Press Release by Louisiana Athletics
After tying a school-record with four sacks and helping lead Louisiana to its first win over Southern Miss in over 30 years, junior linebacker Cameron Whitfield was named the Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Week, the league office announced on Monday.
The Houston, Texas native, who earned SBC weekly honors for the second time in his career, tied a single-game, school-record with 4.0 sacks while adding six tackles and a pair of forced fumbles in Louisiana’s 23-13 victory at Southern Miss last Saturday.
The win for Louisiana snapped an 11-game losing streak to USM dating back to 1993 and was the Ragin’ Cajuns second-ever victory in Hattiesburg in 26 games.
After not recording a team sack through the first four games of the season, Whitfield played a huge part in a five-sack night for the Ragin’ Cajuns as he collected his first sack of the season on USM’s second drive of the game before recording his second in the third quarter. Whitfield forced a pair of fourth-quarter fumbles on sacks on the Golden Eagles’ final two drives of the game, with his second recovered by Louisiana in the final minute.
The 4.0 sacks tied the single-game, school-record previously set by Rodney Hardeway (2007 vs. Middle Tennessee) and Chauncey Manac (2021 at Liberty) and were tied with Virginia Tech’s Antwaun Powell-Ryland for most by an FBS defender this season. His two forced fumbles were one off the single-game, school-record he set last season at South Alabama and shared with former teammate Kendre’ Gant.
Louisiana (4-1, 1-0 SBC) will return home on Saturday to host SBC East rival App State (2-3, 0-2 SBC) in a 6 p.m. contest at Cajun Field. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.