Montana Tech head coach Kyle Samson was tabbed NAIA Region 5 Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association Tuesday morning. It’s Samson’s first regional honor as the Orediggers’ sixth-year coach. Samson is also the 2025 Frontier Conference East Division Coach of the Year .

On Saturday, Samson will guide 11-0 and No. 3-seeded Tech in the NAIA Football Championship Series Round of 16 against I-15 rival Carroll College . Tech completed its first unblemished regular season dating back to 1904 on Nov. 15 against Valley City State, earning an outright Frontier East Division Championship, the Orediggers’ first standalone title since 2016.

Samson is the second straight Frontier coach to earn Region 5 honors. Southern Oregon’s Berk Brown shared the award with Texas College’

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