BATON ROUGE — Off two important conference wins, LSU quarterback Rohan Davey and free safety Ryan Clark, along with Tulane cornerback Lynaris Elpheage sharing Louisiana Sports Writers Association college football player of the week honors, it was announced Monday.
Davey was also named Southeastern Conference Offensive Player of the Week for the second time in his career. He was also honored after leading the Tigers to a season-ending victory over Arkansas in 1999.
Davey earned the offensive honors for his performance in the Tigers’ 38-31 overtime win Saturday at Tiger Stadium over Tennessee, while Clark and Elpheage tied for the defensive player of the week honors. The Wave was a 24-19 winner over Cincinnati Saturday at the Louisiana Superdome.
Davey, in leading the Tigers to the win over the 11th-ranked Volunteers, had the game of his career as he completed 23-of-35 passes for 318 yards, 4 touchdowns and no interceptions in just his second career start. His 35 attempts, 318 yards and 4 touchdowns were all career highs. Davey has now run his career passing streak with no interceptions to 59.
Davey, a junior from Miami, hit Robert Royal with a 25-yard TD pass on LSU’s first play of overtime, which proved to be the game-winning score. Davey, who played most of the game with a badly bruised ankle, was also named the CNNSI.com National Player of the Week and the Southeastern Conference Player of the Week.
Clark, a junior from Marrero, registered 11 tackles, one interception and broke up two passes in the LSU win. He helped lead an LSU defense that held Travis Henry of Tennessee to 89 yards rushing and no touchdowns. His interception came late in the fourth quarter at the LSU 11-yard line with the Tigers at that time holding on to a 31-23 advantage.
Elpheage, a freshman from New Orleans, had the Green Wave’s first two interceptions of the 2000 seasons. One interception in the fourth quarter helped stop a Cincinnati drive and seal the Green Wave victory and the other, in the Tulane end zone, stopped a Bearcat scoring chance after UC had reached the Green Wave nine-yard line.
For the game, he registered five tackles, four of which were solo. Elpheage is the first Tulane player to have two interceptions in a game since the last game of the 1997 season.
Also nominated on the offensive side were quarterback Ben Beach of Northwestern State and Tulane running back Mewelde Moore. The other defensive nominee is Northwestern State’s Kendrick Llorens.
A panel of Louisiana media made the selections based on nominees from the SIDs of the state’s football playing universities.
Also, Davey was named the Rivals.com and CNNSI.com National Player of the Week for his efforts against Tennessee.