Nov. 29, 2010
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State junior quarterback Ryan Lindley has been named the Mountain West Conference's Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in the team's 48-14 victory over the UNLV Rebels on Saturday, the league office announced Monday. Lindley becomes the fifth different Aztec to pick up an MWC weekly award during the 2010 season.
Lindley completed 22-of-30 passes for 338 yards and four touchdowns in the last regular-season game of the 2010 campaign. The El Capitan High School graduate did most of his damage in the first half, throwing for 290 yards and three scores before the SDSU offense shut it down in the blowout victory. Lindley only passed seven times in the second half, with none of those attempts coming within the final 22 minutes. The Alpine, Calif., native connected on touchdown throws of 50, 41, 17 and 3 yards in the game.
Lindley has now thrown for 3,554 yards and 26 touchdowns on the season, both career highs. The Aztec signal-caller has passed for the sixth-most yards in the country and leads a San Diego State offense that ranks as the 11th-best passing offense in the nation. The Aztecs are the only FBS team to feature a 3,000-yard passer, two 1,000-yard receivers and a rusher who has run for more than 1,200 yards on the season.
With Lindley's honor, the Aztecs become the first Mountain West Conference team to have three different players earn the Offensive Player of the Week award in a single season since BYU did it in 2008, with the trio of Max Hall, Austin Collie and Dennis Pitta. San Diego State players have received the offensive edition of the award five times in all during the 2010 season, more than any other team in the MWC this year.
Lindley has now earned player-of-the-week honors three times during his SDSU career, with his last coming on Oct. 26, 2009, after he threw for 459 yards and six touchdown passes to erase a 14-point deficit and record a come-from-behind victory at Colorado State.
The 8-4 Aztecs will begin preparing for their first bowl appearance since 1998 this week. The formal bowl selection announcement is expected to be made on Sunday, Dec. 5.
2010 MWC Player of the Week (SDSU only)
Sept. 13 - Ronnie Hillman, Fr., RB (offense)
Sept. 20 - Ronnie Hillman, Fr., RB (co-offense)
Oct. 17 - Ronnie Hillman, Fr., RB (co-offense)
Nov. 1 - DeMarco Sampson, Sr., WR (offense); Brian Stahovich, Jr., P (special teams)
Nov. 8 - Miles Burris, Jr., LB (co-defense)
Nov. 29 - Ryan Lindley, Jr., QB (offense)