BATON ROUGE — The strong running of Matt Forte of Tulane and the defensive play of LSU’s Glenn Dorsey earned the pair this week’s honors as Louisiana Sports Writers Association state college football player of the week honors.
A panel of LSWA voters selected the pair after nominations from the sports information directors at the various football playing universities in the state.
In earning the offensive nod this week, Forte rushed for 170 yards and one touchdown in 29 attempts in Tulane’s 32-29 victory at Mississippi State last Saturday, the first road win over an SEC team for the Wave since 1989. Forte averaged 5.9 yards for the game, including three runs of at least 22 yards, including an important fourth-quarter run of 26 yards.
He scored what amounted to the winning touchdown with a one-yard plunge in the third quarter and then became the Green Wave’s clock killer in the final quarter, accumulating 84 of his yards on 11 carries. The yardage Forte gained was the most by a Green Wave player since Nov. 13, 2004.
Dorsey, a junior from Gonzalez, earned defensive lineman honors from the SEC for the second straight week, while leading LSU with eight tackles, including three tackles totaling 17 yards in losses in the Tigers 7-3 loss to third-ranked Auburn. Dorsey also had a pair of quarterback sacks and a quarterback hurry in the contest as LSU held Auburn to only 182 yards of offense, including just 60 yards in the first half.
Five of Auburn’s nine possessions for the game were three downs and out, including all four in the first quarter. Dorsey had a QB hurry on a second down for Auburn inside the LSU 10 that eventually led to a missed field goal.
Others receiving votes from this week’s panel included Calvin Dawson of Louisiana-Monroe on offense and Northwestern State’s Russ Washington on defense.