COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- San Diego State football's Matt Araiza (San Diego/Rancho Bernardo HS) and Cameron Thomas (Carlsbad, Calif./Carlsbad HS) have each been named Mountain West Players of the Week, the league announced Monday. Araiza was named the special teams player of the week for the fourth time this season and fifth time of his career, while Thomas garnered the weekly defensive honor for the first time.
Both Araiza and Thomas played key roles in the Aztecs' 23-21 win over Nevada on Saturday night.
Araiza excelled in all three facets of the kicking game, including averaging 55.6 yards per punt, which was the highest average in the nation last week (min. 5 punts) with the long going for 62 yards. If you take away the punt where he punted from the Nevada 42-yard line, he averaged 59.0 yards per boot. Araiza also tied a career high with three field goals, including his first career game-winner with 1:21 left in the fourth quarter. Araiza ended up making kicks of 48, 39 and 35, with his lone miss coming from 55 yards with one second left in the first half, and both of his PATs. Araiza also kicked off six times for a perfect 65.0-yard average and four touchbacks.
Araiza, who has been named a Ray Guy Award semifinalist and a midseason All-America selection as a punter by the Associated Press, ESPN and Sporting News, and a second-team pick by The Athletic, leads all FBS players in punt average (52.25), punt yards per game (318.70) and punt yards (3,187), and is tied for first in PAT percentage (100.00), third in punts inside the 20-yard line (29), fourth in kickoff average (64.94), fifth in net punt average (44.41) and punts per game (6.10, second in MW), sixth in total punts (61, third in MW), 11th in kickoff touchback percentage (80.77, first in MW), tied for 14th in kickoff touchbacks (42, first in MW), tied for 15th in field goal attempts (20, fifth in MW) and field goals attempts per game (1.30, fifth in MW). He's also ranked fourth in the league in kickoff yards (3,377, 46th in FBS), tied for fourth in made PATs (32, T-51st in FBS) and attempted PATs (32, T-57th in FBS), sixth in field goals made per game (1.30, T-38th in FBS), kicking points (52, T-55th in FBS), total kickoffs (52, T-55th in FBS) and points per game (7.10), seventh in total field goals made (13, T-37th in FBS) and total points (71), and ninth in field goal percentage (65.00).
Thomas, meanwhile, came up with a season-high 10 tackles, the second most of his career, along with 3.5 tackles for loss and three sacks. The 3.5 tackles for loss matched a career high, while the three sacks were a career high and the most by an Aztec since Jay Henderson had three against Northern Illinois on Sept. 30, 2017. Thomas, who also forced his second career fumble (first this season) on a strip sack, anchored a SDSU defense that held Nevada to just eight rushing yards, its lowest output since Sept. 6, 2004 at Louisiana Tech and the fewest allowed by San Diego State since giving up zero yards at Kansas on Sept. 25, 1999. The Aztecs also held Nevada to 358 yards of total offense, its second-lowest output of the season (at Kansas State, 331).
On the season, Thomas has 57 tackles, including team highs of 16.5 tackles for loss, 9.5 sacks and 15 quarterback hurries. Thomas leads the Mountain West in tackles for loss (16.5, 4th in FBS) and tackles for loss per game (1.65, 5th in FBS), and is tied for first in total sacks (9.5, T-11th in FBS), second in sacks per game (0.95, 12th in FBS), fourth in sack yards (49, T-29th in FBS) and fifth in tackles for loss yards (60, T-27th in FBS). According to Pro Football Focus, Thomas is graded out as third defensive player in the country (90.4, min. 550 snaps), while recording the most quarterback hits (16) and third-most quarterback pressures (sacks/hits/hurries) (56). Over his last 13 games (three last year and 10 this year), Thomas has totaled 84 tackles (44 solo), 24.0 tackles for loss, 12 sacks and 20 quarterback hurries.
SDSU, which is ranked 23rd in both the AP and coaches poll, and at 9-1 has matched its best start since starting 10-0 in its first year of Division I football in 1969, plays at UNLV at 8:30 p.m. PT Friday.