Continuing with The Off Tackle Empire 2019 General Sherman Awards for Big Ten Football Excellence, we will announce this trophy as a stand-alone presentation.

The Willy T. Sherman Trophy for Big Ten Football General of the Year

Who did more with less? Whose troops are best prepared to lay waste to the South?

Also Receiving Votes: James Franklin, Penn State Nittany Lions

Scott Frost and Jim Harbaugh also appeared on the ballot just to see if they got any votes. They did not.

5th Place: Paul Chryst, Wisconsin Badgers (13 pts)

The thing about Paul Chryst is that the job of a football coach is to coach football games, and, uh, Coach Chryst has, I think, done...a tremendous job in that aspect of the game.

4th Place: Lovie Smith, Illinois Fighting Illini (41 pts)

Lovie finishes the 2010’s as the winningest Illini coach of the decade with 15 wins, including a staggering 8 Big Ten victories.

3rd Place: Ryan Day, Ohio State Buckeyes (55 pts, 3 first place votes)

Congratulations on taking an impossibly talented roster and not screwing things up horribly!

2nd place: Tom Allen, Indiana Hoosiers (67 pts, 2 FPV)

This is the kind of publicity you get when you coach the greatest Indiana team of the century.

And the Willy T Sherman trophy for Big Ten coaching excellence in 2019 goes to...PJ Fleck, Minnesota Golden Gophers (75 pts, 12 FPV)

David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

P.J. Fleck and the Flecktones won ten games this year, something once thought unthinkable at Minnesota, and by taking care of a weak early slate and then dispatching James Franklin’s Nittany Lions, Peejus locked down this award. Congratulations!