COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- San Diego State's Brandon Heicklen was named the Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Week, the league announced Monday. It is the first MW accolade for the senior punter and fourth by an Aztec this season (Kyahva Tezino, Matt Araiza and Luq Barcoo).
Heicklen helped the Aztecs beat San José State, 27-17, on Saturday night to become bowl eligible for a 10th consecutive season. Heicklen punted five times for 228 yards (45.8 avg.), posting a net average of 44.2 Four of his five punts ended up inside the 20-yard line, including three inside the 3-yard line (2, 1 and 1). Heicklen became the first punter to have three boots inside the 3-yard line since Brigham Young's Riley Stephenson had three in the 2012 Poinsettia Bowl.
Heicklen helped flip the field, giving the Aztecs a 24-yard average field position advantage (43-19), SDSU's largest AFP position in recorded history (since at least 1998). Off his punts, San José State averaged starting their drives on the 11.8-yard line. Heicklen punted twice inside the Spartans' side of the field and the ball ended up on the 1 and 2, respectively. If you take away the two times he punted inside SJSU's territory, he punted three times for 160 yards (53.3 avg.), including a career-long 59-yard punt.
On the season, Heicklen has punted 40 times for 1,774 yards (44.3 avg.). Heicklen leads the Mountain West in punt yards per game (253.43, 10th in FBS), punt yards (1,774, 11th in FBS), punts (40, T-15th in FBS) and punts per game (5.71, 17th in FBS), and ranks second in punts inside the 20-yard line (17, T-12th in FBS). Heicklen also ranks third in the league in punt average (44.35, 26th in FBS), fourth in net punt average (40.53, 33rd in FBS) and tied for eighth with a long punt of 59 yards.
The only FBS team unbeaten on the road with at least four road wins, San Diego State (6-1, 3-1 MW) travels to UNLV (2-5, 0-3 MW) for a Saturday night game at 7:30 p.m. PT.
Heicklen Named MW Special Teams Player of the Week
