Dion Lewis’ name came up a whole lot after the college football season ended. It’s quite a resume the freshman has already accumulated.

There are the multiple “Freshman of the year” awards from the Sporting News, CBS Sportsline, ECAC and CollegeFootballNews.com.

He couldn’t crack a 1st team All-American ballot with Heisman winner Mark Ingram and finalist Toby Gerhart ahead of him, but was on numerous second-teams.

He was a second-team All-America selection by the AP as well as by Sporting News, CBSSports.com, SI.com, Rivals.com and Scout.com.

So, cue the stories on how he handles it all.

In fact, beyond a little bit of a grin or perhaps a little chuckle, Lewis, who was the Big East Conference offensive player and rookie of the year and the only true freshman to be named Tuesday to The Associated Press All-America college football team, doesn’t let on that he understands the magnitude of what he has been able to do.

That aspect, however, is not surprising to his coaches and teammates because Lewis, 19, is described by them as focused, driven and mature beyond his years.

“You always worry about players of any age handling the hype, the attention, the accolades, but especially freshmen because it is all new to them,” said Pitt running backs coach David Walker. “But not Dion, he’s not changed one bit, not even a little. He’s the same guy he was when nobody outside of the team knew who he was. He’s humble, he’s very well grounded and he just wants to be the best player he can be.”

What? You were expecting a “I’m Rick  James, bitch!” moment? Everything this whole season with Dion Lewis has been low key and humble. And the advice he keeps getting is to do more of the same.

[Tony] Dorsett could feel Lewis’ pain. He embraced Lewis afterward and encouraged him to keep running — even if it means erasing his name from the record book.

“(Dorsett) told me he enjoys watching me play,” said Lewis, who has only seen Dorsett highlights on YouTube videos. “He told me to stay humble.”

Humility is hardly a problem for Lewis. Even at 19, he readily shares the spotlight with his teammates.

“Dion is always like that,” said sophomore receiver Jonathan Baldwin, who along with Lewis is among 10 Panthers to earn All-Big East first-team honors. “After the game, he was talking about how bad it felt not being able to give the seniors a Big East championship.”

He seems a near lock to get the 47 yards needed to pass Tony Dorsett’s freshman rushing record — though Dorsett set it with one less game.

While on the subject of Dion Lewis and Pitt’s running game. Anyone else think that RB Coach David Walker should be up a raise or at least a bonus? He keeps coaching the running game to better than expected results. Yes the talent is key, but he has some sort of touch when it comes to getting results year-in-year-out where ever he is.

Yes, the O-line was a huge factor in helping Lewis, which will make it very likely that next year could see Lewis in a “sophomore slump” as much because of a new O-line as anything else.

So, let’s get the stoylines out of the way:

Teams that are mirror images of each other. Waiting for the full piece.

Defensive struggle expected. Sort of, but expect more.

Both coaches recruiting talent. Check.

Same coaching tree. Check (Complete with 1992 photo on Johnson’s boat, with Johnson wearing shorts that well. Eep.).

Friendship between the coaches. Full story coming

All storylines rolled into one. Right here.

The fundamentals of North Carolina’s defense are similar to those of Pitt: Play an aggressive 4-3 with the emphasis up front, pressure the quarterback and force turnovers.

That’s not a coincidence. North Carolina coach Butch Davis and Pitt’s Dave Wannstedt are close friends who were assistant coaches on Jimmy Johnson’s staff for 11 seasons with Oklahoma State, Miami and the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

Both are defensive specialists, and Wannstedt was Davis’ boss for seven of those 11 years.

“Dave’s an outstanding football coach,” Davis said. “His teams are extraordinarily well-coached. He’s got an excellent assistant coaching staff, guys who have got a lot of experience and have been with him for many years …

“Dave’s fingerprints are all over this football team. They’re very sound in special teams. They play very physical defensively, which is certainly Dave’s background. You can tell just how stingy they are by watching how aggressive their front seven are.”

Sound familiar? That description could just as easily apply to the Tar Heels.

Oh, and both teams managed to lose to NC State in Raleigh. Hopefully they won’t start rolling like Pitt afterwards, since they ended their season there.

History, though, has suggested that Wannstedt struggles against his friends and former coaching subordinates. Or that could just be Greg Schiano.

After nearly a week off for finals the players are back to practice.

“It is great to be back,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said yesterday before the Panthers’ first practice since the Cincinnati loss. “I think it is important we go out and not just practice these three days before we leave but practice with a purpose. These seniors have done so much to bring this program back to national prominence but we have to finish the thing out.

“We had two tough, tough losses to end the season so we have to finish and finish on a positive note. We’re going to enjoy the bowl game but it is business and we need to go down there and understand that. The best thing about this is we have another game to play and that means we have another opportunity to turn disappointment into positive.”

The players no doubt will say all the right things about how they want to end the season with a win, and at least partially wipe the taste of the two losses by a total of 4 points away.

It will still be a question of how they actually do when they get on the field. That’s going to be up to the coaches, especially Coach Wannstedt.