After the long hiatus of the Mountain West Quad Shot I can officially say that it’s back’ish. Been an eventful year of adulting for me, so getting back into the swing of writing seems to be taking some time! Regardless, here we are and football is back!
Can’t say I’m too excited to see football season back, as summers in western Montana aren’t very long and I like to be outside playing as much as possible when the weather’s not raining or snowing! However, I’m sure once I get a tailgate or two under my belt I’ll be in full swing.
Big weekend for the Mountain West Conference, collecting some Power 5 wins and no losses that make us scratch our heads and wonder where things went wrong. Though, I thought New Mexico was going to provide some fodder with FCS powerhouse Sam Houston State in the house and scoring a lot of points on the Lobos. But alas, the tens of fans in attendance got to see their Lobos march to victory. Fresno State wasn’t really ever competitive with USC, however, they delivered one of the biggest blows of the weekend as the Trojans announced that quarterback JT Daniels will miss the season with a blown ACL. Quarterback Jorge Reyna could be a legitimate player of the year candidate in the MW, he collected a lot of solo yards this past weekend.
San Diego State and Weber State engaged in the pillow fight of the weekend battling to a 6-0 final in San Diego. Weber State had a kick return touchdown called back on a dubious penalty, otherwise we’d have seen a big upset. Weber State is a legitimate FCS powerhouse, but San Diego State should have been able to muster more than six points. Air Force and UNLV took care of business against their FCS opponents handily.
Nevada chocked up an impressive win over visiting Purdue. The Wolf Pack found themselves in a pretty big hole, but scoring 27 points in the second half while holding Purdue to seven seemed to be the magic recipe to beating the Boilermakers. A lot of scuttle around Purdue and head coach Jeff Brohm, I’d say the Wolf Pack stamped out some of that hype in B1G land. Utah State and Jordan Love gave it a shot, but couldn’t quite hold their late lead on Wake Forest as the Demon Deacons reeled off a 6 play, 89 yard drive to end the game.
Big wins for Boise State and Wyoming, both knocking off legit Power 5 teams. Florida State could be a contender for the ACC, while Missouri could be a contender for the SEC East (lol, they’re not winning the SEC championship). Good to see the SEC take it on the chin this weekend though. Onto the other stuff..
Scores
Missouri 31
Wyoming 37
Sam Houston State 31
New Mexico 39
Boise State 36
Florida State 31
Colgate 7
Air Force 48
Weber State 0
San Diego State 6
Southern Utah 23
UNLV 56
Fresno State 23
USC 31
Northern Colorado 18
San Jose State 35
Utah State 35
Wake Forest 39
Purdue 31
Nevada 34
Colorado State 31
Colorado 52
Mountain West Player of the Week
Boise State quarterback Hank Bachmeier is this week’s Mountain West player of the week. Bachmeier, the freshman making his first collegiate start, led the Broncos back from the edge of failure to rally the troops to a 36-31 victory at Florida State. Bachmeier was 30/51 for 407 yards with one TD and one INT.
Mountain West MVP Candidates
Hank Bachmeier, QB, Boise State – 30-51, 407 yards 1 TD
Sean Chambers, QB, Wyoming – 6/16 for 92 yards, 12 rushes 120 yards and 1 TD.
Juwan Washington, RB, San Diego State – 22 carries for 55 yards
Jorge Reyna, QB, Fresno State – 19/39 for 256 yards and 2 TD, 20 carries for 88 yards
Jordan Love, QB, Utah State – 33/48 for 416 yards and 3 TDs.
Mountain West Power Rankings
Boise State
Utah State
Wyoming
Hawaii
Nevada
San Diego State
Air Force
Fresno State
Colorado State
UNLV
New Mexico
San Jose State
The Quad Shot
Good weekend for the Mountain West in the first week of the season, collecting four wins over Power 5 opponents. One more over the Big 12 and the cycle would have been complete. Last year the Mountain West was written off as being no better than the MAC, this year there’s a good chance they could be the best conference of the Group of Five.
Most impressive win this week goes to Boise State who beat Florida State in Tallahassee after the game was moved from Jacksonville due to the impending hurricane about to ravage Florida. Broncos don’t seem to care where they play, as long as there’s someone to beat. If Hank Bachmeier was old enough to drink I’m sure he’d be the toast of the town.
Sean Chambers had a nice weekend for Wyoming, busting off a nice 75 yard run for a touchdown and keeping the chains moving. I’m still skeptical of his passing attack, going 6/16 isn’t going to win a lot of football games, especially when the rushing attack is slow to start. I’m sure his arm and confidence will improve as the season goes on, and he certainly has the weapons around him to be successful, but the passing stats needs to improve.
San Jose State collected their first non-conference win since 2017 when they beat the Big Sky’s Cal Poly. This weekend they were able to defeat the Big Sky’s Northern Colorado. Call me crazy, but I think SJSU might be a pretty good Big Sky team.