Former University of Maine football coach Joe Harasymiak has been honored by the American Football Coaches Association as the 2018 Football Championship Subdivision’s National Coach of the Year.

Harasymiak led the Black Bears to a 10-4 record last fall and the team’s first Colonial Athletic Association championship in five years. Maine advanced to the FCS semifinals for the first time in program history. He left UMaine on Dec. 20 to accept a job as an defensive assistant coach at the University of Minnesota after three seasons as the Black Bears head coach.

Others honored by AFCA as National Coach of the Year were Washington State’s Mike Leach (Football Bowl Subdivision), Lenoir-Rhyne’s Drew Cronic (NCAA Division II), Johns Hopkins Jim Margraff (Division III) and Morningside’s Steve Ryan (NAIA).

The winners were honored Tuesday evening at the American Football Coaches Awards in San Antonio, Texas.