Trinca-Pasat, Wadley earn Big Ten weekly honors

Iowa won big in the Big Ten, so the league honored a couple of Hawkeyes on Monday.

Defensive tackle Louis Trinca-Pasat racked up three sacks, matching career and Big Ten highs this season, and running back Akrum Wadley rushed 15 times for 106 yards and a TD to earn B1G defensive player and freshman of the week honors, respectively.

The Hawkeyes (6-2, 3-1 Bg Ten) trounced Northwestern, 48-7, setting up a first-place matchup with Minnesota (6-2, 3-1) in the Big Ten West Division this weekend at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

Trinca-Pasat, a Chicago native (Lane Tech HS), had the three sacks for minus 29 yards. He also had five tackles and one QB pressure. The Hawkeye defense held Northwestern to 180 yards total offense. Trinca-Pasat was also named honorable mention Defensive Lineman of the Week by the College Football Performance Awards (CFPA).

Trinca-Pasat has started 33 straight games over the past three seasons. He has recorded a career-best 50 tackles through eight games, including 9.5 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks. He is tied for first in the Big Ten among conference linemen with the 50 tackles. He was honorable mention All-Big Ten in 2013 and earned Academic All-Big Ten honors in both 2012 and 2013. The weekly league honor is the first of his career.

Wadley has played in three games this season, earning his first career statistics against Northwestern. Wadley led Iowa's ground game with 106 yards on 15 carries. He scored the final points of the game on a 5-yard run and is the first Hawkeye in 11 games to surpass 100 rushing yards.

Wadley is a native of Newark, N.J. (Weequahic HS), who redshirted in 2013. He saw action on special teams in Iowa's two previous games before earning his first weekly Big Ten honor against Northwestern.

The weekly honors for Trinca-Pasat and Wadley are the first for the Hawkeyes since junior defensive end Drew Ott was named Defensive Player of the Week in Iowa's win over Ball State.

Senior running back Mark Weisman was selected by College Sports Madness (collegesportsmadness.com), as the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week. Weisman, a senior from Buffalo Grove, Ill., (Stevenson HS), rushed 20 times for 94 yards and three touchdowns. He scored on runs of eight (twice) and 14 yards, scoring multiple rushing touchdowns for the fifth straight game. He has nine career multi-touchdown games.

Weisman has 18 touchdowns over Iowa's last 12 games. He has 13 rushing touchdowns in 2014, a single-season career high (eight in 2012 and 2013) and the fifth most in a single season. He has 29 career rushing touchdowns, the third most in program history (Sedrick Shaw and Tavian Banks each scored 33) and the most in the Kirk Ferentz era.

Weisman increased his career totals to 2,311 rushing yards on 519 carries and now ranks eighth among Iowa's all-time rushing leaders.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com