Sept. 29, 2008
SAN DIEGO - Coming off of his first win against Idaho this past weekend, San Diego State freshman quarterback Ryan Lindley (Alpine, Calif.) has been named the offensive player of the week the Mountain West Conference office announced Monday.
The honor is Lindley's first recognition as player of the week, as well as the first SDSU student-athlete picked this season. In his fourth career game, Lindley completed 24-of-38 passes for 433 yards with four touchdowns in a 45-17 win over Idaho. Lindley is the first freshman quarterback to win the weekly award since Donovan Porterie of New Mexico back on Oct. 23, 2006.
With this performance, Lindley set MWC and SDSU records for most passing yardage and passing touchdowns by a freshman. His 433 yards marked the top passing effort by a freshman nationally and the sixth-highest passing total by a Bowl Subdivision player this season. He became just the 14th player in school history to record a 400-yard passing game.
Lindley's quarterback rating of 198.87 is the 16th-highest rating for a Bowl Subdivision quarterback with at least 25 passing attempts in a game in 2008 and is the highest rating for a freshman (minimum 25 attempts) among all Bowl Subdivision teams this season.
With four touchdown passes, Lindley broke the school record for the most touchdown passes by a freshman and it was the most by an Aztec in a game since Kevin O'Connell threw for five touchdowns against Portland State on Sept. 22, 2007. Lindley extended his personal-best streak of pass attempts without an interception to 89 before throwing a pick on his final attempt of the third quarter.
Mountain West Conference Football Players of the Week (Sept. 29)
Offense: Ryan Lindley (SDSU)
Defense: Jason Beauchamp (UNLV)
Special Teams: James Aho (New Mexico) and Louie Sakoda (Utah)