Two Illini freshmen picked up postseason awards late last week, as true freshman Vontae Davis and redshirt freshman Doug Pilcher were named to the Sporting News’ Freshman All-Big Ten team.

Davis, a cornerback from Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C., was chosen as the Sporting News’ Freshman Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.

Last Thursday Davis also earned freshman honors from scouting Web site Rivals.com. The Web site named Davis to its first team Freshman All-American list.

A week earlier, he was named a Big Ten All-Conference honorable mention by both the coaches and the media.

“He likes the pressure, likes to compete obviously, and he’s going to get better and better,” Illinois head coach Ron Zook said of Davis earlier this season.

Davis finished his first season at Illinois with 52 tackles, one interception and six pass break-ups. He started 11 games for the Illini, recording a career-high 9 tackles – including a career-best five solo tackles – in Illinois’ 34-32 loss to Indiana on Oct. 7.

“He came in here with the mindset knowing that being a young guy he was going to make mistakes,” Zook said. “One thing a defensive back has to do is he has to have a short memory, and one thing I’ve been happy about with him is that he learns from his mistakes. Not necessarily keep repeatedly making the same mistakes.”

Pilcher started 10 games for the Illini as a defensive end. The Hinsdale, Ill., native had 24 tackles in the 2006 season, including six for loss, and five quarterback hurries.

Davis and Pilcher were part of a defensive turnaround for Illinois, as the rushing defense ranked 13th nationally after several disappointing seasons. The Illini allowed 160 fewer yards per game in 2006 than in 2005. Illinois defense will return all but two starters for the 2007 season.

“If you look back on the record, our record doesn’t really show how good of a season we’ve had,” Davis said before the season finale against Northwestern. “But coming back next year with our freshman class being more experienced, we’re really excited about that.”