Mountain West Conference Names Football Players of the Week

BYU RB Unga and PK Payne, TCU TB Turner and LB Phillips honored

Nov. 25, 2007

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -

Harvey Unga (BYU), Joseph Turner (TCU), Jason Phillips (TCU) and Mitch Payne (BYU) are Mountain West Conference Players of the Week for games through Nov. 24. Unga and Turner share the Offensive Player of the Week honor, while Phillips collects the Defensive Player award, and Payne earns Special Teams recognition. Unga collects his second player of the week award of the season and of his career, while Turner, Phillips and Payne are first time honorees.

CO-OFFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

HARVEY UNGA, BYU
Freshman, RB, Provo, Utah/Timpview
Harvey Unga carried the ball 23 times for 141 yards, averaging 6.1 yards per carry, and scored a touchdown in BYU's 17-10 win over Utah to clinch the outright Mountain West Conference football title. He also had one reception for 27 yards, finishing the day with 168 total yards. His game-winning, 11-yard run with 38 seconds left in the game gave the Cougars their second straight outright MWC crown. Unga became the first freshman in BYU football history to record over 1,000 yards rushing in a season.

JOSEPH TURNER, TCU
Sophomore, TB, Austin, Texas/Lydon B. Johnson
Joseph Turner rushed for a career-high 226 yards on 33 carries (6.8 yards per carry) and scored four touchdowns in TCU's 45-33 win at San Diego State. The 226 yards were the most by a Frog since Lonta Hobbs ran for 287 yards on 33 attempts in a win over Memphis on Nov. 30, 2002. It also was the 14th-best single-game rushing performance in TCU history. Turner is the first Frog to rush for four touchdowns in a contest since Jeff Ballard in a 49-28 win over New Mexico on Oct. 1, 2005. It was his second 100-yard rushing game of his short three-game collegiate career, bettering his previous personal-best of 115 yards on 28 carries earlier this month against New Mexico.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

JASON PHILLIPS, TCU
Junior, Linebacker, Waller, Texas/Waller
Jason Phillips recorded a career-high 13 tackles, including 10 solo, and had two pass break-ups in TCU's 45-33 win at San Diego State. Phillips was the only Horned Frog with more than five tackles and led a defense that limited SDSU to a 4-of-17 mark on third-down conversions.

SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK

MITCH PAYNE, BYU
Freshman, Place Punter, North Ogden, Utah/Weber HS
Mitch Payne connected on three field goals in the BYU's 17-10 win over Utah. Payne's field goals of 22, 23 and 35 yards gave BYU a 9-3 advantage late into the fourth quarter. Payne's three field goals marked the first time a BYU kicker had kicked three field goals in a game since BYU's double-overtime loss at Boston College last season.