Blake Gotcher spent most of Saturday night successfully chasing down Prairie View A&M ballcarriers.

He can spend Monday enjoying the fact he is the Southland Conference’s Defensive Player of the Week as voted by league sports information directors.

Gotcher, a junior linebacker from Little Elm, Texas, collected the honor after recording 23 tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble in the Demons’ 37-31 loss to Prairie View this past Saturday.

In addition to the leaguewide honor, Gotcher earned honorable mention Stats Perform FCS National Player of the Week honors.

The 23 tackles stand as the Demons’ first 20-plus tackle game since Ja’Quay Pough’s 22-tackle night at UIW in 2019. It also made Gotcher the third Demon to hit the 20-tackle mark in a game in the past decade, joining Pough and Marion Chapman in 2014.

Gotcher becomes the first Northwestern player to earn a Southland individual honor since PJ Herrington was named Defensive Player of the Week on Nov. 7, 2022.

Gotcher and the Demons return to action Thursday night when they travel to face South Alabama at 6:30 in Mobile.