Utah's Sakoda, BYU's Pitta earn MWC honors

Louie, Louie. He did it again.

This time, however, Utah's Louie Sakoda set a record.

For the 11th time in his career, the All-American kicker/punter has been named the Mountain West Conference's Special Teams Player of the Week. Sakoda has now surpassed former BYU quarterback John Beck as the player with the most weekly awards in conference history.

Sakoda, who is in the running for several national accolades, including the Draddy Trophy, Lowe's Senior Class, Ray Guy and Lou Groza awards, has been honored by the league four times this season.

"It's a big deal. It's something I take pride in," Sakoda said. "It makes me work that much harder to prove that I deserve to be up there. We'll see what else I can do this season."

In last weekend's 13-10 win at New Mexico, Sakoda scored seven points — making two field goals and a PAT. He also placed four punts inside the 20, including a final kick that was downed on the 1-yard line.

BYU's Dennis Pitta was named the MWC's co-Offensive Player of the Week. The tight end, who shares the award with Wyoming running back Devin Moore, gave the Cougars first downs on nine of his 12 catches in Saturday's 45-42 win at Colorado State. He capped things off with a game-winning 17-yard touchdown reception with 22 seconds remaining.

TCU's Jerry Hughes was named MWC Defensive Player of the Week.

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E-mail: dirk@desnews.com