Chas over at Pitt Blather has taken the initiative to organize a Big East postseason blogger awards as voted on by, appropriately enough, Big East bloggers.
Here's our ballot:
Best to Worst Coaching Performance (rank from 1-8):
- Greg Schiano(Rutgers)- Ugh
- Bobby Petrino (Louisville)- Guides the Cards to a conference championship despite losing one Heisman Trophy candidate for the season, and another for the better part of three games, add to this the numerous injuries on the defensive side of the ball and you've got yourself one hell of a coaching job. BP is one solid offensive drive in the second half of the Rutgers game away from being the national coach of the year.
- Jim Leavitt (South Florida)- Leavitt finally has a quarterback to go along with all that speed, doesn't hurt that the quarterback is pretty speedy himself. He's not lying when he talks about how good his job is. The Bulls will win a conference championship in the next four years.
- Mark Dantonio (Cincinnati)- Hell of a defensive coach who is off to the wasteland that is Sparty University.
- Rich Rodriguez (West Virginia)- Victim of lofty preseason expectations. Coaches can't control injuries, and injuries may have very well kept this team from being great. A decent secondary also would have helped.
- Paul Robinson (Syracuse)- Noticeable improvement is always good. The league needs Syracuse to be competitive.
- Dave Wannstedt (Pitt)- Anyone else get the feeling that the stache cares, but he doesn't really care?
- Randy Edsall (Uconn)- Shady discipline rules, underachieving team, and Hitler supporting. This guy's the worst in the league.
Brian Brohm (L-ville)
Steve Slaton (WVU)
Pat White (WVU)
Ray Rice (Rutgers)
Matt Grothe (USF)
Ray Rice. Three games with 200 yards or more and at least one touchdown in every game but one. Rice was both the most outstanding and most valuable player in the league this season.
Defensive PoY:
H.B. Blades (Pitt)
William Gay (L-ville)
Kelvin Smith ('Cuse)
Courtney Greene (Rutgers)
Trae Williams (USF)
H.B. Blades. The only player in the league that made us fear for our safety even though we were watching the game on TV 400 miles away.
Also Will Gay has no business on this list. He's been much improved in his senior season (sans one play), but he is still far from the best defensive player on Louisville's team.
Special Teams PoY:
Lowell Robinson (Pitt)
JuJuan Spillman (L-ville)
Ean Randolph (USF)
Art Carmody. We're going with the obvious write-in choice here. Art was also very close to getting the nod as a write-in in the previous two categories, but this one was a no-brainer.
Newcomer/Rookie of the year (JUCO, Freshman or Redshirt Freshman):
Matt Grothe (USF)
Donald Brown (UConn)
Delone Carter ('Cuse)
Oderick Turner (Pitt)
JuJuan Spillman (L-ville)
Anthony Allen (L-ville)
Jeff Otah (Pitt)
Matt "Chotch McBride" Grothe. The "They weren't as good as I thought they were going to be" post 31-8 beatdown comment rubbed us the wrong way, but anyone who says Grothe wasn't the most impressive freshman in the conference this season wasn't watching football.
Most Overrated/Disappointing Player:
Tyler Palko (Pitt)
Dan Mozes (WVU)
Brendan Carney ('Cuse)
Amp Hill (USF)
Brendan Carney. Despite our general disdain for the guy, Palko avoids our wrath here. Anytime a punter makes an overrated list he likely deserves the vote.
Most Surprising Team (in a good way):
Cincinnati. We thought this would be the worst team in the Big East before the season started, but Dantonio did a hell of a job and they damn near beat two of the top three teams in the conference.
Most Disappointing Team:
Uconn. Nobody thought they would possibly be that bad.
Way too early predictions for 2007 as to the best team:
Brohm, Bush and Urrutia return then Louisville.
Any of those three leave then West Virginia.