Dion Lewis’ name came up a whole lot after the college football season ended. It’s quite a resume the freshman has already accumulated.

There are the multiple “Freshman of the year” awards from the Sporting News, CBS Sportsline, ECAC and CollegeFootballNews.com.

He couldn’t crack a 1st team All-American ballot with Heisman winner Mark Ingram and finalist Toby Gerhart ahead of him, but was on numerous second-teams.

He was a second-team All-America selection by the AP as well as by Sporting News, CBSSports.com, SI.com, Rivals.com and Scout.com.

So, cue the stories on how he handles it all.

In fact, beyond a little bit of a grin or perhaps a little chuckle, Lewis, who was the Big East Conference offensive player and rookie of the year and the only true freshman to be named Tuesday to The Associated Press All-America college football team, doesn’t let on that he understands the magnitude of what he has been able to do.

That aspect, however, is not surprising to his coaches and teammates because Lewis, 19, is described by them as focused, driven and mature beyond his years.

“You always worry about players of any age handling the hype, the attention, the accolades, but especially freshmen because it is all new to them,” said Pitt running backs coach David Walker. “But not Dion, he’s not changed one bit, not even a little. He’s the same guy he was when nobody outside of the team knew who he was. He’s humble, he’s very well grounded and he just wants to be the best player he can be.”

What? You were expecting a “I’m Rick  James, bitch!” moment? Everything this whole season with Dion Lewis has been low key and humble. And the advice he keeps getting is to do more of the same.

[Tony] Dorsett could feel Lewis’ pain. He embraced Lewis afterward and encouraged him to keep running — even if it means erasing his name from the record book.

“(Dorsett) told me he enjoys watching me play,” said Lewis, who has only seen Dorsett highlights on YouTube videos. “He told me to stay humble.”

Humility is hardly a problem for Lewis. Even at 19, he readily shares the spotlight with his teammates.

“Dion is always like that,” said sophomore receiver Jonathan Baldwin, who along with Lewis is among 10 Panthers to earn All-Big East first-team honors. “After the game, he was talking about how bad it felt not being able to give the seniors a Big East championship.”

He seems a near lock to get the 47 yards needed to pass Tony Dorsett’s freshman rushing record — though Dorsett set it with one less game.

While on the subject of Dion Lewis and Pitt’s running game. Anyone else think that RB Coach David Walker should be up a raise or at least a bonus? He keeps coaching the running game to better than expected results. Yes the talent is key, but he has some sort of touch when it comes to getting results year-in-year-out where ever he is.

Yes, the O-line was a huge factor in helping Lewis, which will make it very likely that next year could see Lewis in a “sophomore slump” as much because of a new O-line as anything else.