Dakota Prukop and Tyrone Holmes led their teams to wins they had to have. For their efforts, the Big Sky Conference honored the Bobcat quarterback and the Grizzly pass-rushing demon on Monday.
Prukop, a junior from Austin, Texas, threw for a career-high 399 yards and rushed for 36 more in Montana State’s 45-28 win over Cal Poly on a homecoming Saturday in front of 19,707 to earn Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year honors.
Prukop’s 88-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Jayshawn Gates was the third-longest pass play in MSU and Bobcat Stadium history. Prukop also threw a 63-yard touchdown to tight end Beau Sandland in the second quarter and a 13-yard scoring strike to Sandland in the third quarter. Prukop led MSU on drives culminating in four touchdowns and a field goal in its first five possessions.
Prukop passed the 300-yard passing mark for the second straight game, and totaled 400 yards of total offense for the second time this season and the fourth time in his career.
Holmes, a senior from Eagle Point, Oregon, had a field day in Montana’s 23-14 victory over
Montana senior defensive end Tyrone Holmes notched four sacks in a 23-14 win over Northern Arizona on Saturday in Missoula.
Northern Arizona. The 6-foot-4, 255-pounder had four sacks of NAU freshman quarterback Case Cookus resulting in 13 yards of loss to earn Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year. He totaled 5.5 tackles for loss. Holmes’ sack total was half a sack shy of Tim Bush’s school record set in 2002 against NAU.
Holmes now has eight sacks this season and his 2.0 sacks per game leads the FCS. He has 24.5 sacks for his career, the sixth-most in school history. He needs 10 sacks to tie Zack Wagenmann’s school record.
North Dakota punter Mitch Meindel earned the Big Sky Special Teams Player of the Week. After his performance this past weekend in a 31-24 win over UC Davis, Meindel is the leading punter in FCS, averaging 48.1 yards per punt. The sophomore punter averaged 50.5 yards per punt on four attempts against the Aggies and his 55-yarder in the first quarter pinned UC Davis back at its own two-yard line. He added two punts of 50-plus yards to bring his season total to 10 (entered game second in FCS averaging 47.8 ypp).
Others nominated for Offensive Player of the Week include: Jordan Robinson, Sacramento State; Emmanuel Butler, Northern Arizona; Eric Wilkes, Weber State; Malik Brown, Southern Utah; Madison Mangum, Idaho State; Kendrick Bourne, Eastern Washington; Jacob Knipp, Northern Colorado; Nate Tago, Portland State; and John Santiago, North Dakota.
Nominees for the Defensive Player of the Week include: Darnell Sankey, Sacramento State; John Herrero, Northern Arizona; Legrand Toia, Weber State; Junior Tufuga, Southern Utah; Darryl Graham, UC Davis; Samson Ebukam, Eastern Washington; Taylor Risner, Northern Colorado; Xavier Coleman, Portland State; and Will Ratelle, North Dakota.
The nominees for Special Teams Player of the Week include: Smith Heath, Sacramento State; Ryan Hawkins, Northern Arizona; Josh Kealamakia, Weber State; Ty Rutledge, Southern Utah; Jordan Dascalo, Eastern Washington; Josh Kraught, Portland State; and Luke Daly, Montana State.
