Last season, Brayden Baker had a 21-tackle game that got him on D3football.com's Team of the Week nationally — but he was shut out of the HCAC's weekly award voting.

On Monday, the junior linebacker finally got his due from the conference after another monster performance, earning HCAC Defensive Player of the Week honors for the first time in his career.

Baker was all over the place during the Grizzlies' dominating 41-14 win at Bluffton on Saturday. The Bedford, Indiana native made a game-high 12 tackles, including nine solos and 1.5 tackles for loss, while also forcing a fumble, intercepting one pass and breaking up another as Franklin allowed just one scoring drive during his three quarters of play.

He was also named to the D3football.com Team of the Week for the second time in his career after his performance.

Heading into this week's home game against Muskingum, Baker leads the HCAC in total tackles with 62 and solo stops with 37.