We’re crawling towards the finish line right now and today, for day 81, we get to highlight one big time pass catcher from the Big 12 and an old school pass rusher that played in South Bend for the Irish.
The first player that wore 81 was Oklahoma State receiver Justin Blackmon. Blackmon stepped on campus in Stillwater to play for Coach Gundy and redshirted his freshman season before making his way to the starting lineup his sophomore season.
Blackmon didn’t make a great impact his sophomore season when he played in 13 games and caught 20 balls going for 260 yards and 2 touchdowns.
The next two seasons for Blackmon were unreal in Stillwater. Through 25 games in his junior and senior year he reeled in 233 passes for 3,304 yards and 38 touchdowns. Those two seasons led to a boatload of accolades for the 6’1 speedster.
He was named the 2010 and 2011 Biletnikoff Award winner, the 2010 and 2011 Warfield Trophy recipient, two time All American and two time All Big 12. In 2010 he was even named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year.
For this list, I’m not a huge fan of going back in time to look at player from the 60’s but this next guy was an absolute menace and played for my two favorite football teams.
Alan Cedric Page played his college ball at Notre Dame from 1963 to 1967 and was the biggest reason why the Irish won the 1966 National Championship.
Page was named an All American in 1966, and while I can’t find any stats from his playing days, he is regarded as the key component to the 1966 Irish National Championship run. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993.
After his days in South Bend, he played for my Vikings and is the only defensive player other than Lawrence Taylor to win the MVP award.
Outside of football, Page served as an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court from 1993 to 2015 when he hit the required age of retirement.
Tomorrow is the last day of pass catchers, and the occasional edge rusher, and we get into my wheel house of offensive linemen from 79-60.