Arizona Wildcats Football Star Claims Big 12 Weekly Honor

The Arizona Wildcats have one of the best kickers in the conference and he showed it during Saturday’s loss to Texas Tech.

Dec 28, 2023; San Antonio, TX, USA; Aizona Wildcats place kicker Tyler Loop (33) kicks a 37-yard field goal out of the hold of punter Kyle Ostendorp (19) in the second half of the Alamo Bowl against the Oklahoma Sooners at Alamodome. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Arizona Wildcats placekicker Tyler Loop was named the Big 12 Conference’s special teams player of the week for last week’s action, as released by the league on Monday.

Loop is the latest Wildcat to win the award this season. Earlier this year wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan won the Offensive Player of the Week award after his massive performance in the season’s opening weekend.

Loop became the first kicker in Arizona history to make five field goals in a game in the Wildcats’ loss to Texas Tech. He also became just the third player in the nation to make five field goals in a game this season, which included a make from 52 yards.

One of his kicks on Saturday night was so long that it went over the net behind the goalposts. While he made five field goals, the Arizona offense was only able to score one touchdown.

Loop’s converted point after the Wildcats’ touchdown against the Red Raiders extended his perfect career mark of 116 consecutive made extra points. The Lucas, Texas native leads the Big 12 in made field goals with 12 through five games.

Last week he was named the Lou Groza Star of the Week and was named to the Lou Groza Award watch list in August, which is the award given to the nation’s top placekicker.

Last year he was a Lou Groza semifinalist. He finished that season 19-of-24 on field-goal attempts and kicked a 52-yarder against Colorado, followed by a game-winning 24-yard field goal.

Entering the season he had made 49-of-57 (86.0%) of his field goal attempts with the Wildcats.

Arizona (3-2, 1-1 in Big 12) is preparing to travel to Provo, Utah, to face the BYU Cougars (5-0, 2-0) at 1 p.m. mountain on Saturday at LaVell Edwards Stadium. The game will be broadcast on Fox. Provo will also host Fox’s pre-game show, Big Noon Kickoff.

This is the Wildcats’ first trip to BYU since 2007. The two schools used to be in the same conference. From 1962-77, the Wildcats and Cougars were in the Western Athletic Conference. Arizona moved to what was the Pac-8 for the 1978 season.

The series between the schools is tied at 12-12-1.

The Wildcats are in their first season in the Big 12 while the Cougars are in their second after spending more than a decade as an independent in football.

The other weekly award winners were Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo (co-offensive), quarterback Sam Leavitt (newcomer), Texas Tech running back Tahj Brooks (co-offensive) and Houston defensive back A.J. Haulcy (defensive).