Pittsburg State head coach Tim Beck has been named one of five finalist for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year award, and you can help him win the award.

Beck, in just his second season at the helm in Pittsburg, has taken what was a 5-6 team in 2009 to an 11-1 team this year and just one win away from playing for a national title.

Beck is joined by other finslists John Wristen (CSU-P), Scott Underwood (SCSU), Peter Rossomando (New Haven) and Bill Maskill (Midwestern State).

Fans voted through Dec. 3 for their pick for Coach of the Year and the top 15 vote-getters were narrowed to the existing list of five using the following criterion: sportsmanship, integrity, responsibility and excellence - on the field and in the classroom.

The award goes back to a public vote from now until Dec 22. Fans can vote up to once a day for a coach in each college football division.

Beck, as of Tuesday afternoon, had about a 400 vote lead over Wristen, but the fan vote isn't the only thing that determines the winner.

In fact, the vote only accounts for 20 percent of the tally. The other 80 percent is split between the votes of the College Football Hall of Fame Committee (55 percent) and a National Media panel (25 percent).

While fan voting ends on Dec. 22, the winner isn't announced until just before the BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 9.

Beck would be the second Pitt State coach to earn the award, as his predecessor Chuck Broyles took home the honors in 2008, his second-to-last season coaching the Gorillas.

The next year, Northwest Missouri coach Mel Tjeerdsman won it, meaning an MIAA coach has won it in two of the four years the award has been given to different coaches in each division.