Syracuse Orange safety Phillip Thomas was named Big East Defensive Player of the Week following his performance in SU's 21-14 win over Rhode Island.
Thomas has two interceptions, four solo tackles and one break-up (an actual stat) in the game. His 2nd interception iced the victory for the Orange late in the 4th quarter.
Kudos to Thomas on the award, though as Dan pointed out, Thomas had a better game on paper than he did in actuality. Just goes to show how much stats matter in these awards.
That's what makes it a bummer that Ryan Nassib got the snub for Offensive Player of the Week. To be fair, B.J. Daniels put up some impressive stats of his own (28-34, 359 yards, 1 TD) in three quarters of work. You could also make the case that doing that against Ball State is better than doing it against Rhode Island.
Would have been nice to see Nassib get the nod though, just because he's basically confirmed that he's the real deal for SU at this point.
- Nassib threw for 318 yards (career-high) and 3 touchdowns. It was also the first 300+ yard passing game since 2009.
- Nassib tied the Syracuse school record for completions with 29 on 37 attempts (Marvin Graves, Andrew Robinson).
- Nassib hit the 3,000 career passing yard plateau. He's now eighth on the all-time list with 3,252 yards. He should pass Bill Hurley (3,398) pretty soon. After that, Troy Nunes is waiting in 6th place with 4,578.
- Nassib is now 5th all-time in passing touchdowns (28), also trailing Troy Nunes (32).
At least he got a helmet sticker out of it, so that's nice.