Pitt football had its award banquet the other night. Team honors mostly went to the players you would expect.
The various All-American or All-Big East teams are also being released (the Big East “official” All-Big East teams will be announced tomorrow).
Scout.com put H.B. Blades on their second-team All-American squad. Freshman Offensive Guard Joe Thomas was a 1st team Freshman All-American.
Thomas was named a 2nd team Freshman All-American by The Sporting News, along with teammate WR Oderick Turner. Darrelle Revis was named as a 3d team All-American team as a “utility player.” That’s what happens when no one throws his way after the first couple of games and a sub-par year as a punt returner.
They fired Bray (LB coach) and moved Rhoads from DC/DB coach to DC/LB coach (“Rhoads will switch his positional emphasis from secondary to linebackers.”).
Strange that they would fire the individual responsible for the best performing unit on the defense in recent years — the linebackers.
Here’s his 12-game stat line:
39 tackles (three per game… really?)
4 passes broken up
2 interceptions (both returned for TDs — kudos)
22 punt returns for 190 yards and 1 TD
(His pedestrian average of 8.6 YPR falls to 5.6 if you remove the aforementioned 73-yard TD)
Everybody says opponents threw away from him and I’m sure that was the case. But he did get torched by UL’s Mario Urrutia for 144 yards on seven catches and a TD and it would have been worse had Revis not taken a pass interference call late in the first half. That was really the only top-flight passing attack that Pitt faced this year.
Without a doubt, he is a very talented player. I just don’t see a lot of passion and leadership. Let’s be honest, the Pitt defense sucked this year. While you obviously can’t place all the blame on Revis, he deserves his fair share.
If he is a game-changing talent, he didn’t show it to me.
If you gave me a choice between Revis and Blades, I’d take Blades in a heartbeat.