Blunt named All-America
First Cowboy in 11 years
On Tuesday afternoon, former McNeese State linebacker B.J. Blunt was named to The Associated Press Football Championship Subdivision All-America first-team.
{{tncms-inline account=”dBerrySports” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">| <a href="https://twitter.com/McNeeseFootball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@McNeeseFootball</a> LB B.J. Blunt (<a href="https://twitter.com/beedoe8_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@beedoe8_</a>) has been named to the FCS Associated Press All-American team</p>&mdash; David E. Berry (@dBerrySports) <a href="https://twitter.com/dBerrySports/status/1072596780938915843?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2018</a></blockquote>” id=”1072596780938915843″ type=”twitter”}}
He’s the first Cowboy since defensive end Bryan Smith in 2007 to be named to the team.
“It feels, you know, to set a goal and actually be able to accomplish it,” Blunt said. “Especially something like first-team All-American, when that’s out of everybody in the nation. That was big to me.”
The honor was yet another in a long list of postseason awards and recognition for the New Orleans native. He was first-team all-Southland Conference and the SLC Defensive Player of the Year. Nationally, he was as a semifinalist for the Buck Buchanan Award, presented annually to the best defensive player in the FCS.
As a senior, Blunt recorded 102 tackles, 20 tackles for loss, 11 sacks, two fumble recoveries and a blocked punt.
While McNeese lost its last three games to end a disappointing 6-5 season, Blunt’s season was cut short because he had to miss the season-finale against Lamar due to a knee injury suffered in the previous week against Northwestern State. Since the season concluded, Blunt has worked on rehabbing the knee and working out with the hopes of being drafted in the NFL.
“My knee’s doing great,” Blunt said. “I’ve been doing a lot of high-intensity workouts, trying to get it back to where I could actually just full-on trust it. But besides that, it’s been great. If I had to put it at a number, I’d say about 96 percent. It’s a progression every day.”
One of Blunt’s best hopes to getting drafted is to perform well in the East-West Shrine Game, which takes place Jan. 19, 2019 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. But not just the game itself, the week of practice leading up is just as important if not more important than the game.
Unfortunately for Blunt, he will not get a second chance to play in a senior all-star game that could boost hist draft stock. He said he was told by Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Senior Bowl, that he was not invited to play.
Blunt said that decision disappointed and upset him, it also serves as motivation for a player who has already dealt with adversity in his life and college career.
“It is what it is,” Blunt said. “I’m going to go to the Shrine game and tear it up. Hopefully I get the recognition I feel I deserve. Let alone besides the numbers talking for itself, (making the Senior Bowl) was a goal I set for myself. I took that a little disrespectful. (But) it’s all about putting it into the right perspective and using it the right way.”
McNeese State Cowboys linebacker BJ Blunt (8) goes in for the sack on Nicholls State Colonels quarterback Chase Fourcade (9) during their Southland Conference game at Cowboy Stadium in Lake Charles, La., Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018. (Rick Hickman/Lake Charles American Press)