Offensive Player of the Week
AP Javon Williams Jr., Southern Illinois
6-2, 237, Jr. (Centralia, Ill./Centralia)
Williams Jr. led a Saluki offensive attack that scored 38-straight points at nationally ranked Missouri State, as Southern Illinois won it’s fourth-straight game. Williams Jr. scored two touchdowns and totaled 121 yards of offense (45 rushing yards, 39 receiving yards, 37 passing yards). His 28-yard pass to Avante Cox set up SIU’s first TD, he caught a 12-yard pass on 4th-and-7 that led to another score, and Williams Jr. scored himself on a pair of 1-yard TD runs. He also returned two kickoffs for 43 yards.
Defensive Player of the Week
S Rylan Cole, Indiana State
6-0, 205, So. (McCordsville, Ind./Mt. Vernon)
Cole posted one of the top defensive games in Indiana State history on Saturday afternoon as the sophomore safety was all over the field against NDSU. The McCordsville, Ind. native posted 19 tackles (nine solo, 10 assisted) in posting the most tackles by a Sycamore defender since former Sycamore Katrell Moss recorded 19 stops in the 2018 season. Cole’s 19 tackles are the most by a player in the MVFC and tied for third-best in the FCS this season. He added a forced fumble midway through the first quarter that ended a NDSU scoring drive inside the Sycamore 10-yard line. Eleven of his stops came in the second half, including a stretch of five tackles over a six-play span in the third quarter.
Special Teams Player of the Week
DT Will Mostaert, North Dakota State
6-2, 260, Jr., Lakeville, Minn. (Lakeville North HS)
Mostaert blocked a 30-yard field goal attempt to preserve a four-point lead late in the third quarter of North Dakota State’s 31-26 road win over Indiana State. Mostaert, who also had a solo sack and quarterback hurry in the game, made the block three plays after NDSU muffed a punt inside its own 20-yard line. It was NDSU’s second blocked field goal of the season.
Co-Newcomer of the Week
DB Cole Davis, North Dakota
5-10, 170, R-Fr. (Marengo, Ill./Marengo)
Davis’s heads-up play midway through the fourth quarter played a huge role in North Dakota’s 35-30 victory at Youngstown State. In the back-and-forth contest, Davis gave the Hawks momentum, blocking a punt and returning it three yards for a touchdown to put UND up 35-24 with 8:38 remaining in the contest. It was Davis’s first touchdown down of his career. With the score, it was the first blocked punt returned for a touchdown for UND since April 24, 2021, when Hayden Reynolds blocked Missouri State and scored in the 44-10 win.
Co-Newcomer of the Week
PK Ian Wagner, Illinois State
6-2, 210, R-Fr. (Sierra Vista, Ariz./O’Fallon HS)
Wagner returned from injury quicker than most expected and made the most of his opportunity against UNI, connecting on three field goals including the would-be game winner against the Panthers. Wagner, who missed the first four games of the season due to injury, competed in his first game as a Redbird and connected on 3-of-4 field goal attempts. He connected from 33 yards in the first quarter to put the Redbirds back in the lead and extended the advantage to six points as time expired in the first half on a 25-yard make. His final make of the game, which came from a career-long 41 yards, proved to be the difference for the Redbirds in the 23-21 defeat of the Panthers.