Sean McDonnell, who coached the University of New Hampshire football team from 1999-2021, has been named to the 2027 National Football Foundation (NFF) College Football Hall of Fame ballot.
This is McDonnell’s first time appearing on the ballot, which features 39 coaches and 99 players from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). There are also 80 players and nine coaches from the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) on the ballot.
The announcement of the 2027 NFF College Football Hall of Fame Class will be made in January 2027.
McDonnell, a two-time Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year award winner (2005, 2014), owns the second-most career wins in UNH program history (157). His former head coach while playing at UNH, Bill Bowes, owns the most with 175.
The Wildcats made the NCAA FCS tournament every year from 2004-17 and reached the semifinals in both 2013 and 2014.
Bowes, who coached UNH from 1972-98, and Jerry Azumah, a former cornerback who graduated from UNH in 1999, are the only Wildcats currently in the NFF College Football Hall of Fame.