The All-Big-East Football Awards were announced today and apparently, the Scarlet Knights, Mountaineers and Cardinals were kinda good this year. Not lending any credence to the argument that the Big East is more than its top teams, the First-Team All Conference Offense reads like a roll call of the three juggernauts. 12 of the 14 choices, including Pat White, Ray Rice and Steve Slaton are from the top three schools with only WR Derek Kinder (Pitt) and KR/PR Ean Randolph (USF) sneaking in there.The First Team Defense reads a little more democratically with just about everyone except bottom-dwellers UConn and Syracuse getting someone on the list. DL Amobe Okoye (L'ville) and safety Eric Wicks (WVU)
were the only unanimous selections of the first team. The 2nd Teams are only slightly more kind to the Orange, with DL Jameel McClain (Jr., pictured left) and CB Tanard Jackson (Sr., pictured below) earning the honors.
Big East Offensive Player of the Year is Pat White who beat out teammate Steve Slaton, Rutgers RB Ray Rice and L'ville QB Brian Brohm. He's the second Mountaineers player to earn the honor after Rasheed Marshall (remember him?) did it in 2004. Defensive Player of the Year went to Pitt
linebacker H.B. Blades while USF's freshman Ean Randolph earned Special Teams Player of the Year and USF's Matt Grothe won Rookie of the Year. Is that enough of a warning for you that South Florida's only gonna get better? Naturally, Rutgers coach Greg Schiano won Coach of the Year in his sixth season with the Knights (really???). Greg Robinson hopes for the same kind of accolade. I meant just getting to six years...the Coach of the Year thing is a totally different animal.
See complete details and teams here.
Ed. note - Apparently I totally gaffed and missed Linebacker Kelvin Smith's inclusion on the Big East Second Team. My apologies to Kelvin and all Kelvin Smith purists out there.