Blades leads defense into new season

Don’t believe for one second that Pitt linebacker H.B. Blades is in any way satisfied with… Don’t believe for one second that Pitt linebacker H.B. Blades is in any way satisfied with the Panthers’ 5-6 season of a year ago.

In fact, what bothers him the most is that he’s only got one year to make up for it.

“The pressure is on us,” he said. “Football is a team effort, and you can talk about me or Tyler [Palko], but this isn’t a one-man game. The pressure is on everybody to succeed.”

With that in mind, Blades’ 2006 season began when an injury forced him out of the final game last year during a 45-13 blowout at the hands of rival West Virginia.

He’s been itching to get back on the field, but he also knew some things needed to be taken care of first. A successful off-season and a teaching of the system to all the newcomers were in order.

“Everybody did a great job this summer,” Blades said. “We’ve all been getting a chance to lead these young guys by example.”

The leadership Blades has shown both on and off the field has garnered him plenty of national attention heading into the new season.

Recently, Blades was named to the “watch list” for the Butkus Award, which is annually presented to the nation’s top linebacker. He is one of 65 preliminary candidates for the award. The Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando presents the award.

The Butkus Award nomination, however, is just another notation on Blades’ early list.

Already in the off-season, Blades was named to numerous All-America teams and found himself on the watch list of three other major awards — the Rotary Lombardi Award (top lineman/linebacker), Bronko Nagurski Trophy (top defensive player) and the Lott Trophy (top defensive player).

A successful season for Blades, though, doesn’t include him taking home individual awards, but getting Pitt into the win column each week.

He believes that after a year in head coach Dave Wannstedt’s defensive system, the defense is now ready to get that job done.

“Guys know what they are doing now,” he said. “That’s not an excuse for last year in any way, it’s just that when guys know where they need to be and where they need to go, it makes the whole unit better.

“Guys are more familiar with their surroundings. You see us now, and you can see us going out there and having fun playing football.”

On the field, Blades has shown that he has what it takes to stack up with the best. He’s been named to the All-Big East team’s first team in each of the last two seasons. He also led the Big East with 121 tackles last season as well as ranking 13th nationally with 11 stops per game.

In this, Blades’ third year as a starter at linebacker, he has a chance to become one of the top five all-time tacklers at Pitt. His 286 career tackles have him currently at 16th all time with 229 of his tackles coming in the last two seasons.

More tackles could be on their way if the Pitt defense can sure up its stance against the run.

The run defense proved a problem for Pitt last year most noticeably in the final game against the Mountaineers when the WVU combo of quarterback Pat White and running back Steve Slaton ran at will.

“That’s just pride,” Blades said of stopping the run. “You’ve got to have pride in yourself to stop a team from running like that. When a team can control the line and run on you like that, that means they feel like they can do whatever they want on offense.”

But still, for Blades, he’s got just the one year. One year to improve the run defense. One year to erase the memory of a sub-.500 record. One last chance to send Pitt in the right direction as he exits the program.

“This is the last impression of us,” Blades said, referring to the seniors on the team. “We’re trying to go out on a good note.”

Can a good note include another Big East title?

“Yes,” Blades answered quickly, shifting to an even more serious tone. “We’re good enough and deep enough. We have guys that can play and we are lot better prepared this year than we were last year.”