Saint Vincent defensive back Ahmad Shaw dreaming big after breakout season

Ahmad Shaw makes no bones about it: He wants to play professional football.

That might seem like a big leap from little Saint Vincent College. Just don’t tell that to Shaw.

His desire to play professionally is part of what brought him from Fairfax, Va., to Saint Vincent in the first place. Where else might he have the opportunity to pick the brains of NFL players on a yearly basis?

With the Pittsburgh Steelers holding their training camp at the Unity school, Shaw has been able to gather little bits of advice from players as they meander through campus. And see what he hopes is his future.

“Every day they’re here, every year they are here, I watched,” said Shaw, a fifth-year senior. “Being on campus, potentially being able to speak to guys in passing and being able to ask, ‘What’s your favorite coverage to run? How do you play this? How do you play a receiver that’s this?’

“Just being able to pick up those small little giblets of advice from the guys.”

Whatever knowledge Shaw has accumulated, it came to full fruition last season, his best in a Bearcat uniform. He intercepted four passes — he lamented that it should have been eight or nine — and had 10 passes defensed on his way to second-team honors in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference.

Shaw said he is shooting for that eight or nine INT mark this season. Even if he gets only five, that will move him atop the career interceptions list in Saint Vincent’s modern era (2007-present). Shaw enters the 2023 season with seven career picks, four behind modern-era leader Darius Brown.

Not bad for a guy who was recruited as a quarterback.

When coach Aaron Smetanka made Shaw part of his first recruiting class in 2019, he fully intended to use Shaw at quarterback. But the Bearcats already had a couple of quarterbacks on the roster who had experience, plus they were bringing in highly touted freshman Brady Walker from Gateway.

Smetanka said he knew Shaw (5-foot-10, 185 pounds) was an excellent athlete who could play on either side of the ball. Saint Vincent had a need in the secondary, so he asked Shaw to make the switch.

“At first it was tough,” Shaw said. “You train all year, you go to school for this position and you hear your coach saying we don’t think you’ll be playing this position for us. It’s tough to hear, especially as an 18-year-old not fully mature kid.

“I could have been selfish about it, but, at the end of the day, I made the right decision and decided to do what’s best for the team.”

Shaw started to show flashes in the 2021 season, sharing the team lead with three interceptions and recording four pass breakups. Then came his breakout performance of 2022, in which he helped the Bearcats go 5-3 in the PAC.

“Really the last two years he has taken off and kind of blossomed,” Smetanka said. “He did some really good things during the course of our ’21 season. Then in ’22, he felt a lot more comfortable, you could tell. We’re really excited about him coming back for a fifth year.”

Shaw said his experience at quarterback has helped him be a better defensive back.

“I know what the quarterback is looking at,” he said. “I like to play off a lot because I can see the quarterback, and I know what a three-step drop looks like. I know what a quick drop looks like. I know offensive tackles, what they’re going to do if their shoulder pads are a little bit higher.

“I love when I see quarterbacks looking at my side and say, ‘He’s 8 yards off, so he’s not going to be able to get to this hitch.’ In reality, I like to play a lot of mind games.”

Shaw was able to excel in ’22 despite constantly battling nagging injuries. He said he was fully healthy for only the first game. There were no major maladies but enough little things to keep him from performing at 100%.

That is a narrative he hopes to change. Smetanka said Shaw has looked excellent in preseason workouts.

“This is the best he has looked in any of (his) years,” Smetanka said. “You can tell he’s been putting some extra time in the weight room. Physically … you can tell he’s put on some good size in the spring.”

The Bearcats defense will need to beef up as well. Despite Shaw’s efforts, the defense was pedestrian, finishing sixth in the 11-team PAC by allowing 29.3 points per game, nearly 11 points behind fifth-place Case Western Reserve (18.5).

Saint Vincent was seventh in total defense (374.5 yards per game) and seventh in passing defense, giving up nearly 200 yards per game. Outside of Shaw, the rest of the defense managed only five interceptions.

Shaw attributed part of the defense’s shortcomings to injuries that permeated the entire unit. He is hoping that can be remedied this season.

“I would say the biggest thing for us is we’re all on one page,” he said. “The injuries that we had last year threw off our timing and our connection. We need guys who are deep in the rotation who play like first-teamers and have that first-team kind of connection and chemistry.

“What’s certain is we’re going to need depth, and we’re going to need guys who are going to step up and guys who are ready to play. That’s the bottom line.”

Shaw will try to set the tone on the field while pursuing his master’s degree in management. An excellent student, he earned SVC’s award for academic excellence for graduating with the highest GPA among sports management majors in the class of 2023.

Of course, Shaw is hoping he won’t have to put those degrees to use right away. The resume he is most interested in building is his playing resume.

“There’s so many different leagues out professionally right now,” Smetanka said. “There’s a lot of avenues you can go into. (Former SVC receiver) Phil Dawson played in an arena league for us. I feel the same thing for Ahmad. He’ll definitely get an opportunity to play at some level.”

Added Shaw: “I know for a fact that I’m not done playing after this year. I have full belief in myself and my abilities. I haven’t had a complete season yet. We’ll see where I’m at with a complete season under my belt.”