Bob Nielson, who took a team which had gone 4-6 in 2007 and turned them into national champions this fall, has been selected the 2008 Schutt Sports NCAA Division II Coach of the Year by American Football Monthly.

Nielson reassumed the University of Minnesota Duluth head coaching position last January after spending the past four seasons as the school's director of athletics and shepherded the Bulldogs to a perfect 15-0 overall record and its first NCAA II title.

“The fact that we took a group of guys that had come off a year where they hadn't been successful and provided the opportunity for them to be successful was the special thing," said Nielson, whose first tour of duty with the Bulldogs ran from 1999-2003. "For them to go from 4-6 to 15-0 is really a testimony to the kids that are in our program and the commitment they made.”

In sixth years at UMD, Nielson has racked up a 53-19 overall record (for a .736 winning percentage -- the best mark in the 76-year history of the Bulldog program), made a pair of NCAA II playoff appearances (2008 and 2002) and won two Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championships (2008 and 2002). Nielson, the 2008 and 2002 NSIC Coach of the Year, is now 123-52-1 in 16 seasons of collegiate coaching (he worked at a trio of NCAA III institutions -- the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Wartburg College and Ripon College -- prior to joing the Bulldog staff).