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They were teammates in high school and now they’re winning major conference awards in different parts of the country.
San Jose State senior quarterback Chevan Cordeiro was named the Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, while Wisconsin safety Kamo’i Latu earned the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week award.
Cordeiro is the first Spartan ever to win back-to-back player of the week honors after accounting for 339 yards and four touchdowns in a 40-7 win over UNLV on Friday night.
Cordeiro, who transferred from the University of Hawaii after last season, scored twice on the ground while racking up 109 rushing yards and added 230 passing yards and two touchdowns through the air for the Spartans (4-1, 2-0), who have put up at least 33 points in three straight games.
“Sometimes I just feel the pocket open wide and sometimes the defense has a good coverage and they cover all of my receivers and I take off,” Cordeiro said of his dual-threat ability after the game. “We came in and we handled business and onto the next. We need to keep our foot on the gas pedal.”
San Jose State is one of just two teams in FBS that have committed only one turnover total, and the Spartans have yet to throw an interception.
“I just try to stick to the game plan,” Cordeiro said. “Just play our ball, go through my progression and do what I do.”
Cordeiro, a 2018 Saint Louis alumnus, led the Crusaders to the 2017 state championship when he threw the game-winning touchdown pass with 37 seconds left to beat Kahuku in a game that ended after 1 a.m. at Aloha Stadium.
Also on the field that day was Latu, then a Saint Louis sophomore, who originally signed with Utah out of high school.
He played in all 19 games and made one start over two years with the Utes before transferring to Wisconsin in the offseason to join another ex-Crusader in junior linebacker Nate Herbig.
Latu intercepted his first two passes in a Wisconsin uniform in a 42-7 win over Northwestern on Saturday and is one of only two players in the Big Ten to have multiple picks in the same conference game this season.
“Pretty fortunate and blessed. It’s surreal,” Latu told reporters of winning the award on Monday. “It’s a team sport. Honestly, I’m just out there playing ball, doing my job, doing my one of 11 on the defense. I’m fortunate and blessed enough I have that front going up there and attacking the QB and forcing him to throw the ball up in the air.”
It was Wisconsin’s first game since Jim Leonhard was made interim head coach following the firing of Paul Chryst, who had been head coach since 2015.
Herbig, who was the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Defensive Player of the Year as a senior at Saint Louis in 2019, said he took Chryst’s dismissal hard.
Named a preseason first-team All-American this season by Phil Steele, Herbig has 24 tackles, five sacks and a forced fumble in six games.
“He’s a mentor. He’s one of my best friends. He’s a guy I looked up to,” Herbig said of his former head coach last week. “I know all of the guys in the locker room miss him. I know all of the coaches miss him … This is still his team, these are still his guys. He still loves us. We still love him.”
In other notes involving players with local ties:
>> Oklahoma junior quarterback Dillon Gabriel met with the media after Monday night’s practice and says he feels good and expects to play Saturday against No. 19 Kansas. Gabriel suffered a concussion in the Sooners’ loss to TCU and missed Saturday’s 42-0 loss to Texas. “I feel good. Body feels good. Mind feels good and just took it very serious the part of recovery and thankfully I’m home at this point thanks to all of the trainers and everyone.” Gabriel, a Mililani alumnus, remains in the concussion protocol but is a “full-go” in practice, coach Will Venables said Tuesday. Gabriel warmed up before Saturday’s game and was in uniform. “It was tough. Obviously I wanted to be out there and be there for my guys because we’ve put in all this work together,” he said. “It was tough to watch but also tough because I’m a part of it. Feel for them because I know how hard everybody works. It wasn’t easy.”
>> University of Washington football coach Kalen DeBoer announced during his weekly press conference Monday that sophomore defensive lineman Kuao Peihopa, a 2021 Kamehameha alumnus, has been suspended for a violation of team rules. Peihopa did not make the trip over the weekend to Tempe, Ariz., for the Huskies’ 45-38 loss to Arizona State that dropped them out of the Top 25. DeBoer said it hasn’t been determined whether Peihopa will play on Saturday against Arizona. Peihopa has appeared in three games this year and tallied two tackles. UW senior running back Wayne Taulapapa, a Punahou alumnus who leads the team with 406 rushing yards in six games, had only one carry in the second half against the Sun Devils while he dealt with an ankle injury. He practiced Sunday and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said Monday he “seemed to be OK.”
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