The Professional Football Writers of America named Carolina Panthers Head Coach Ron Rivera as the 2013 Coach of the Year. This comes shortly after Rivera was voted as the NFC Coach of the Year in the “101 Awards”.
Despite a 1-3 start, which led to many Panthers fans demand that he be fired, Rivera helped the Panthers finish 11-1 down the stretch, to finish with a 12-4 record and their first NFC South title and playoff spot since 2008. A big reason why is because of Rivera's newlyfound aggressiveness on fourth down, which led to the nickname "Riverboat Ron".
This isn't the first time Rivera has won a PFWA Award -- he won the Award for Assistant Coach of the Year with the Chicago Bears in 2005.
Even Rivera doesn't end up winning the AP Coach of the Year Award, it's still nice to see the Panthers Coach getting recognition around the league and in the media for leading his team to the playoffs for the first time in five years.
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