SAN DIEGO -- San Diego State football's Jonah Tavai and Jack Browning were each named Pro Football Focus All-Americans on Tuesday. Tavai was selected to the first team, while Browning made the second team.
The Aztecs were one of just eight schools with multiple first or second-team PFF All-Americans, joining USC, Ohio State, Alabama, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Illinois and Iowa.
Earlier in the day, Browning was named the Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Year, and made the all-conference first team at punter along with Tavai at defensive line.
Tavai has 57 tackles (30 solo), including 12.5 tackles for loss (for 65 yards), nine sacks (for 62 yards), a forced fumble and 13 quarterback hurries in his 12 starts this season. According to Pro Football Focus, Tavai has the second-highest pass rush grade in FBS (91.9, min. 300 pass opportunities) and the fourth-highest defensive grade (92.1, min. 450 snaps). Per PFF, he has the third-most quarterback pressures (61) in the country, the fourth-most hurries (39), and tied for the 13th-most QB hits (12). Tavai is also 14th in FBS in sack yards (62), tied for 14th in sacks (9.0) and tied for 16th in sacks per game (0.75).
As a punter, Browning has punted 63 times for 2,898 yards (46.0 avg.) with a net average of 42.7 and a long of 63 yards. Out of his 63 punts, 28 have landed inside the 20-yard line, including 14 inside the 10 and six inside the 5. According to Pro Football Focus, Browning has the best punt grade (87.2) in the country. Browning, who ranks third in SDSU single-season history in punt average (46.00), is tied for fourth FBS play in punts inside the 20-yard line (28, 1st in MW), sixth in net punt average (42.67, 1st in MW) and eighth in punt average (46.00, 1st in MW). He's also made 17 of his 21 field goal attempts and all 28 PATs, leading the Aztecs with 79 points, more than the next three players combined, and has kicked off 53 times for 3,394 yards (64.0 avg.) with 31 touchbacks.
San Diego State (7-5) will play Middle Tennessee (7-5) in the 2022 EasyPost Hawai`i Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 24 at 3 p.m. HST (5 p.m. PST). The Aztecs are in a bowl game for the 12th time in the last 13 seasons after withdrawing from consideration in the shortened 2020 COVID season.
Ticket information will be released soon.
Tavai, Browning Named Pro Football Focus All-Americans
