Hello there again! I interrupt your regularly scheduled Mountain West Quad Shot, for the 2.0 edition of the newer and better Quad Shot. Brad is still out galavanting across the country so it’s Chad to the rescue. It’s now November which means college football is almost over (#sadface) so let’s enjoy things while we can. Now let’s get caffeinated.
The Mountain West Championship Game is now coming into focus. In the West division, San Diego State is in the driver’s seat but was on a bye this weekend. In the Mountain Division, there are four teams still in the mix with zero or one loss in Boise State, Air Force, Utah State and Wyoming. The Boise State Broncos had a little bit of a road scare vs San Jose State. The Broncos trailed by scores of 17-7, 27-17 and 34-31 but rallied for the win as they seemingly always do. The division is “up for grabs” but Boise State looks to be the favorite.
Elsewhere, Air Force and Utah State went back into the non-conference for some rivalry games. The Zoomies got a win against the Army and the Aggies dropped a game to the Cougars of BYU. They will both enter back into conference play this week with Air Force traveling to New Mexico and Utah State going to Fresno State. The most entertaining of the game of the weekend was on the islands and I’m guessing many didn’t see it (I certainly didn’t). Fresno State kicked a 37-yard field goal as time expired to beat the Rainbow Warriors. It was the Bulldog’s first time expiring win since 2009 versus Louisiana Tech. This game had over 1,000 yards of total offense and each team rushed the ball for over 200 yards in a defense is optional matchup.
Scores
Air Force 17
Army 14
Boise State 52
San Jose State 42
Nevada 21
New Mexico 10
Colorado State 37
UNLV 17
Fresno State 41
Hawai’i 38
BYU 42
Utah State 14
Mountain West Bowl Eligibility Update
Bowl Eligible Teams (4): Air Force, Boise State, San Diego State, Wyoming
Teams who should qualify (3) Fresno State, Hawai’i, Utah State
50/50 Shot (1): Nevada
DOA (4): Colorado State, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV
Degenerates Corner
For those who don’t follow me on twitter (@WyoNationBlog) I have been offering my “College Football bet of the Week”. We are off to an amazing start this season with a 9-1 record and 10.8 units of profit.
✅ Bet 10 of the CFB season is another winner! K-State beats Kansas 38-10 covering the 5 point spread. Unreal form this season.
Season Record: 9-1📈
Units: + 10.8 💰🔥🏈
— WyoNation Blog (@WyoNationBlog) November 2, 2019
It’s early yet but here are a few Mountain West games I will have my eyes on from a gambling perspective for next week:
Air Force at New Mexico
This game should have the potential to bet on an Air Force win (the early line has AFA -21.5) or on the over for points depending on where Vegas sets the numbers. This match-up has gone over the 60 point mark six years in a row (crazy!).
Nevada at SDSU
I’ll be looking at the under in this game for the points total. Nevada doesn’t score a lot of points and SDSU doesn’t allow a lot of points, Vegas has set the Aztecs as a 17 point favorite. Look for the over/under total to bet set in the next few days.
The Quad Shot
There are rumors going around that Wyoming QB Sean Chambers is out for the season even though last week Craig Bohl said Chamber’s MRI came back clean. This would be a big blow to Wyoming as they enter the toughest part of their schedule. No matter what you think of Tyler Vander Waal as a backup it’s going to make things significantly tougher for the Pokes who control their own destiny. If Wyoming wins their remaining games they would win the division. We will find out the status of Chamers today at the weekly press conference with Coach Bohl.
The MW bowl picture has become more cloudy. There could be as many as 8 MW teams eligible for the 5 MW bowl slots which would cause quite the headache for MW leadership. If Chambers is out for the season it could be a headache for the Cowboys too because bowl games have been taking into account injuries of bowl-eligible teams in the past several seasons.
Don’t look now but Colorado State is on a three-game winning streak. It should make for an interesting Border War in Laramie in a few weeks. I’m guessing Mike Bobo is wondering where this effort was for the Rams at the start of this season and the end of last season. This mini win streak probably saves Bobo job which I think is a good thing for Wyoming.
Defense wins championships is a familiar football mantra and we are about to see if it is actually true. San Diego State will almost certainly be in the MW Championship Game and they currently have the # 8 scoring defense in the country allowing just 14.1 points per game. The Aztecs are most likely to face Boise State or Air Force who both have offenses that average over 30 points per game so it should make for an interesting matchup.