{"id":734265,"date":"2026-02-06T21:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734265\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T21:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:15:15","slug":"ohio-state-football-legend-mike-vrabel-takes-home-prestigious-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734265\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio State football legend Mike Vrabel takes home prestigious award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Feb. 6, 2026, 3:05 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The NFL season is coming to an end when the <a href=\"https:\/\/patriotswire.usatoday.com\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New England Patriots<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/seahawkswire.usatoday.com\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Seattle Seahawks<\/a> battle for immortality in Super Bowl 60. But before the Lombardi Trophy is presented on Sunday, some individual hardware was presented by the Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">A former <a href=\"\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Ohio State<\/a> and NFL star turned head coach, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patriots.com\/team\/coaches-roster\/mike-vrabel\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Vrabel<\/a> has won the NFL Coach of the Year award. A standout with both the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/sports\/college-sports\/big-ten\/ohio-state\" data-autotag=\"a26aaf21-d8f2-4348-879d-94fd6ac60856\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Buckeyes<\/a> and Patriots, Vrabel chose to get into coaching after a stellar NFL career, which included three Super Bowl wins in 2002, 2004, and 2005. After retirement, he decided to get into coaching, where he joined his alma mater as linebackers and defensive line coach from 2011-2013. Vrabel would then head to the NFL to join the <a href=\"https:\/\/texanswire.usatoday.com\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Houston Texans<\/a> staff before taking the head coaching job with the <a href=\"https:\/\/titanswire.usatoday.com\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tennessee Titans<\/a> in 2018.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Vrabel had immediate success with the Titans, taking them to multiple playoff seasons and even winning the <a href=\"http:\/\/buckeyeswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/college\/buckeyes\/football\/2022\/02\/11\/former-ohio-state-player-mike-vrabel-named-nfl-coach-of-the-year\/78138810007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Coach of the Year award in 2021<\/a>. He chose to leave Tennessee after the 2023 season, reuniting with New England in 2025. Once again, Vrabel has worked wonders, leading the Patriots to a Super Bowl in his first season at the helm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Mike Vrabel has been making Buckeye Nation proud since the mid-1990s with his accolades both in Scarlet and Gray and on the NFL stage. Now he has a chance to add to the resume as one of the all-time greats. Vrabel will lead New England against Seattle on Sunday for a chance to win his fourth overall Super Bowl title and first as a coach.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_cp_cw_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/86628160007-buckeyescarfagnas.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Contact\/Follow us\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BuckeyesWire\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">@BuckeyesWire<\/a>\u00a0on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on\u00a0Facebook\u00a0to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes, and opinion. Follow\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PhilHarrisonBW\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">Phil Harrison<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:7|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 6, 2026, 3:05 p.m. ET The NFL season is coming to an end when the New England&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[95878,7,100078,96358,95882,96219,95930,96027,96853,95896,95888,97666,96215,95906,95884,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-734265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-sstssportscollegebuckeyesfootball","11":"tag-sstsnfootball","12":"tag-tagamerican-football","13":"tag-tagbig-10-hub","14":"tag-tagbig-ten-conference-football","15":"tag-tagcollege-sports","16":"tag-tagmike-vrabel","17":"tag-tagnational-sports","18":"tag-tagnfl","19":"tag-tagohio-state-buckeyes","20":"tag-tagohio-state-buckeyes-football","21":"tag-tagoverall-positive","22":"tag-tagsports-coaching-training","23":"tag-tagsports-news","24":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116025761869549276","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}