Arizona defeated San Diego State 38-20 to open the season Saturday, and Tuesday a couple Wildcats players earned themselves awards for their performances in the road win. There were a number of players nominated for weekly awards by the UA coaching staff, and in the end quarterback Jayden de Laura beat out teammate Jacob Cowing for the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week award while senior defensive end Jalen Harris earned the nod for Pac-12 Defensive Lineman of the Week.

In his Arizona debut, the Washington State transfer completed 22-of-35 passes for 299 yards with four touchdowns and an interception. Outside of the one poor throw leading to the turnover, he was able to have his way all afternoon against the Aztecs defense.

After the one turnover, de Laura quickly rebounded with a touchdown on the next drive. Head coach Jedd Fisch talked in Monday's press conference about the team's "next play" mentality that allowed his starting quarterback to have success in that moment.

"Next-play mentality is what we've continued to preach all training camp long, all summer long," Fisch said. "We practice saying it on the practice field. We threw an interception in practice. The very first thing you should hear all of our offensive players say to the quarterback is next play in the same regard if you throw a touchdown pass."

Three of de Laura's four touchdowns went to Cowing, who hauled in eight passes for 152 yards in his debut after transferring to Arizona from UTEP in the offseason.

Running back J.J. Taylor was the last Arizona player to win this award back in 2018 when he ran for 284 yards and two touchdowns against Arizona State.

It marks the first time de Laura has won the award in his career. He twice won Pac-12 Freshman of the Week at Washington State plus he was named the 2021 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year while with the Cougars.

The Wildcats defense was all over Braxton Burmeister and the Aztecs offense, highlighted by a career-high eight tackles (four solo) from Harris to go along with the lone sack recorded by the defense.

Fisch talked Monday about the success of the entire defense under defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen who was calling his first official game and why he received a game ball after the win.

"[Nansen] got his players to play with great passion," Fisch said. "I mean clearly statistically it wasn't hard to make that decision. We held a team to under 100 yards passing. We held a team that scored 38 points against us a year ago to 13. We certainly held a team that rushed the ball for 270 yards against us for 170. He got his players to play really hard. It was his first game as a play-caller and I thought that he did a really good job as did the whole defensive staff."

Fisch also touched specifically on the front and how well they did mixing it up. He mentioned true freshman Sterling Lane II and Russell Davis II as well as Kolbe Cage all playing critical reps.

"There's a lot of guys that weren't on this team last year that the defensive coaching staff had to get ready," Fisch said.

Kyon Barrs is the only other Arizona player to win this award when he recorded five tackles and 2 1/2 sacks in the Wildcats lone win last season against Cal.

This makes it back-to-back seasons Arizona has had multiple award winners in one week as Kyle Ostendorp also won Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week after the game against Cal last year.

In addition to Cowing's nomination for the offensive player of the week award, Arizona's coaches nominated linebacker Jerry Roberts for defensive player of the week. Ostendorp was nominated for special teams player of the week while left tackle Jordan Morgan was nominated for Pac-12 Offensive Lineman of the Week. Wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan was nominated for the freshman of the week award.

Oregon State's Jaydon Grant won the defensive award, Arizona State's Carter Brown won the special team honor, Oregon State's Brandon Kipper won the offensive line award while Cal running back Jaydn Ott was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week.

Arizona will need more of the same type of performances from de Laura, Harris and the rest of the team this week when Mississippi State comes to town for the home opener on Sept. 10 with kickoff scheduled for 8:00 p.m. (MST).

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