Pitt Football: Scott McKillop ... The player nobody wanted
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Scott McKillop records a tackle, this one in Pitt's "Backyard Brawl" victory vs. West Virginia Nov. 28.
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Scott McKillop was named first-team All-America by the Football Writer's Association yesterday, a tremendous accomplishment for any player.
But it is an even more amazing accomplishment in McKillop's case considering when he first arrived at Pitt he didn't think he even would make the Panthers' first-team defense.
"I looked around at all the athletes we had and, honestly, I didn't think I'd ever be a starter. From where I came from to where I am now, I didn't think it'd be possible," said McKillop, a fifth-year senior middle linebacker for the Panthers. "Those who know me, knew that I was going to give my best effort and I'd work harder than anyone else around here and those are the things I've always leaned on. I knew Pitt was my only shot and I wanted to make the most of it.
• First-team All-America: Football Writers Association
• Second-team All-America: Walter Camp Foundation
• Big East defensive player of the year
• First-team All-Big East (coaches and media)•
• Four-time Big East defensive player of the week
• - Pitt's first unanimous back-to-back choice since Larry Fitzgerald (2002-03)
High school: Kiski Area
Age: 22
Height: 6-2
Weight: 240
"I've had a great run but I've had plenty of people help me. This is really a team award because this is a team sport."
To refer to McKillop's career as a "great run" would be accurate but wouldn't even come close to doing justice to his improbable rise from obscure prospect to one of the best defensive players in college football.
McKillop came to Pitt for two reasons -- his older brother, Chris, was a highly rated signee with the Panthers, and they were the only team that offered him a scholarship.
His scholarship offer may not have come had he not been a local prospect or had Panthers coaches not known him and his family through recruiting Chris.
In the end, the coaching staff decided that even though he might not have had all of the measurables, he had all of the intangibles, the work ethic to make the gamble worth it.
The gamble on McKillop has certainly paid big dividends as he will leave Pitt as the school's 11th all-time leader in tackles with 333, an impressive feat considering he only has played extensively for two seasons since he sat on the bench his first two active seasons behind H.B. Blades, who plays for the Washington Redskins.
Last season he led NCAA Division I-A in tackles (12.58 per game) and was second in solo tackles (8.17 per game). This season he was equally productive as he is second in the NCAA in solos (6.5 per game) and 11th in total tackles (10.5 per game). He has led the Big East Conference in both in each of the past two seasons and this year he had 16.5 tackles for losses as well as four sacks.
McKillop was named the Big East defensive player of the year -- only Pitt's second player to win the award, the first being Blades -- and he is a unanimous selection as first-team All-Big East for the second year in a row. He is only the second player in Pitt history to earn first-team All-Big East honors two years in a row, the other being Larry Fitzgerald (2002-03).
• Game: Pitt (9-3) vs. Oregon State (8-4).
• When: 2 p.m., Dec. 31 in El Paso, Texas.
• TV: KDKA.
But it is more than numbers with McKillop if you talk with coaches as he has a great work ethic, he's committed to academics (he already has earned his bachelor's degree and is working on his MBA), has embraced a leadership role and has a team-first attitude.
Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt, who inherited McKillop from the previous coaching staff, admits that he didn't have high expectations for McKillop when he arrived. And he said going into last season, he wasn't certain McKillop would cut it as a middle linebacker but he figured he would give him the first shot since he was Blades' back-up.
"He is a coach's dream," Wannstedt said. "His statistics speak for themselves, but what separates Scott from the average guy is that most of these players want to be the man and they want to be the man without working for it or waiting for it.
"Scott worked his butt off and mentally prepared himself even when he was not playing."
McKillop is only the Panthers' second first-team All-America on defense since the 1980s and not coincidentally, the other one was McKillop's former roommate, mentor and close friend, Blades. McKillop said Blades taught him to play the position and he's proud to share the honor with him as well as his current teammates.
"It is an unbelievable honor to be in the same category with guys like Dan Marino, Tony Dorsett, Larry Fitzgerald, Bill Fralic in Pitt history," McKillop said. "But when I look back the thing that I'll cherish most is that I'm there with H.B. because of how much he meant to my career and his friendship."
Blades, unlike a lot of others, had no doubt that McKillop would have a chance to be a good player because, unlike a lot of the other younger players Blades encountered, McKillop was a better listener than talker.
"I'm not surprised at all by what he's accomplished. Scott has one of the strongest work ethics of any player I've been around," Blades said.
NOTE -- Penn State's A.Q. Shipley, a center from Moon High School, and defensive lineman Aaron Maybin also made the All-America team.
First Published December 14, 2008 12:00 am
