The Mountain West football season got into full action this past weekend with a smattering of games. Utah State opened up the weekend by taking on Wisconsin at Camp Randall. For a while it looked like Utah State was going to be looking for an upset against the ninth ranked Badgers, however, Wisconsin ripped off 59 straight points in just over two quarters to beat the Aggies.

Colorado State and Colorado resumed their rivalry game in Denver this past weekend. The Rams were coming off of a week 0 win over Oregon State to open their new home, did not score nearly as many points this weekend. The Rams were held to three points against their in-state rivals, the Colorado Buffaloes.

Wyoming went on the road to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes at Kinnick Stadium. Wyoming’s Josh Allen was looking for a statement win to pad his resume. What he got was sacked three times and throwing for less than 200 yards in a 24-3 loss to the Hawkeyes. Allen will be breaking in a new receiving corps and backfield this season, a season filled with very high expectations.

Air Force took care of business against FCS Virginia Military 62-0. New Mexico took care of their FCS opponent, Abilene Christian. San Diego State beat FCS UC-Davis 38-17. San Jose State beat their FCS opener Cal Poly 34-13. Fresno State beat their FCS opponent Incarnate Word 66-0. Hawaii closed the FCS games this week by beating Western Carolina 44-18.

Nevada was on the road in Chicago taking on Northwestern this weekend. The Wolfpack was breaking in their new head coach, Jay Norvell. Norvell is replacing Brian Polian, who was fired after last season. The Wolf Pack couldn’t pull out a win, but gave a good performance on the road against a B1G team coming off of their own good season.

Boise State got a battle from Sun Belt opponent Troy this past weekend. The Broncos pulled out a 24-13 win against the Trojans, but took some work from the Broncos. The Trojan defense played exceptionally well against the high octane Bronco offense. The game wasn’t fully out of reach until late in the fourth quarter when Jake Roh caught a touchdown pass to put the game out of reach.

In this week’s most embarrassing loss, the UNLV Rebels lost to FCS Howard, a team who has collectively won three games in the past two season. The Bison put 43 points on the Rebels on the road. Tony Sanchez may not yet be on the hot seat, but you have to think that the hand-picked candidate to lead the Rebels isn’t feeling too comfortable so far this season.

Scores

Utah State 10
Wisconsin 59

Colorado State 3
Colorado 17

Wyoming 3
Iowa 24

VMI 0
Air Force 62

Nevada 20
Northwestern 31

Troy 13
Boise State 24

Cal Poly 13
San Jose State 34

Abilene Christian 14
New Mexico 38

UC Davis 17
San Diego State 38

Howard 43
UNLV 40

Incarnate Word 0
Fresno State 66

Western Carolina 18
Hawaii 41

Mountain West Player of the Week

Rashaad Penny, RB, San Diego State. Penny had 197 yards rushing n 21 carries and two touchdowns in the Aztecs season opening win over UC-Davis.

Mountain West MVP Candidates

Rashaad Penny, RB, San Diego State
Josh Allen, QB, Wyoming
Brett Rypien, QB, Boise State
Nick Stevens, QB, Colorado State
Lamar Jordan, QB, New Mexico

Mountain West Power Rankings

1. San Diego State
2. Boise State
3. Colorado State
4. Wyoming
5. New Mexico
6. Air Force
7. Fresno State
8. Nevada
9. Hawaii
10. Utah State
11. San Jose State
12. UNLV

Final Thoughts and Hot Takes

UNLV… man. People are clowning the quality of the Mountain West as it is, to lose to one of the FCS’s worst teams from last year isn’t helping.

Would have been nice to see Josh Allen have an amazing game vs Iowa, but the Hawkeyes are very tough at home. Their coach is one of the longest tenured coaches in college football right now for a reason.

Glad to see the rest of the Mountain West take care of business against the FCS opponents. Doesn’t appear that any of them struggled to win their respective games.

The power rankings above could be shuffled a number of different ways between 3-6, any of those teams could be in any of those spots. Waiting to see what Fresno State brings to the table this season, as with Hawaii. The West division has been nothing spectacular the past two seasons, San Diego State needs some competition at the top.

College football is back.