Charlie Taaffe Named 2000 CFL Coach of the Year
2/7/2001 7:00:00 AM | Football
Feb. 7, 2001
Charlie Taaffe, current University of Maryland offensive coordinator and former head coach of the Montreal Alouettes, has been named as the 2000 Canadian Football League Coach of the Year. The announcement was made at the Coach of the Year Luncheon hosted annually by the Edmonton Eskimos in the Ballroom of the Westin Edmonton Hotel in Alberta, Canada.
Taaffe had another great season as head coach of the Alouettes. He led Montreal to their second consecutive East Division title with a 12-6 record, equaling their record of a year ago. Montreal went on to defeat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the East Division Final to advance to the Grey Cup where they lost in another classic to the B.C. Lions 28-26.
Prior to his appointment as the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes before the 1999 season, Taaffe worked the sidelines as the team's offensive coordinator for two years. Before coming to the CFL, Taaffe spent 24 years as a collegiate coach.
The CFL Coach of the Year Award has now been won by the same individual in back-to-back seasons five times, most recently occurring in 1994 & 1995 when Don Matthews, current Head Coach of the Edmonton Eskimos, was Head Coach of the Baltimore Stallions. Taaffe's back-to-back honors mark the first time in CFL history that a coach has won consecutive Coach of the Year awards in his first two seasons as a CFL head coach. Taaffe is only the second Alouettes coach to be honored with the Annis Stukus Trophy as CFL Coach of the Year, the other being Marv Levy in 1974.
