Bryan Cupito is Big Ten Co-Offensive Player

The Big Ten has announced today that Gopher senior quarterback Bryan Cupito has been named the Big Ten Co-Offensive Player of the Week for his performance last Saturday against Indiana.

Bryan Cupito equaled a career high with four touchdown strikes while completing 22-of-33 passes (66.7 percent) for a season-best 378 yards in a 63-26 victory over Indiana. The senior quarterback’s four passing scores equaled his performance earlier this season against Temple (Sept. 16) and in last year’s Music City Bowl (Dec. 30, 2005). He produced his second 300-yard passing game on the year, including a 347-yard performance against Penn State on Oct. 7, and the second-highest total of his career behind only a 396-yard effort versus Ohio State on Oct. 29, 2005.

Cupito led the Gophers to touchdowns on five of his first six drives of the game, including three touchdown passes, to boost the Gophers to a 35-0 advantage in the second quarter. Minnesota’s 63 points were the most against a Big Ten opponent since the Gophers tallied 67 points against Iowa in 1916. Against the Hoosiers, Cupito moved into second place on the school’s list for career passing yards with 6,673 yards, just 162 yards away from passing Cory Sauter (6,834 from 1994-97) for the program record. This marks the first weekly award of Cupito’s career.

Northwestern sophomore running back Tyrell Sutton joins Cupito as Big Ten Co-Offensive Players of the Week, while Illinois junior linebacker J. Leman was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week and Michigan senior placekicker Garrett Rivas was named Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week.