Offensive Player of the Week: Jeremy Payne, RB, TCU and Conner Weigman, QB, Houston
Defensive Player of the Week: Caleb Bacon, LB, Iowa State and Dalton Johnson, DB, Arizona
Special Teams Player of the Week: Parker Kingston, Returner, BYU
Freshman of the Week: Bear Bachmeier, QB, BYU
Offensive Line of the Week: TCU
Defensive Line of the Week: Texas Tech
IRVING, Texas – BYU and TCU had multiple award winners alongside Arizona, Houston, Iowa State and Texas Tech in the final set of Big 12 weekly football awards of the season. TCU’s Jeremy Payne and Houston’s Conner Weigman (offensive) were recognized, as well as Caleb Bacon from Iowa State and Dalton Johnson from Arizona (defensive). BYU had the Special Teams Player of the Week in Parker Kingston and the Freshman of the Week in Bear Bachmeier. TCU (offensive) and Texas Tech (defensive) had their linemen earn honors.
Rushing for a career-high 174 yards with a pair of touchdowns,
Payne filled the stat sheet in TCU’s 45-23 win over Cincinnati. He also caught a 44-yard pass from Josh Hoover to post a total of 218 all-purpose yards, which were the most by a Horned Frog running back since Robert Merrill in 2003. Payne’s rushing output marked the most yards by a Big 12 player for the week and the eighth most nationally.
Weigman orchestrated his fourth game-winning drive in the fourth quarter this season in Houston’s 31-24 win at Baylor. The Cougars’ signal caller finished his day with 201 yards passing and 121 yards on the ground and three total touchdowns. Weigman is the first Big 12 quarterback this season to eclipse 100 rushing yards in consecutive games. He also became just the third quarterback in program history to rush for 10 or more touchdowns in a season.
Bacon posted a line of seven tackles and a career-high three sacks in Iowa State’s 20-13 win over Oklahoma State. He became the first Cyclone with a trio of sacks in a game since JaQuan Bailey in 2020. Bacon also forced a fumble on a strip sack and had another quarterback hurry as Iowa State limited the Cowboys to just 229 yards of total offense.
With an interception, a forced fumble and a pair of pass breakups in Arizona’s 23-7 victory in the Territorial Cup over rival Arizona State,
Johnson earned defensive honors for a second consecutive week. The leader of the Wildcats’ secondary helped limit ASU quarterback Jeff Simms to just 114 yards in the air as the Sun Devils posted a total of 214 yards of offense.
While combating food poisoning throughout the victory over UCF,
Kingston housed a 55-yard punt for a touchdown. He became only the third Big 12 player to return a punt for a score this season. The wide out also added six catches for 126 yards and a score on the offensive side of the ball to push his all-purpose yards to 181 for the day.
Bachmeier capped the regular season by winning his seventh Freshman of the Week award, posting a line of 21-of-25 passing for 289 yards and a touchdown in BYU’s 41-21 win over UCF. After trailing 14-0 in the first quarter, Bachmeier was the catalyst for the Cougars’ 41-7 run by orchestrating a pair of 75-yard touchdown drives. The win over the Knights pushed Bachmeier’s record to 11-1 in his freshman campaign as he led BYU to the 2025 Edward Jones Big 12 Football Championship.
TCU’s offensive line helped pave the way for a season-high 544 total yards of offense in its 45-23 victory over Cincinnati. The Horned Frogs rushed for 238 yards, which helped propel running back Jeremy Payne to offensive honors this week. The unit also helped protect quarterback Josh Hoover, who threw for four touchdowns on 19-of-22 passing and 216 yards in the victory.
Winning Defensive Line of the Week for a Conference-leading fourth time this season,
Texas Tech shut out West Virginia and held the Mountaineers to just 180 yards of total offense. The unit helped limit WVU to just 37 yards on the ground, which marked the fewest rushing yards allowed in a game by the Red Raiders this season. Texas Tech finished the game with four sacks and 14 quarterback hurries.