Dawkins named Coach of the Year during the 21 win campaign
Photo by Aryah Britt
On April 2nd, UCF Men’s Basketball Head Coach Johnny Dawkins was awarded the 2025-26 Jim Phelan Coach of the Year award.
It is the first time a UCF Basketball Head Coach has won a national Coach of the Year award. Dawkins is the 5th UCF Head Coach to win a national award joining UCF Softball Head Coach Ball-Malone who was named the National Coach of the Year by Extra Innings Softball in 2022, UCF Football’s Gene McDowell (1990 Eddie Robinson Award), George O’Leary (2005 CBS Sports.com, Sports Illustrated.com award) and Scott Frost (2017 Eddie Robinson, Home Depot Award).
Dawkins guided the Knights to one of the most successful seasons in program history in 2025-26, as UCF finished 21-12 and earned its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2019. The 21 victories secured back-to-back 20-win seasons for the Knights. It is the 9th straight winning season in a non-COVID-shortened year in the Johnny Dawkins era.
To put that in perspective, prior to Dawkins’ arrival, the Knights had only 10 winning seasons in total since moving to Division I in the 1984-1985 season.
In just its third season in the Big 12 Conference, UCF posted a program-best nine conference wins, finishing 9-9 in league play.
What Dawkins accomplished was truly remarkable, as UCF was one of only two teams, along with Miami, to make the tournament this season without any returning scoring production from last season. And since 2007, the Knights are one of only three teams to make the tournament without bringing back any scoring production from the prior season (UCF and Miami 2026, and Kentucky 2025).
To me, the 2025-26 Johnny Dawkins season goes on the UCF Mount Rushmore of best coaching jobs by a UCF Head Coach. The other three spots on that list belong to coaches who also achieved historic seasons for the Knights:
2001- Jay Bergman- Baseball
Bergman brought UCF to a national ranking of No. 7 in 2001, when UCF was a No. 1 regional seed but was sent to South Carolina because it did not put in as a host. Still, the Knights got within one win of reaching a Super Regional. That 2001 team is considered Bergman’s best, led by Jason Arnold and Justin Pope on the mound. Unfortunately, the Knights fell short in the regional final.
Had that season occurred in the current landscape of college baseball, the Knights would have hosted, which would likely have helped that UCF team advance to the Super Regional, if not the College World Series.
2017- Scott Frost- Football
In 2017, the Knights stormed through the regular season, finishing 11–0. They then won the American Championship, 62-55, in double overtime at home against Memphis.
Frost led the Knights into the 2018 Peach Bowl, the school’s second-ever appearance in a New Year’s Six bowl. In that game, they defeated No. 7 Auburn, completing the school’s first undefeated season.
UCF became the first FBS team ever to go from winless (2015) to undefeated (2017) in just two seasons. Frost won numerous national head coaching awards, including the Home Depot Coach of the Year and the Bear Bryant Award.
2022- Cindy Ball Malone- Softball
In what was thought to be impossible, Cindy Ball-Malone led the Knights to a historic 2022 season, finishing with a record of 49-14, hosting and winning the program’s first regional, and ending the season ranked No. 14 in the USA Today/NFCA.
I once famously wrote that “Johnny Dawkins Gives UCF Basketball Fans Way More Than They Give Him.” Guess what!? He still does, and the results from this past season serve as the latest evidence supporting that statement.
Regardless, Dawkins’s legacy is secured as he should be a lock to join former UCF Basketball Coaches Kirk Speraw and Torchy Clark in the UCF Athletics Hall of Fame down the road. When that day happens, he will get his due as arguably the greatest UCF Basketball Head Coach in the Division 1 era. As of today, he has 6 postseason tournament appearances, including two NCAA Tournament appearances, and has also transitioned the program to the Big 12. And despite the arduous jump in competition, UCF is succeeding against all odds, which will hopefully help the program grow by securing more resources to fortify the future of Men’s Basketball in Orlando.
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