The Football Writers Association of America announced today that Clemson has been named one of 11 recipients of its annual Super 11 Awards, presented to football programs and sports information departments that exemplify excellent media relations.
With the honor, Clemson has now garnered 11 selections all-time, the most in the award’s 15-year history. The selection for the 2023 season marks the ninth consecutive year Clemson has earned the honor, the longest streak in the award’s history.
The 2023 season marked Clemson’s first operating out of the Smart Family Media Center, a best-in-class media workspace on the ground level of the Clemson Athletics Branding Institute.
“We are once again immensely grateful to the FWAA for this honor,” Clemson Assistant Athletic Director for Football Communications Ross Taylor said. “This recognition is a testament to the leadership and vision of both Head Coach Dabo Swinney and Director of Athletics Graham Neff and how they value the media’s role in promoting Clemson and college football as a whole and how they have dedicated resources to a space that benefits all parties.
“Many thanks are in order: 1) To the media for their coverage of our program; 2) to our players and coaches for their time, authenticity and professionalism in media settings; and 3) to our incredible athletic communications team of staff and students that work tirelessly to serve our program and those who cover it.”
The full press release from the FWAA is included below.
DALLAS (FWAA) – Two first-time winners and nine previous ones comprise the 15th Super 11 Awards, presented annually by the Football Writers Association of America to the best performing College Sports Communicators departments in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The awards announced this week are for the 2023 season.
In addition to the departmental awards, the FWAA is presenting a Super 11 Coach of the Year Award to Mike Norvell of Florida State. Norvell, entering his fifth season in Tallahassee, has granted outstanding access to his programs over the years. He is the sixth head coach to win this award and it comes in a season in which he won the ACC title in an undefeated regular season.
Previous recipients of the Super 11 individual award since its inception in the 2018 season have been Herm Edwards (Arizona State), Chris Klieman (Kansas State), Tom Allen (Indiana), Jeff Hafley (Boston College) and Sonny Dykes (TCU).
This Super 11 Award is a record 11th for Clemson and its staff led by Ross Taylor, Assistant Athletic Director for Football Communications. Nebraska and its staff led by Keith Mann, Associate Athletic Director for Communications, earned its 10th. Other awards with their CSC directors and their staffs went to Navy (Scott Strasemeier) for the seventh time, Kansas State (Ryan Lackey) and Pitt (E.J. Borghetti) each a sixth time, Kentucky (Susan Lax) and Oklahoma (Mike Houck) a third time and BYU (Brett Pyne) and Cal (Kyle McRae) a second time. The first-time recipients in the 2023 Super 11 Awards are Illinois (Brett Moore) and LSU (Michael Bonnette). The Super 11 dates back to the 2009 season.
This year’s winners were deemed to have had excellent accessibility during the week of their games and after the game with a program’s players, coaches and coordinators/assistant coaches. Other criteria regarding beat reporter access, interview requests, and decorum and protocols in the press box and locker room are listed in the 2023-24 FWAA Directory.
“We once again honor some programs who have provided great assistance to writers for many years and have demonstrated a culture of excellence in what they do in their pressbox and in terms of accessibility to players and coaches,” said FWAA Executive Director Steve Richardson. “We applaud those programs as well as the two newcomer programs.”
“I want to thank these departments for fostering a welcoming environment and proving terrific access, allowing us to tell the stories that are informatiove and insightful,” said 2024 FWAA President Andrea Adelson of ESPN.com. “Rather than limit our access, they understand providing more than just a fleeting glimpse into their programs is a service not only to their players and coaches but to their respective fan bases as well.”
FWAA members provided input during the season when press boxes were judged on how well they were run and maintained in terms of neutrality, pool reporters, noise level and accessibility to the press box that could affect a media person’s ability to do his or her job.
In January of 2009, the FWAA released the first Super 11 Awards – a concept supported by the College Sports Communicators (formerly CoSIDA). The FWAA has now awarded at least one Super 11 Award to 81 different programs.
In addition, the FWAA will pay tribute five retiring communicators in the upcoming 2024-25 FWAA Directory.
Founded in 1941, the Football Writers Association of America consists of journalists, broadcasters, publicists, photographers and key executives in all areas of college football. The FWAA works to govern media access and game-day operations while presenting awards and honors, including an annual FWAA All-America Team. For more information about the FWAA and its program and initiatives, contact Executive Director Steve Richardson at 214-870-6516 or tiger@fwaa.com.
2023 FWAA Super 11 Honorees(with all-time award count in parentheses)BYU (2)Cal (2)Clemson (11)Illinois (1)Kansas State (6)Kentucky (3)LSU (1)Navy (7)Nebraska (10)Oklahoma (3)Pittsburgh (6)
2023 Super 11 Coach of the YearFlorida State Coach Mike Norvell
