Illinois State seniors Boomer Grigsby and Joe Walkins were tabbed as the Gateway Football Conference Defensive and Special Teams Player of the Week, respectively, by the league office on Sunday.
Against Youngstown State, Grigsby registered the second-highest tackle effort by a league player in GFC games this season when he registered 18 tackles, just three shy of his league-best 21 tackle effort at Indiana State earlier in the season.
The two-time defensive player of the year has led the Redbirds in tackles in every game this season. With the 18 tackles against Youngstown State, he now has 549 for his career. Last week, Grigsby passed current Redbird assistant coach Galen Scott for No. 2 on the Gateway's all-time tackle list. He needs 17 to break Eastern Illinois' Tim Carver's Gateway record of 565.
Walkins, who was only five years old in 1986 the last time ISU scored on a punt return, ran a punt return back 52 yards for a TD against Youngstown State, ending an 18-year dry
spell.
The last punt return for a touchdown was Warren Calhoun's 62-yard scamper against SMS on Sept. 6, 1986. In between that time, the Redbirds have had 545 punt returns that have never reached the end zone.
Walkins score off the punt return gave the Redbirds a lead they would never relinquish midway through the fourth quarter. He finished the game with 114 return yards, 53 on two punt returns and 61 on three kickoffs, including a long of 24.
Grigsby and Walkins became the third and fourth Redbirds to claim the weekly honor, following Yance Vaughan and Stafford Davis.
