Week five of the Mountain West slate is in the books and I think we can officially say that Boise State is good at football, however, they are still not a state. Neither is San Jose. Nothing real surprising in the conference this week, the games generally played out how most thought they would. The only mild surprise was FBS newcomer Liberty taking the cross-country trip and beating New Mexico pretty handily on their home turf. The Lobos are in the midst of somewhat of a cultural shift on offense and there’s probably going to be a few bumps along the way, however, I don’t think they expected a beating from Liberty.
Boise State took a trip across the Tetons and landed in Laramie for a game against the Cowboys. The game was under threat of delay due to a forest fire burning near Laramie, which caused the air quality to degrade severely. The Broncos didn’t seem to care, as they got off a quick start. Boise State started the scoring with an 11 play drive that culminated with an Alexander Mattison rush from 13 yards out. The Broncos never looked back as Brett Rypien connected with AJ Richardson on a 21 yard pass, a drive that started at the Bronco 13 yard line and took 15 plays. Wyoming finally got on the board in the second half as Nico Evans took the opening play of the half 75 yards for the first Cowboy score. Rypien would connect once more with receiver John Hightower for a 41 yard grab. Wyoming had the final score of the game, a 72 yard touchdown pass from Tyler Vander Waal to James Price on the following drive.
Fresno State faced one of the tougher opponents they’ll face this season in #MACtion member Toledo in Fresno. The Rockets are known for their high flying offense. In Fresno I guess you could say that Rocket was mostly grounded. At one point the Bulldogs had a 49-13 lead as they headed into the fourth quarter. The Rockets attempted to make a comeback in the fourth, but as it turns out, making up 36 points in 15 minutes is a task that’s much easier said than done. At any rate, Marcus McMaryion accounted for five of the seven Bulldog touchdowns, four passing and one rushing. The Bulldogs also added in a pick six for good measure.
Onto the rest..
Scores
Boise State 34
Wyoming 14
Nevada 28
Air Force 25
Liberty 52
New Mexico 43
Hawaii 44
San Jose State 41
Toledo 27
Fresno State 49
Mountain West Player of the Week
This week’s Mountain West player of the week is Fresno State quarterback Marcus McMaryion. McMaryion was 24/31 for 368 yards and four touchdowns, as well as one rushing touchdown as the Bulldogs handily defeated the visiting Toledo Rockets.
Mountain West MVP Candidates
Brett Rypien, QB, Boise State – 28/42, 342 yards, 2 TDs
Cole McDonald, QB, Hawaii – 34/57, 341, 4 TD, 1 INT
Armani Rogers, QB, UNLV – Did not Play
Juwan Washington, RB, San Diego State – Did not play
Ty Gangi, QB, Nevada – 24/33, 259 yards, 4 TD, 1 INT
Mountain West Power Rankings
Boise State
Fresno State
Utah State
San Diego State
Air Force
Wyoming
Hawaii
UNLV
Nevada
New Mexico
Colorado State
San Jose State
The Quad Shot
The 4-1 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors took the 0-3 FCS San Jose State Spartans to –five- overtimes on Saturday night. You read that right, FIVE OVERTIMES. Did Hawaii show up to the mainland two hours before kickoff with no sleep? How does that even happen? Not sure if SJSU exposed Hawaii as a fraud or if this was a truly off game for the ‘Bows, but wow.. did not see this result coming.
San Diego State will spend the next few weeks without the nation’s fifth leading rusher Juwan Washington who is out with a shoulder injury. He is expected to miss six weeks of action. In the meantime I don’t think it really matters who the Aztecs have in the backfield they seem to find the next man up without missing much of a beat. On the same topic, anyone remember when Adam Muema believed in some weird religious prophet and disappeared off the face of the Earth?
Not sure what to make of this Fresno State team. When they hired Jeff Tedford I thought for sure he was going to be an amazing flop. But here are the Bulldogs in the hunt for the Mountain West title game. The Bulldogs’ only loss this season is a loss at Minnesota. In hindsight I think that’s a game they’ll wish they had back. That boat ain’t ready to be rowed in Minnesota.
An interesting stat I found, and this may tell a story of the Mountain West and how down it is currently.. they are 0-6 vs AP top 25 teams this season. If the Mountain West wants to be taken seriously as a conference that needs to be cleaned up. Can’t be five weeks into the season with that kind of record against the top 25. The conference currently is 6-13 against Power Five conference opponents. That’s also a number that needs to be cleaned up to be taken seriously as a contending conference.