TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Indiana State football head coach Trent Miles has been named the 2010 American Football Coaches Association Region 4 Coach Of The Year by the national coaches organization. The AFCA recognizes head coaches from five different regions at the five levels of college football (FBS, FCS, DII, DIII, NAIA). Miles has also been named the Missouri Valley Football Coach Of The Year for 2010, and is the first Sycamore football head coach to earn MVFC or AFCA Regional Coach Of The Year honors.

The AFCA Regional Coach Of The Year is selected by active members of the AFCA who vote for coaches in their respective regions and divisions. The 2010 winners will be recognized at the AFCA Coach Of The Year Dinner which is held in conjunction with the 2011 AFCA Convention in Dallas on January 11. The 2010 National Coach Of The Year will also be announced at the same event. Coach Miles is now on the ballot for 2010 AFCA Coach Of The Year with the other FCS regional winners - Jimmye Laycock (William & Mary); Brian Jenkins (Bethune-Cookman); Tony Samuel (Southeast Missouri State) and J.C. Harper (Stephen F. Austin).

Coach Miles is also a finalist for both the Eddie Robinson National Coach Of The Year as well as the Liberty Mutual National Coach Of The Year. He is one of 24 coaches who earned their first AFCA Regional Coach Of The Year Award in 2010.

The Sycamores pulled off one of the biggest one-year turnarounds of the season in any level of football. ISU broke a 2-60 losing skid, by going 6-5 which marks the Trees first winning season since the 1996 campaign. The Sycamores set new school records for touchdowns scored and points scored in a season and its four MVFC victories tied for the most in one year during ISU's 25 seasons in the league. ISU was picked to finish ninth in the MVFC Preseason Poll and wound up in a tie for third place with several teams, including North Dakota State who is still alive in the national championship hunt through two rounds of the FCS Playoffs.

The AFCA began recognizing district coaches of the year following the 1960 season. The awards were established the same year Eastman Kodak agreed to sponsor the AFCA Coach of the Year award. Prior to 1960, the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain had sponsored the program, which recognized one national Coach of the Year.