Miami's Sharpe wins ACC's Brian Piccolo Award
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Posted 3:11PM on Friday, December 15, 2006
CORAL GABLES, Fla. - Miami cornerback Glenn Sharpe is the 2006 winner of the Atlantic Coast Conference's Brian Piccolo Award, given annually to the ``most courageous'' player in the league.<br>
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Sharpe missed most of the 2004 and 2005 seasons after needing reconstructive surgery in both knees, then returned this season to start all 12 regular-season games for Miami.<br>
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He finished the regular season with 29 tackles and two interceptions, plus is second in the ACC with 15 passes defended.<br>
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``We are very proud of Glenn Sharpe and his efforts to come back and be an integral part of our football team,'' Miami coach Larry Coker said Friday. ``Glenn is a tremendous competitor and a tremendous talent.''<br>
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Sharpe, who already has his degree from the university, is eligible to play again in the 2007 season.<br>
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The Miami native tore a ligament in his left knee during the ninth game of the 2003 season against Tennessee, but returned to play in the first two games of the following season although he wasn't fully recovered. He needed further surgery to repair the left knee and sat out the rest of 2004.<br>
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In July 2005, he tore the same ligament in his right knee, doing so three weeks before the start of practice and again wound up missing the entire season.<br>
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Sharpe was slowed during preseason camp this year because of knee issues, but managed to get through the entire season.<br>
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His career is still likely best-known for an infamous pass interference penalty in the 2002 national championship game against Ohio State.<br>
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Sharpe, then a freshman, was flagged for a fourth-down penalty called several seconds after many on the Miami sideline thought the game was over and the championship was theirs. The penalty gave Ohio State a chance to tie the game in the first overtime before winning it in the second overtime, 31-24.<br>
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The Piccolo Award has been given since 1972 by the ACC, in recognition of the league's 1965 Athlete of the Year who played for Wake Forest and then the NFL's Chicago Bears before his career was cut short by cancer. Miami running back Frank Gore, now with the San Francisco 49ers, won the award two years ago before turning pro.<br>
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Piccolo, a South Florida native, signed with the Bears in 1965. He was diagnosed with cancer in his fourth NFL season and died in 1970 at the age of 26.
