LOGAN, Utah – Utah State football player MJ Tafisi Jr. was named a Phil Steele's Magazine honorable mention All-American it was announced Monday.
 
Tafisi was also named first-team all-Mountain West this season.
 
Tafisi is the third Aggie this year to garner All-America honors as junior wide receiver Jalen Royals and sophomore safety Ike Larsen were both named College Football Network All-Americans as Royals was named to the third team and Larsen garnered honorable mention honors.
 
Tafisi is the first Aggie linebacker to be named an All-American since David Woodward in 2019, and is only the fifth linebacker to earn All-America honors in school history, along with Kyler Fackrell (2015), Zach Vigil (2014) and Al Smith (1985, 1986).
 
Tafisi, a 6-foot, 250-pound inside linebacker from West Jordan, Utah (Alta HS/Washington) leads the team with 131 tackles and two forced fumbles and is third with 7.5 tackles for loss. In fact, his 131 tackles are tied for the 19th-most in a single season in school history.
 
Tafisi has posted nine double-digit tackle games this season, including in each of his last eight games, which is tied for the longest streak in school history. In fact, his nine double-digit tackle games this season are tied for the third-most in the nation. Tafisi is first in the MW and eighth in the nation in tackles (10.9 pg), and fourth in the MW in forced fumbles (0.17 pg).
 
Utah State (6-6, 4-4 MW) will play in its 11th bowl game in the past 13 seasons and its 17th bowl game in school history as it will face Georgia State (6-6, 3-5 SBC) in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 23, at 1:30 p.m. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN.
 
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