11/3/02

Simms named Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week

	Chris Simms

DALLAS — University of Texas senior QB Chris Simms (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) was selected as the Big 12 Conference's co-Offensive Player of the Week, the league announced on Monday. Simms shared the weekly honor with Iowa State QB Seneca Wallace.

The 6-foot-5, 225-pound signal caller threw for a school-record 419 yards and set career highs for attempts (UT-record-tying 47) and completions (29) in the No. 7 Longhorns' 27-24 victory at Nebraska, which snapped the Huskers' national-leading 26-game home winning streak. He also added a pair of scoring tosses to junior WR Roy Williams, who hauled in a UT-record 13 catches for 161 yards. Simms was good on 15-of-20 passes for 246 yards and both of his touchdowns in leading the Longhorns to 21 second-half points. He completed at least one pass of 16 or more yards to six different receivers and tossed third-and-long (six or more yards) conversions to four different receivers in the three-point win.

Oklahoma FS Brandon Everage was tabbed the conference's Defensive Player of the Week and Missouri WR/KR Marcus James was named the Special Teams Player of the Week.

The No. 4 Longhorns (8-1, 4-1 Big 12) return to action on Saturday when they host Baylor (3-6, 1-4 Big 12) at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. UT will carry the nation's second-longest active home winning streak (17 games/tied with South Florida) into the contest. The game, which is scheduled to kick off at 11:30 a.m., will be available on a pay-per-basis on cable systems throughout the state of Texas and nationally to DirecTV satellite subscribers.