UVA football player Quin Blanding earned his third Freshman All-America honor when ESPN.com included the free safety on its postseason list today. Blanding has also been named a Freshman All-American by Scout.com and a True Freshman All-American by 247Sports. Scout.com also named Blanding its National Defensive Rookie of the Year.
Blanding (Fr., Virginia Beach, Va.) is piling up postseason accolades after finishing the regular season No. 2 in the ACC and No. 12 in the nation with 123 tackles. In addition to being Scout.com’s National Defensive Rookie of the Year, Blanding earned defensive rookie of the year honors from both the ACC media and the ACC coaches. Both the ACC media and the ACC coaches included Blanding on their All-ACC second teams.
Blanding finished his rookie campaign tied with Jamie Sharper (1996) for No. 10 in the UVa record book for tackles in a season and the 123 stops is the most tackles by a Cavalier in a season since Angelo Crowell had 155 in 2002. Blanding is one of two freshmen in the nation to lead his team in tackles (NC State’s Jerod Fernandez, 76) and he also led UVa with 79 tackles on rushing plays for the nation’s No. 21 rush defense (120.7 per game). Blanding also set UVa’s record for tackles by a freshman, passing Ahmad Brooks’ 2003 total of 117 stops.
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