By Don Williams | AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

Mike Leach was the travelin’ man in December, following Graham Harrell and Mike Crabtree along the awards circuit, but he’s not going to lose the title anytime soon.

Texas Tech officials learned Tuesday that Leach won his third national coach of the year award, the FieldTurf/Howie Long Division I-A coach of the year.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to win several,” Leach said. “I think it speaks well of our program and the people I get to work with.”

Last week, in recognition of his team’s 11-1 season, Leach was named winner of the George Munger Award presented by the Maxwell Football Club and the Woody Hayes Award, which also go to the nation’s top coach.

So Leach will stay busy this winter traveling to the presentation ceremonies. He’ll pick up the Field Turf/Howie Long Award on Jan. 11 at the American Football Coaches Association convention in Nashville, Tenn.; the Hayes Award on Feb. 7 at the Touchdown Club of Columbus awards banquet in Columbus, Ohio; and the Munger Award on March 7 at Harrah’s in Atlantic City, N.J.

He remains a candidate for the Bear Bryant Award, which will be presented on Jan. 15 in Houston.

The Associated Press coach of the year, also revealed Tuesday, went to Alabama’s Nick Saban with Leach taking second.

This season, Tech achieved an unprecedented No. 2 national ranking in November and won a share of the Big 12 South Division title for the first time.

No surprise, that had Leach thinking fondly of his players.

“They’ve been a really good group to coach,” Leach said. “They’ve been a team that works together well, that listens and is hungry to improve.”

In voting by college football writers for the AP Coach of the Year, Saban drew 32 of a possible 62 votes. He outdistanced Leach (nine), Utah’s Kyle Whittingham (six), Georgia Tech’s Paul Johnson (five), Penn State’s Joe Paterno (three) and Ball State’s Brady Hoke (two). Five coaches got one vote apiece.

The Crimson Tide won the Independence Bowl over Colorado to end last season. It then won the following 12 as well, spending much of the 2008 season ranked No. 1. That startling turnaround and Alabama’s return to national prominence brought Saban the AP Coach of the Year honor. He also won the AP award with LSU in 2003.

This season, Saban led a team with only nine scholarship seniors to a 12-1 record and a Sugar Bowl date against Utah for only its second Bowl Championship Series berth.

Saban led the Tide to a five-game turnaround after going 7-6 in his debut season after he was hired for a then-college football record $4 million a year. No other Alabama coach has engineered such a Year 2 turnaround.

The transformation happened faster than the most ardent fan could have anticipated.

Alabama was in the chase for a BCS national title shot until losing to Florida in the Southeastern Conference championship game, an unexpected rise for a team that entered the season ranked No. 24. The Tide hadn’t topped a regular-season AP poll since Bear Bryant’s 1980 team.

Signs of Alabama’s turnaround were evident from the outset, with a 34-10 opening win over then-No. 9 Clemson.

“This has been a great team that really changed last year when we finished playing the bowl game,” Saban said. “Their attitude in the offseason, a lot of guys bought in. A lot of guys had a higher expectation for themselves and for each other. They worked hard. They played well together. The commitment, work ethic, perseverance that this team showed was one of the best I’ve ever been around.”

Along the way, Saban and the Tide dispatched a number of teams that drew far more preseason attention, from Clemson to Georgia to LSU and finally to Auburn. Alabama ended a six-year losing streak to state rival Auburn with a 36-0 romp.

in the regular-season finale.

The Tide found itself No. 1 in a regular-season poll for the first time in 28 years after racing to a 31-0 halftime lead at then-No. 3 Georgia and holding on for a 41-30 win.

“As we won games, we gained more confidence and that really helped us along the way,” Johnson said.

The change went beyond that, though. The Tide steered clear of off-the-field problems and suspensions that plagued Saban’s first season. Saban’s hire of Jim McElwain as offensive coordinator also proved a nice move.

He also pulled in the nation’s top-rated recruiting class, including such instant stars as All-America nose guard Terrence Cody, receiver Julio Jones and linebacker Dont’a Hightower.

Slipping into the Independence Bowl with a .500 record also gave Saban & Co. a second chance after four consecutive losses.

“It kind of gave us time to change things around,” senior quarterback John Parker Wilson said. “I think we changed the attitude of the team. It changed our personality. It was a long, tough offseason. I’m glad I don’t have to go through another one here.”

The players also took Saban’s words to heart.

“Everybody took on the mentality he was trying to get us to take on,” Johnson said. “We went out and played well and won. That built momentum going into the offseason and let us know that if we just buy into what coach is telling us, we’ve got an opportunity to have a great team. I think everybody did it.”

AP Coach of the Year

Coach Team Votes

Nick Saban Alabama 32

Mike Leach Texas Tech 9

Kyle Whittingham Utah 6

Paul Johnson Georgia Tech 5

Joe Paterno Penn State 3

Brady Hoke Ball State 2

Mack Brown Texas 1

Turner Gill Buffalo 1

Bob Stoops Oklahoma 1

Brian Kelly Cincinnati 1

Chris Peterson Boise State 1