USU's Turbin wins WAC accolades

LOGAN — Utah State's Robert Turbin has been named the Western Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week, USU's first Offensive WAC Player of the Week in the Aggies' five seasons in the league. Turbin also earned national recognition with a helmet sticker from ESPN.com, his second this season. He is the lone WAC player to earn a helmet sticker among the non-BCS conferences list.

Turbin, a sophomore running back from Fremont, Calif., scored five TDs in USU's 52-49 shootout win over bowl-eligible Idaho, snapping the Aggies' 12-game road losing streak.

Turbin accounted for 183 yards of total offense with 113 yards rushing and 70 yards receiving for three rushing and two receiving TDs. The five TDs ties a USU record, last done by Jack Hill with five rushing TDs vs. Drake in 1956.

It is the first WAC Player of the Week for a Utah State player this season and is the first since this same week of the season last year when defensive end Ben Calderwood earned the Defensive Player of the Week honor on Dec. 1.

EX-USU ASSISTANT DIES: Jeff Hoover, an assistant football coach at Utah State from 2000-2004 and most recently an assistant at Eastern Illinois, was killed Saturday night in a car crash as he returned home from a playoff game against Southern Illinois. He was 41.

Hoover and his family were riding with strength coach Eric Cash and his family late Saturday when their Chevrolet Suburban swerved to miss a deer and rolled over just south of Effingham.

Hoover's wife, Penny, is in stable condition at Carle Hospital in Champaign.