Gabe Hall, Richard Reese earn Big 12 Weekly Honors

IRVING, Texas – Baylor football junior defensive lineman Gabe Hall and freshman running back Richard Reese have been named Big 12 Players of the Week, as announced by the conference on Monday.

Hall collected Defensive Player of the Week honors after racking up three sacks for a total loss of 24 yards in BU’s 45-17 win at Texas Tech on Saturday. The Waller, Texas, native led the charge defensively for the Bears, recording half of the team’s season-high six sacks on the night. Baylor constantly found pressure on Tech’s trio of quarterbacks throughout the game, forcing five interceptions, its most in a single game in over 30 years. Hall also added a QB hurry to his career high-tying stat line.

Reese was recognized as the Big 12’s Newcomer of the Week for the second time this season following a massive effort on the ground. The rookie was once again a workhorse for the Bears in the victory, carrying the ball a career-high 36 times and rushing for 148 yards and three touchdowns. Saturday marked Reese’s fourth multi-TD effort of the year, third 100-yard performance of the season, and second three-TD output of 2022. He also added 12 receiving yards on three catches as BU won its fifth game of the season.

Now with 12 touchdowns on the season, Reese is tied for seventh on Baylor’s single-season leaderboard and also ranks seventh nationally in 2022. Since 2014, only one other Bear has rushed for as many TDs as Reese (Abram Smith, 12 in 2021). Reese now sits just 90 yards shy of Baylor’s freshman rushing record held by Shock Linwood (881 yards). He also ranks second nationally among all freshmen in rushing yards (791) and rushing TDs (12).

This is the second-straight season in which BU has had two Big 12 weekly award recipients in the same week, as Trestan Ebner (Special Teams) and Garmon Randolph (Co-Defensive) were honored on Sept. 27, 2021, following Baylor’s home win over Iowa State.

These are the Bears’ third and fourth conference accolades of the 2022 campaign, as Reese collects his second Newcomer of the Week recognition and Hall picks up his first-career Defensive Player of the Week praise. Reese becomes the first Baylor player in program history to be named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week twice in a season. Hall becomes the 25th different BU player all-time to earn Big 12 defensive honors.

The two Bears are joined by Kansas State quarterback Will Howard (Offensive), punter Ty Zentner (Co-Special Teams) and Oklahoma punter Michael Turk (Co-Special Teams) as this week’s conference honorees.

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