Week four of the Mountain West football season is behind us and it’s almost time for conference play! In general the Mountain West wrapped up its non-conference slate this week. The Hatch Chile Bowl pillow fight turned into a track meet that no one saw coming. Tevaka Tuioti threw for 355 yards and three scores, while the Lobos rushed for 243 yards to win over New Mexico State 55-52. Didn’t see that coming.
Speaking of not seeing that coming, what a great win for San Jose State over Arkansas on the road. As the great Jon Rothstein would say, that’s the epitome of brutality. Meaning, San Jose State collected a nice paycheck, and got the win. Josh Love had a terrific game (more below) and the Spartans do something to bring themselves up from the dregs of the Sagarin rankings. A win for everyone!
In other Mountain West games, Boise State defeated Air Force for their first conference win of the season. Wyoming went on the road and struggled at Tulsa, and also still almost won the game. Nevada did its thing against a really terrible UTEP team. Fresno State took all of four quarters to finally put Sacramento State away. Toledo beat Colorado State, however, the Rams might be okay at quarterback? Patrick O’Brien threw for 405 yards and a score in this game. Not too shabby. Utah State knocked off San Diego State in an underrated game of the week. Hawaii took care of a pretty good FCS team on the islands.
This coming week will give us a Friday night game on CBS SN with San Jose State and Air Force. UNLV will head to Laramie to take on the Cowboys. New Mexico will go cross-country to play at Liberty. Colorado State will take on Utah State. Fresno State will travel to New Mexico State. The night cap on ESPN2 will be Nevada hosting Hawaii. Let’s get Mountain West weird to finish the weekend!
Scores
Air Force 19
Boise State 30
Wyoming 21
Tulsa 24
New Mexico State 52
New Mexico 55
San Jose State 31
Arkansas 24
Nevada 37
UTEP 21
Sacramento State 20
Fresno State 34
Toledo 41
Colorado State 35
Utah State 23
San Diego State 17
Central Arkansas 16
Hawaii 35
Mountain West Player of the Week
This week’s Mountain West player of the week is San Jose State quarterback Josh Love. Love was 32/49 for 402 yards with two touchdowns in the Spartans victory on the road against Arkansas.
Mountain West MVP Candidates
Hank Bachmeier, QB, Boise State – 19/26 for 263 and two touchdowns
Charles Williams, RB, UNLV – Idle
Jordan Love, QB, Utah State – 30/47 for 293 yards
Cedric Byrd, WR, Hawaii – Six catches for 54 yards and one touchdown
Cole McDonald, QB, Hawaii – 25/32 for 300 yards, four touchdowns, one interception
Mountain West Power Rankings
Boise State
Utah State
Hawaii
Air Force
Wyoming
San Diego State
Fresno State
Nevada
Colorado State
UNLV
New Mexico
San Jose State
The Quad Shot
What in the hell happened in Fayetteville that San Jose State came out of nowhere and –beat- an SEC team on the road. We’re not talking a Vanderbilt/Kentucky SEC team, we’re talking Arkansas. Not a great SEC team, maybe not a good SEC team.. but an above average team. And not only that, but somewhat convincingly. Arkansas tied the game up late, but San Jose State marched right down the field in five plays and buried the Hogs for good. This also might be the first time in the history of the Quad Shot that a San Jose State player has been named MW Player of the Week. First time for everything, I guess. But wow.. didn’t see that coming. On the other side of the country Hawaii defeated Central Arkansas, a ranked FCS team. I guess we could say the Mountain West > Arkansas.
Wyoming has a promising team, however, that passing offense and passing defense are very bad. Quarterback Sean Chambers is completing 38% of his passes and is averaging 109 passing yards per game with one total touchdown pass. I guess on the bright side, of his 71 attempts only one of those has been an interception. I’m starting to wonder if the Cowboys either 1. Need new eyes on the offense or 2. If the Cowboys should go the way of the academies and play some triple option. The Cowboys are running the ball extremely effectively, however the passing offense basically does not exist. On the flip side, Wyoming ranks at 126 in FBS in passing defense, averaging 345 yards per game. For those keeping track at home, that’s bad. The defense as a whole isn’t bad, they rank fourth in sacks with 18 and are 14th in turnover margin at +5. Things definitely need a change in Laramie.
I thought that Air Force would beat Boise State this week. Wasn’t sure if Boise State was for real or not. Thought the win at Florida State was good, but a bit of luck too. But the win over Air Force might be having me lean the other direction. The AP poll voters seem to be high on them, as they’re ranked 16th this week. Air Force seems to have been generally good against Boise over the years. I’d read some stat about Bachmeier getting hit quite a bit, so maybe Boise has some questions on the offensive line. Good enough to beat the Falcons, so I guess we’ll see. Currently the Broncos are the highest ranked Group of Five team, which matter for New Years Day bowls.
Non-Mountain West shot here.. but what a crazy week in the Pac12. USC beats on the Utes in Los Angeles, Washington State loses to UCLA in what will more than likely be the most bananas game of the year. No kidding, 67-63 win for the Bruins, who at one point were down 49-17 in the third quarter. All of a sudden the Bruins score four straight times in about five minutes of game time to get back within three. UCLA sealed it with a Dorian Thompson-Robinson touchdown pass with 1:07 left. Mike Leach is –definitely- missing former Wyoming coach Alex Grinch, who is now coaching defense at Oklahoma. Thompson-Robinson threw nine touchdown passes in the game for UCLA.