Pac-10 Salutes Cougars’ Leaf

Ryan Leaf, who matched a school record with five touchdown passes in Washington State’s 63-37 foot ball victory over California on Saturday, was named offensive player of the week by the Pacific-10 Conference on Monday.

Leaf completed 13 of 21 passes for 332 yards and no interceptions as the Cougars, now 10th-ranked, took a 56-6 lead in the third quarter of the Pac-10 game.

Leaf also vaulted into the national lead for passing efficiency, displacing Washington quarterback Brock Huard. Leaf’s rating improved to 170.7, a gain of 13.2 points. Huard’s rating fell from 172.0 to 169.9 despite an impressive performance in the Huskies’ 58-28 victory at Arizona.

Leaf, who leads the Pac-10 in total offense with 312.83 yards per game, has five receivers ranked in the Pac-10’s top 25.

Arizona State linebacker Pat Tillman is the defensive player of the week in the Pac-10. He had 11 tackles, caused one fumble and intercepted one pass in the Sun Devils’ 31-14 upset of Stanford.

USC’s Adam Abrams, who kicked the game-winning field goal at Notre Dame, is the special teams player of the week. His 37-yard field goal gave the Trojans their first victory at Notre Dame since 1981.

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