Kai Wallin and Cooper DiLeva Named Pac-12 Players of the Week

SAN RAMON, Calif. -- San Diego State seniors Kai Wallin (Sacramento, Calif.) and Cooper DiLeva (San Pedro, Calif.) have each been named Pac-12 Conference Players of the Week, the league announced Monday. Wallin was named the defensive player of the week, while DiLeva picked up the special teams player-of-the-week award.

It’s the first weekly honors for the duo, which helped the Aztecs (3-4, 2-1 Pac-10) down Fresno State, 26-23, on Saturday night. SDSU now has six Pac-12 Player-of-the-Week awards on the season, which are voted on by the league’s media.

Wallin registered his first three sacks of the season for a total of 15 yards. The three sacks are the most in Pac-12 play this season and tied for the fifth most in a FBS game this season as he became the first Aztec with three sacks in a game since Trey White had three vs. Hawai’i on Oct. 5, 2024. The first sack came on a second-and-11 in the first quarter, going for a 7-yard loss and making it a third-and-18. On the third down, Wallen was credited with a quarterback hurry for the Fresno State incompletion, forcing the Bulldogs to punt. SDSU answered with a touchdown to make it 10-0. The second sack came on a second-and-10 in the fourth quarter of a 1-point game, making it third-and-12 from the SDSU 40. FS’s next pass was an incompletion, forcing a punt inside SDSU territory. The final sack came on first-and-10 with 57 seconds left in the fourth quarter. It forced a second-and-16 situation and took 17 seconds off the clock as Fresno State had no timeouts left. The Bulldogs ended up going four-and-out and SDSU kneeled for the win.

On the season, Wallin has 18 tackles, including three sacks and three tackles for loss, an interception and four quarterback hurries. He’s ranked in a tie for third in the Pac-12 in both sacks (3.0) and sacks per game (0.43). Wallin joins linebacker Cameron Cooper (Oct. 5) as Pac-12 Defensive Players of the Week this season for San Diego State.

DiLeva, meanwhile, tied a program record with four field goals (11th time it’s happened) after entering with four field goals on the season (and for his FBS career) in six games. DiLeva made a career-long 53-yarder, which gave the Aztecs a 26-23 lead with 57 seconds remaining. The 53-yarder was the longest by a SDSU kicker in the fourth quarter of a one-score game in program history. It was also tied for the seventh-longest field goal in program history, tied for the longest in Pac-12 play this season and tied for the 24th longest in an FBS game. DiLeva, who also connected on field goals of 32, 30 and 40 yards, accounted for a career-high 14 points, more than half of San Diego State’s 26 points overall. He also kicked off seven times for a 63.9 average and five touchbacks.

DiLeva is nearly perfect on the season, connecting on eight of his nine field goal attempts (88.9 pct.) and all 16 PATs to lead the team with 40 points. He is tied for the Pac-12 lead in PAT percentage (100.00, T-1st in FBS), and ranks second in field goal percentage (88.89, 25th in FBS) and kickoff average (63.16), third in kickoff touchback percentage (64.52), tied for third in both total field goals made (8) and field goals made per game (1.14), fifth in total kickoff touchbacks (20) and field goal attempts (9), and sixth in field goal attempts per game (1.29).

Next up for San Diego State is a Pac-12 game at Colorado State at 4:30 p.m. MT (3:30 p.m. PT) Saturday in Fort Collins.