David Dean David Dean ( born February 3 , 1964 ) is the football coach of Valdosta State University . Dean ' s teams won the NCAA Division II Football Championship in 2007 ( his first year as a head coach ) and in 2012 . Playing career . Dean walked onto the Georgia Tech football team in 1982 and earned a scholarship the following year playing through the 1985 as a wide receiver . He was a graduate assistant for the team in 1986 . Coaching career . Dean was an assistant coach at Avondale High School in Avondale Estates , Georgia in 1987 . He was an assistant at Valdosta from 1988 to 1992 . From 1993 to 1999 he was an assistant at University of West Georgia . From 2000 to 2006 he was offensive coordinator for Valdosta . In his first season in 2000 his quarterback Dusty Bonner won the Harlon Hill Trophy . During this period Valdosta played in the Division II title game in 2002 and won the national championship in 2004 . Head coaching career . In 2007 , Dean was named head coach of the Blazers in 2007 after Chris Hatcher took the head coaching job at Georgia Southern University . The " Dean Machine " started the season with five straight wins . Delta State University defeated the Blazers 35 – 31 , despite being down 28 points at the beginning of the second half . The Blazers then capped off the season with an eight - game winning streak and their second national championship title win against Northwest Missouri State University , 25 – 20 . This was the third straight championship appearance by the Bearcats , also the third straight time the Bearcats lost the national championship game . Dean is only the second head coach to lead his team to a national championship in his first season . Earle Solomonson accomplished this at North Dakota State University in 1985 . 2008 saw the Blazers make it to the second round of the NCAA Division II playoffs and a 9 – 3 season , 6 – 2 in the Gulf South Conference . In 2009 , after a 6 – 4 season in which they finished third in the Gulf South Conference , the Blazers did not make the postseason for the first time under Dean , and for the first time since 2006 . Dean lead the Blazers to an 8 – 3 record and back into the NCAA Division II playoffs in 2010 , marking the third time in his four years he has led his squad to postseason play . After beginning the year unranked , the Blazers rose as high as # 7 in the AFCA poll , before finishing the regular season ranked # 17 . In 2011 the Blazers had another 6 - 4 season and missed the Division II playoffs . VSU finished 4th in the Gulf South Conference in 2011 . Valdosta had been ranked as high as No . 4 in the AFCA poll in the first weeks of the 2011 season . After a 2 - 2 start to the 2012 season , the Blazers won their next 10 straight games and defeated Winston - Salem State University 35 - 7 in the NCAA Division II Championship game in Florence , Alabama . VSU finished second in the Gulf South Conference after losing to the University of West Alabama . Valdosta would defeat UWA after playing them again in the second round of the NCAA Playoffs . David Dean is the first football coach in Valdosta State ' s history to win two national titles . Awards and honors . Dean was the American Football Coaches Association ( AFCA ) Division II Coach of the Year in NCAA Division II in 2007 and in 2012 , after seasons culminating in National Championships . Dean was also named the 2007 Division II Coach of the Year by American Football Weekly and Schutt Sports . Dean was a runner up for Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year in 2008 for Division II . In 2010 he was the AFCA Regional Coach of the Year for NCAA Division II Region 2 and the Gulf South Conference ' s Co - Coach of the Year .