DALLAS (FWAA) – Setting two American Athletic Conference records with 4.5 sacks and 6.5 tackles for loss among his 11 total tackles, defensive end Derek Parish set a tone for an aggressive Houston defense in a road game at Texas Tech. Despite a 33-30 loss in overtime, the outstanding effort earned Parish the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week honor for games of the weekend of Sept. 10, as selected by the Football Writers Association of America.

Parish, a 6-2 senior from Pearland, Texas, is one of two players nationally since 2000 to record at least 4.5 sacks and 6.5 tackles for loss and force a fumble in a single game. According to Pro Football Focus, Parish, who didn’t start the game, tallied 12 pressures. Both totals were career highs, topping his previous high of 2.5 TFL’s against Memphis last season.

One of his sacks and one of the tackles for loss came on third-down plays that stopped Texas Tech drives. In three career games against the Red Raiders, Paris has 18 total tackles with 13 solo stops and 5.0 sacks. His forced fumble was one of two by the Cougars in a game where they came up with three interceptions.

Parish leads Houston in sacks with 4.5 on the season and lists third for total tackles at 13 to go with 5.5 for losses, also a team-high.

Parish’s 4.5 sacks broke the AAC mark of 4.0 held by East Carolina’s Montese Overton (in 2015) and SMU’s Justin Lawler (in 2017), while his 6.5 tackles for loss broke the record of 6.0 set by Temple’s Quincy Roche in 2019.