Big East Football: Cincinnati Dominates All-Conference Selections
The Big East all-conference selections were announced yesterday, as Cincinnati was the big headliner, taking home the three biggest awards.
Head coach Butch Jones was named head coach of the year, running back Isaiah Pead was named offensive player of the year and defensive tackle Derek Wolfe was named co-defensive player of the year along with Rutger’s linebacker Khaseem Greene.
With that being said, there was a great balance from the eight schools on both the first and second teams.
West Virginia led all selections with seven first teamers. They were followed by Cincinnati who had six and Syracuse who had five. Rutger finished with four and Connecticut with three. Louisville and Pittsburgh each had two. South Florida was the only team who did not have a first team all-Big East selection, but did have six on the second team.
The number of selec
tions on the all-Big East squads shows how well-balanced the league was this year.
All but two teams were within two games of a share for the conference championship and three teams tied for the conference crown.
West Virginia wide receiver Tavon Austin won Big East special teams player of the year and Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was named Big East freshman of the year after coming on strong midway through the season.
Among the second-team selections were two from Cincinnati including injured quarterback Zach Collaros. Pittsburgh placed four players on the second-team, all on the defensive side of the ball.
The six by South Florida led all second-team selections and out of the 60 all-Big East selections comprising the first and second teams, exactly half are underclassmen, including the lone freshman on the list in Connecticut running back Lyle McCombs.
This bodes well for a league that will be adding new teams in the years to come, but looks like it is talented enough to improve next year and continue the growth of the conference.
