Air Force Academy

Sept. 8, 2008

Air Force junior safety Chris Thomas earned Mountain West Conference Football Defensive Player of the Week honors for his performance against Wyoming. BYU's Max Hall earned Offensive Player of the Week while Colorado State's Ben Deline earned Special Teams Player of the Week. Hall collects his second career player of the week honor, while Thomas and DeLine each claim their first career weekly accolade.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Chris Thomas, AIR FORCE
Junior, Strong Safety, Westerville, Ohio/St. Francis DeSales HS
Chris Thomas recorded a season-best 13 tackles, including eight unassisted stops and a sack, as Air Force registered a 26-3 MWC-opening win at Wyoming. The junior strong safety also forced a fumble and recovered a separate fumble, with both plays leading to field goals for the Falcons. Thomas led a defensive effort that limited the Cowboys to 216 yards total offense and 2-of-13 on third-down conversion attempts.

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

MAX HALL, BYU
Junior, Quarterback, Mesa, Ariz./Arizona State University
Max Hall completed 30-of-41 attempts for 338 yards and three touchdowns in guiding No. 15 BYU to a 28-27 victory at Washington. The win ended a nine-game non-conference road losing streak for the Cougars and marked their first victory over the Huskies in Seattle. In the first quarter, the junior quarterback completed 10-of-12 passes for 110 yards, including a perfect 6-of-6 passing mark during an 80-yard scoring drive on BYU's opening possession. In the final quarter of the game, Hall completed another 10 passes for 140 yards, including what proved to be the game-winning touchdown pass -- a 15-yard strike to tight end Dennis Pitta in the endzone. The BYU offense finished the contest with a 12-of-14 conversion rate on third-down attempts.

BEN DELINE, COLORADO STATE
Freshman, Placekicker, Steamboat Springs, Colo./Steamboat Springs HS
In his second collegiate outing, Ben DeLine hit both the game-tying and game-winning field goals within the final 89 seconds to lift Colorado State to a 23-20 win over Sacramento State. The true freshman was 3-of-3 in field goal attempts (23, 36 and 20 yards) in the contest with all three tries coming in the fourth quarter, including his career-long 36 yard boot that tied the game with 1:29 left to play. DeLine, who stepped into the starting role as the Rams' kicker following an injury to first-stringer Jason Smith, became the first CSU kicker to hit a game-winning field goal in the fourth quarter since Jeff Babcock, five years to the day (Sept. 6, 2003), in a 23-21 triumph at Cal.