SDSU’s Cameron Cooper and Jaylon Hawkins Named Pac-12 Players of the Week

SAN RAMON, Calif. -- San Diego State’s Cameron Cooper and Jaylon Hawkins have each been named Pac-12 Players of the Week, the league announced Monday. Cooper was named the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week, while Hawkins was chosen as the Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week for a second time this season.

The awards are voted on by the league’s media.

The duo helped the Aztecs (2-3, 1-0 Pac-12) open their Pac-12 era with a 31-29 win over Texas State on Saturday night at Snapdragon Stadium. SDSU rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit, matching the fourth-largest second-half deficit comeback to win in San Diego State’s Division I history (since 1969).

A junior linebacker, Cooper came up with two big plays in his most significant playing time of the season. Cooper first blocked a 35-yard field goal attempt in the second quarter that would have but the Bobcats up, 20-3, in a game where the Aztecs ended up winning by two points. His second game-changing play came in the fourth quarter. After SDSU took a safety to drop its lead to 24-22 with 3:02 left in the game, TXST started with the ball on its own 30. Cooper deflected a pass from quarterback Brad Jackson, then caught the ball and ran it back 32 yards for the score to make it a 31-22 game in with proved to be the game-winning score. Cooper finished with a season-high seven tackles, while adding a pass breakup and a quarterback hurry.

In his first season on The Mesa after playing the last two years at Division II’s Western Colorado, Cooper has 22 tackles (11 solo), to go along with a 10-yard sack, an interception returned for a touchdown, a pass breakup, a blocked kick and three quarterback hurries.

Hawkins, meanwhile, changed the momentum for San Diego State where it trailed, 17-3, at the half. Hawkins took the third quarter kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown. The touchdown was part of a stretch for SDSU that saw it going from a 17-3 deficit at the half to a 24-17 lead with 6:45 remaining in the third quarter. Hawkins became the fourth Aztec with multiple kick return touchdowns in the same season, joining Rashaad Penny (3 in 2015, 2 in 2017, 2 in 2016), Juwan Washington (2 in 2017) and Colin Lockett (2 in 2012). After Texas State closed the SDSU lead to 24-20 with a 45-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter, Hawkins was back for the return. However, the Bobcat kickoff went out-of-bounds, allowing SDSU to start on its own 35-yard line (instead of the 25 with a touchback). Hawkins also saw time on the SDSU kickoff unit, which kept TXST to a 14.6 kick return average (five kickoffs for 72 yards) and a long of just 23 yards.

On the season, Hawkins has returned 12 kickoffs for 433 yards (36.1) and two touchdowns. The redshirt freshman leads the FBS in total kick return yards (433), and is tied for first in kick return touchdowns (2, 1st in Pac-12), second in combined kick/punt return yards (433, 1st in Pac-12), tied for third in kick returns (12, 1st in Pac-12) and fourth in kick return average (36.08, 1st in Pac-12). Hawkins also has five receptions for 31 yards and a touchdown.

San Diego State travels to Oregon State on Saturday with kickoff set for 3 p.m. PT.