CougCenter Player of the Week: Connor Halliday

When I sat down to tell you all what you likely already know, I realized that Connor Halliday has been our Player of the Week three times. Every one of those times, the Cougars lost. I realize that correlation does not equal causation, but it's kind of a bummer that Halliday has turned in his best efforts when his team comes up short on the scoreboard. Halliday has improved by leaps and bounds, even from the second half of last season when he really stepped up.

His superlatives from Saturday have already been well-documented here, so we'll go in a bit of a different direction and talk about his offensive teammates who were also vital to Halliday having such an outstanding game. What else can really be said about a quarterback who threw for the most single-game yards in NCAA history?

2nd Runners-Up: Vince Mayle and River Cracraft

I don't know who to reward here, so they share this spot. Not only did each of them catch 11 passes, Mayle for 263 yards and Cracraft for 172, Mayle and Cracraft caught touchdowns of 90 and 86 yards, respectively. That isn't too bad. In a game filled with explosive plays, these two stood out on WSU's side. In all, the Cougars had three receivers go for over 100 yards, and would have had four had Isiah Myers not had a touchdown overturned by review.

1st Runners-Up: Joe Dahl, Gunnar Eklund, Riley Sorenson, Eduardo Middleton, Cole Madison

Connor Halliday attempted 70 passes on Saturday, and he was not sacked one time. When was the last time you heard of anything like that? Could you have imagined such a scenario two years ago? Last year even? I raelize that Cal is exactly fielding the Fearsome Foursome out there, and that Halliday didn't have to wait long to find a wide open receiver, but that is still pretty incredible. The offensive line has been getting better every week, and they're all back next year. We'll find out how good they really are this week against Stanford, but for this week, they deserve a pat on the back.

Winner: Connor Halliday

This has probably already been written, but we averaged a first down every time Halliday threw a pass. I don't know what else needs to be said.