Week 1 Big 12 Football Players of the Week Announced
With Week 1 of the college football season officially in the books, the Big 12 Conference announced four players that would be taking home the first iteration of the Big 12 Football Weekly Awards for the 2023 season.
Cincinnati’s Emory Jones won the titles of Offensive Player of the Week, and Newcomer of the Week, Iowa State’s Jeremiah Cooper took home Defensive Player of the Week honors, and BYU’s Ryan Rehkow split the title of Special Teams Player of the Week with Oklahoma’s Gavin Freeman.
Jones was a machine against Eastern Kentucky leading all Big 12 players with seven total touchdowns. He set a Cincinnati record for single-game TD responsibility and passed or ran for a score on UC’s first six possessions in a 66-13 win over Eastern Kentucky, according to the official release. Jones notched his second career 300-yard game and four TDs by halftime alone, finishing the game with 371 yards of total offense.
Iowa State’s Jeremiah Cooper logged two interceptions against UNI returning the first one 58 yards for a score, the first pick-six for the Cyclones since 2021. He snagged a second pick right before halftime which set up a 56-yard field goal for Chase Contreraz which was money. Cooper currently is tied for the league lead in interceptions and became the first Cyclone defender with two picks in a game since 2018.
Ryan Rehkow was bombing kicks for the Cougars on Saturday night punting nine times for an average of 53.2 yards in BYU’s 14-0 win over Sam Houston. Seven of Rehkow’s kicks went 50-plus yards with two boomping punts traveling 65 and 64 yards. Rehkow split specialist of the week honors with Oklahoma receiver Gavin Freeman who returned a punt 82 yards for a touchdown to give Oklahoma a 14-0 lead in Saturday’s 73-0 blowout win over Arkansas State. He became the fourth Sooner to score a TD on his first career punt return.
