Oct. 3, 2005
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State redshirt freshman linebacker Russell Allen (Oceanside, Calif.) has been named the Mountain West Conference Football Defensive Player of the Week for his performance in the team's 31-10 win over BYU, the league office announced Monday.
Allen posted a career and team game-high 10 tackles against the Cougars. His previous career game high was four stops against both Air Force and Ohio State and he entered last Saturday's contest with a season total of 13 tackles. Allen's 10 stops were four more than the team's second-leading tacklers versus BYU, safety Reggie Grigsby (Oceanside, Calif.) and linebacker Joe Martin (Palmdale, Calif.), who had six apiece.
The Vista High School graduate was part of an SDSU defense which limited a powerful BYU offense to just 10 points and 305 yards of total offense, including 44 on the ground. The Cougars were averaging 461 yards of total offense and 32.7 points per outing in their first three games of 2005.
SDSU's win over Brigham Young is the school's first in San Diego since 1988 and widest margin of victory in the all-time series in 58 years.
It is the first weekly honor for Allen and first for the Aztecs so far this season. SDSU has earned MWC defensive player-of-the-week honors 12 times in the league's seven-year history, including on three occasions a year ago.
San Diego State heads to Las Vegas, Nev., this week for its third conference match-up of the season against UNLV at Sam Boyd Stadium. Kick-off is set for noon PDT and the game will be broadcast by ESPN+Plus.
Mountain West Conference Football Players Of The Week (Oct. 3)
Defense: Russell Allen (SDSU)
Offense: Jeff Ballard (TCU)
Special Teams: Jimmie Kaylor (Colorado State)