Frank Cutolo (born 1976) is a former award-winning college and

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

slotback Slotback, sometimes referred to as an A-back or slot receiver, is a position in gridiron football. The "slot" is the area between the last offensive lineman on either side of the center and the wide receiver on that side. A player who lines up ...

. Cutolo played his college football at Eastern Illinois University from 1998 to 2001. As a receiver he caught 119 passes for 2182 yards. He was a second team

Ohio Valley Conference The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in the Football Cham ...

all-star in 2001,partly on the strength of his record setting performance against

Tennessee State Tennessee State University (Tennessee State, Tenn State, or TSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, it is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennes ...

, when he set a team record for receiving yards in a game (239) on October 27, 2001. He became a professional with the

British Columbia Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first season ...

in 2003, and his 64 pass receptions, 908 yards, 93 punt and kick off returns and 9 touchdowns were good for the

CFL's Most Outstanding Rookie Award The Most Outstanding Rookie Award is annually awarded to the player judged to be the best player in his first year in the Canadian Football League. The two nominees for the award are the Frank M. Gibson Trophy winner from the East Division, and the ...

. His performance dropped off in 2004 (47 receptions for 786 yards, with 9 TDs) and he was eventually cut from the team. The Lions' coach,

Wally Buono Pasquale "Wally" Buono (born February 7, 1950) is the vice president of football operations, alternate governor and the former head coach of the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and one of the most successful head coaches in leag ...

, chalked it up to burnout: ""He was a young guy, not big, a rookie that we beat to death ... Sometimes you don’t do things as smart as you should."
The Dreadhead gets back on the receiving end: Ryan Grice-Mullen puts his confidence issues behind him with success on returns — now he gets a second chance, by Mike Beamish, Vancouver Sun, September 1, 2009 He played one final year with the

Ottawa Renegades The Ottawa Renegades were a Canadian Football League franchise based in Ottawa, Ontario founded in 2002, six years after the storied Ottawa Rough Riders folded. After four seasons, the Renegades franchise was suspended indefinitely by the league d ...

where he caught 21 passes for 222 yards and one touchdown.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cutolo, Frank 1976 births Living people American players of Canadian football Canadian football slotbacks BC Lions players Ottawa Renegades players Eastern Illinois Panthers football players Canadian Football League Rookie of the Year Award winners