Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was selected Big East Offensive Player of the Year, while Rutgers linebacker Khaseem Greene repeated as Big East Defensive Player of the Year in awards announced Thursday.
In other awards: Louisville coach Charlie Strong and Rutgers coach Kyle Flood shared Big East Coach of the Year honors; Temple running back Matt Brown was selected Big East special teams player of the year; and Temple linebacker Tyler Matakevich won Big East Rookie of the Year.
Each winner was picked based on voting done by all eight league head coaches.
None of these honors comes as much of a surprise. Bridgewater and Greene were clearly the best players in the conference this season. For Greene, he becomes just the second player to win back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year honors, joining Corey Moore of Virginia Tech (1998 and 1999).
Strong and Flood led their teams to at least a share of the Big East title. Strong has done that in back-to-back seasons; while this is the first time in school history that Rutgers can call itself Big East champions.
As for the all-conference teams, just about the only surprise is seeing Pitt running back Ray Graham on the first team over Cincinnati running back George Winn. That is not taking anything away from what Graham was able to do this season in his return from a torn ACL. Winn had more rushing yards and more 100-yard games this season. Winn was on the second team instead with Rutgers back Jawan Jamison.
There were only three unanimous selections to the first team: Greene, Syracuse receiver Alec Lemon and UConn defensive end Trevardo Williams. Four linebackers made the first-team because there was a tie in the voting.
Here is a look at the first team:
OFFENSE
WR Alec Lemon, Syracuse*
WR DeVante Parker, Louisville
OT Eric Lefeld, Cincinnati
OT Justin Pugh, Syracuse
OG Austen Bujnoch, Cincinnati
OG Antwan Lowery, Rutgers
C Mario Benavides, Louisville
TE Travis Kelce, Cincinnati
QB Teddy Bridgewater, Louisville
RB Ray Graham, Pittsburgh
RB Montel Harris, Temple
K Maikon Bonani, USF
RS Matt Brown, Temple
DEFENSE
DL Dan Giordano, Cincinnati
DL Trevardo Williams, Connecticut*
DL Aaron Donald, Pittsburgh
DL Scott Vallone, Rutgers
LB Greg Blair, Cincinnati
LB Sio Moore, Connecticut
LB Yawin Smallwood, Connecticut
LB Khaseem Greene, Rutgers*
CB Adrian Bushell, Louisville
CB Logan Ryan, Rutgers
S Duron Harmon, Rutgers
S Shamarko Thomas, Syracuse
P Brandon McManus, Temple
* unanimous selection