play are the most for the program since 1934 and mark only the second time in the school's history that a Tulane team has won seven or more conference games in a single campaign. Tulane's first nationally ranking this year, 12 weeks ago, was a first for the program since 1998. The program also received its first-ever College Football Playoff Ranking this year and are currently placed 16th nationally in that metric. Tulane's AAC regular season title earned with the victory over Cincinnati on Nov. 25 was only the third in the history of the program and was the first since the Conference USA Championship title in 1998. Tulane's victory over then No. 23 Cincinnati was to its first win over a fellow ranked opponent since 1956. The win over the Bearcats ended their then 32-game home winning streak.

To finish the 2022-23 season, Tulane defeated three ranked teams and their eight wins over teams that ended with seven or more wins were tied for the most in the nation. The 10-game win improvement over last year is the best-ever in a single season in FBS history. The win over USC was historic as it was only the second time over the last five years in 1,164 tries that an FBS team has rallied from 15 or more points in the last five minutes of a game to earn the victory. The Green Wave ranked ninth in the final Associated Press (AP) and AFCA Coaches Polls. It was only the third time in school history the Tulane has finished a season ranked in the top-10 nationally in an AP Poll along with 1939 and 1998.

ABOUT THE MAXWELL FOOTBALL CLUB – The Maxwell Football Club was founded in 1935 and is the oldest football organization of its kind in America. The Club recognizes excellence in performance at the high school, collegiate and professional levels of the game. The Maxwell Club is also deeply involved and fully vested in the community through programs to promote academic excellence, community volunteerism, and leadership. High school student-athletes around the country have an opportunity to participate in MFC Showcase events, free of charge, through the generosity of our corporate partners, Montage Mountain Resort, Ivy Rehab, The Buccini Pollin Group, the Edward T. Coombs Foundation and the Run Around Inc. To learn more about our story visit www.maxwellfootballclub.org.

ABOUT PRO FOOTBALL FOCUS - PFF is widely recognized as the industry leader in the advanced data collection and analysis for American football. Since 2011, PFF has led football's charge into the world of analytics. Their services are trusted by all 32 NFL teams and over 100 FBS programs. Major broadcast networks, national media outlets and player agencies all use PFF as a resource as well. PFF's media network provides fans with apps, tools, podcasts and other content to help satisfy their thirst for deeper insights in the game.

The Maxwell Award is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA), which encompasses the most prestigious awards in college football. Founded in 1997, the NCFAA and its 25 awards now boast over 800 recipients, dating to 1935. Visit ncfaa.org to learn more about the association.

TICKETS
Tickets for the 2022 season men's and women's basketball team's games and the upcoming baseball season can be purchased by calling 504-861-WAVE (9283), logging on to TulaneTix.com or visiting the ticket office at the James W. Wilson Jr. Center.

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