BP Awards: The Assassin (Best Defensive Back)

[LordJeffBuck]

Even though Texas's Michael Huff received six more first place votes, VPI's Jimmy Williams wins The Assassin Award as the nation's best defensive back. Congratualtions, Jimmy, on earning the trophy named after Jack "They Call Me Assassin" Tatum, arguably the best defensive player ever to don the scarlet and grey!

The full results are set forth below, with number of first place votes in parentheses:

Jimmy Williams (VPI) - 207 (14)
Michael Huff (Texas) - 197 (20)
Alan Zemaitis (Penn State) - 144 (4)
Tye Hill (Clemson) - 87 (1)
Darnell Bing (Southern Cal) - 71 (2)
Greg Blue (Georgia) - 65 (3)
Aaron Gipson (Oregon) - 50 (3)
Dion Byrum (Ohio) - 40 (3)
Brandon Meriweather (Miami) - 30 (1)
Donte Whitner (Ohio State) - 25
Nate Salley (Ohio State) - 23
LaRon Landry (LSU) - 15
Anthony Smith (Syracuse) - 10
Roman Harper (Alabama) - 9
Tim Jennings (Georgia) - 8
Tom Zbikowski (Notre Dame) - 8
Marcus Hamilton (Virginia) - 7
Dwayne Slay (Texas Tech) - 7
Joe Sturdivant (Southern Methodist) - 6 (1)
Matt Griebel (New Mexico State) - 6 (1)
Ashton Youboty (Ohio State) - 6
Kelly Jennings (Miami) - 6
Eric Smith (Michigan State) - 6
DeMario Minter (Georgia) - 5
Cedric Griffin (Texas) - 5
Charles Gordon (Kansas) - 5
Jelani Jordan (Bowling Green) - 4
Jason Allen (Tennessee) - 4
David Overstreet (Missouri) - 4
Leon Hall (Michigan) - 4
Aaron Ross (Texas) - 4
Dontez Sanders (Wisconsin) - 3
Will Blackmon (Boston College) - 3
Darrell Brooks (Arizona) - 3
Ko Simpson (South Carolina) - 2
Jaxson Appel (Texas A+M) - 2
Tim Jennings (Georgia) - 2
Mike Lorello (West Virginia) - 2
Courtney Greene (Rutgers) - 2
Antwan Allen (Iowa) - 1
John Talley (Duke) - 1
Demetrice Webb (Florida) - 1

Note: Six points were awarded for each first place vote, 5 points for each second, etc.

[jwinslow]

Williams apparently won on name recognition. he will be a top draft pick, but I don't think he had that great of a year.

Williams' stats - 44 tackles (2 tfl), 1 sack, 1 int, 5 pass breakups, 0 FF, 0 FR, 0 blocked kicks

Huff's stats - 97 tackles (9 tfl), 2 sacks, 1 int, 14 pass breakups, 4 FF, 1 FR, 1 blocked kick, 1 defensive td (FR)

[Cornerback6]

he won fair and square, but he got dissected by miami. he will surely be a top 15 pick though imo. he has dream size for a great corner & one game doesn't make or break a player's quality...i.e. youboty versus minni. on the wayside, i don't know that huff ever got shredded like williams did vs. miami? he held his own against us minus a play or two...then again, our offensive playcalling couldn't have hurt him much.

[Dryden]

Originally Posted by jwinslow

Williams apparently won on name recognition. he will be a top draft pick, but I don't think he had that great of a year.

Presuming the majority of BP voters are in the Great Lakes area or at least east of the Mississippi, Williams has been on TV more. Va. Tech plays about half their schedule on Thursday nights with no TV-time slot competition, aside from benefitting also in that they're in the ACC and not the Big-XII. If I'm not mistaken, every single Va. Tech game was carried by some network in Ohio -- I know that I watched at least nine of their eleven games.

I voted Georgia's Greg Blue first, followed by Huff then Williams. My main complaint with Williams was attitude; I don't think he recognizes the line between sportsmanship and gamesmanship. Secondly, the award is "The Assassin," named for Jack Tatum. Anyone who has watched Georgia play recognizes that Greg Blue earned the title 'Assassin' this season -- he hits with bad intentions.

[jwinslow]

I suppose he made people throw away from him, but keeping with dryden's post... huff arrived with nasty intentions many times (on FF's, blocked kicks, or huge hits from the safety position) and seemed to make bigger plays.

[NJ-Buckeye]

Sturdivant Stats - 112 tackles (60 solos, 4 tfl), 3 int, 11 pass breakups, 2 FR

nobody liked my choice

[texasfight06]

Huff is just plain amazing. The guy plays safety and corner, as I said in the Rose Bowl thread, it will be interesting to see where he plays in the bowl game, as Smith and Jarret is the best WR combo we faced since Ginn and Holmes, but we need him to help tackle Bush as well, he is our best corner back, but he is also our best safety. He will be sorely missed next year, not just because of his ability, but also because he is a great kid. I thought he had a real chance of winning the Assassin.

[OilerBuck]

Defensive back is the hardest category to judge based on pure stats, as the best DB's never get thrown at. The best DB on the team is almost never the guy with 80 tackles, 20 passes defended and 6 picks...it's often the guy with 30 tackles, 5 passes defended and 1 pick. You don't throw at Chris Gamble...you pick on Dustin Fox (although I'm a huge Fox fan). Huff is a spectacular player...but in the DB category, I tried to look away from stats and I went on who I would pick for my team first.

I was more surprised that Salley and Youboty both got more votes than Whitner. I didn't have any of them on my list...but Youboty and Salley both had a LOT of coverage problems this year, while I thought Whitner has been by far the most consistent.