Herndon named Big 12 Player of the Week

After garnering national defensive player of the week honors on Sunday, Kansas State defensive back Courtney Herndon has been named the Big 12 Co-Defensive Player of the Week after his stellar performance against Montana State, the league office has announced.

Herndon, a Dallas, Texas, native had a game for the ages on Saturday against the Bobcats as he returned a fumble 43 yards for a touchdown, blocked a punt that was recovered for another touchdown, intercepted a pass and returned it 26 yards to set up another K-State touchdown and recorded four total tackles, one of which went for a loss, and a pass breakup. In all, Herndon scored or played a part in 21 non-offensive points for the Wildcats.

Herndon has led a K-State defense in each of the past two weeks that has given up just 198.0 yards of total offense and 8.0 points a game. The Wildcats scored touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams for the 16th time in school history on Saturday and upped their non-offensive touchdowns mark to 62 since 1990, which is second-best in the country.

The honor, following Josh Freeman last week, marks the first time since November 4 and 11 of 2006 that a Wildcat has been named Big 12 Player of the Week in consecutive weeks as Freeman won back-to-back honors following the Colorado and Texas contests. Jordy Nelson (offense) and Ian Campbell (defense) were also honored last season during the same week following the Cats' win at Texas.

Herndon shared the weekly defensive honor with Colorado defensive back Cha'pelle Brown, while Oklahoma State's Dez Bryant took offensive honors and Nebraska wide receiver Niles Paul took special teams honors.

Kansas State returns to action on Wednesday, September 17, as it travels to face Louisville in a nationally-televised matchup on ESPN2 with the Cardinals. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. CT.