Week 13 of the Mountain West season is behind us and we have our championship game set. Hawaii will come to the mainland and take on Boise State in the Mountain West title game. Boise State has, for the most part, had their spot locked up for the last few weeks as they show no signs of slowing down. Hawaii on the other hand had to win against San Diego State on Saturday night to decide the winner of the West division. The score, however, was what no one expected. The Warriors held off the Aztecs and won a 14-11 contest on the islands. The Aztec defense did everything it could to keep the game within reach, but the Warrior defense also showed up and held the Aztecs and Ryan Agnew in check. Boise State has won previous against the Warriors this season, a 59-37 contest in Boise.
The longest running rivalry game West of the Mississippi happened on Friday night with Colorado State coming up US 287 to Laramie in the annual Border War. In true Border War fashion it was a hard fought contest until the end. Wyoming used a combination of two quarterbacks and beat the Rams in Laramie 17-7. The Cowboy defense kept the Rams at bay most of the night and did just enough on offense to keep the Bronze Boot in Laramie for one more season. Quarterbacks Tyler Vander Waal and Levi Williams each had a touchdown to lead the way for the Cowboys.
Boise State went to Logan Utah and absolutely throttled the Aggies on Saturday. The Broncos rushed for 297 yards, including a 178 yard effort from George Holani, to further make a push to a New Years Day bowl game. Quarterback of the week for Boise State, Jaylon Henderson had 187 yards and three scores for the Broncos. Jordan Love, on the other hand, was 21/36 for 229 yards and a score but I’m afraid there was no stopping the Boise freight train. Air Force also throttled a team, this time it was New Mexico. Donald Hammond threw for a whopping 327 yards and four touchdowns. Hopefully someone has crunched these numbers, but when is the last time an AFA quarterback threw for over 300 yards? Just to pile on the Falcons had 213 yards on the ground.
San Jose State’s bowl game dreams were dashed this weekend as UNLV closed out their run at Sam Boyd Stadium with a 38-35 win over the Spartans. Charles Williams rushed for 186 yards and three touchdowns for the Rebels. Josh Love tried to keep the Spartans in it with 465 yards passing, but his four interceptions were more than likely too much to overcome. So long, Sam Boyd Stadium. Nevada came from behind and beat Fresno State on the road this weekend. The Pack was down by 14 in the third quarter and scored 21 straight for the win.
Coming up this week Boise State and Colorado State will have a Black Friday kickoff on CBSSN to open the week. Wyoming will take on Air Force in Colorado Springs. UNLV will be at Nevada in the battle for the Fremont Cannon. Utah State will take on New Mexico. BYU goes to San Diego State on CBSSN in a late season non-conference matchup. Fresno State and San Jose State will play on ESPN2 Saturday night. In the night cap on CBSSN Army will take on Hawaii in Honolulu for those that enjoy staying up until 2am watching football.
Scores
Colorado State 7
Wyoming 17
Boise State 56
Utah State 21
Air Force 44
New Mexico 22
San Jose State 35
UNLV 38
Nevada 35
Fresno State 28
San Diego State 11
Hawaii 14
Mountain West Player of the Week
This week’s Mountain West player of the week is Air Force quarterback Donald Hammond III. Hammond was 9/10 for 327 yards and four touchdowns, while rushing for 41 yards and a touchdown. Hammond averaged a whopping 32.7 yards per completion in the Falcons win over New Mexico.
Mountain West MVP Candidates
Josh Love, QB, San Jose State
Jordan Love, QB, Utah State
Donald Hammond III, QB, Air Force
Xazavian Valladay, RB, Wyoming
Warren Jackson, WR, Colorado State
Mountain West Power Rankings
Boise State
Air Force
Hawaii
San Diego State
Wyoming
Utah State
Nevada
Colorado State
Fresno State
UNLV
San Jose State
New Mexico
The Quad Shot
Womp womp for San Jose State. They had bowl game hopes right in their grasp and let it slip away against UNLV. UNLV had some extra motivation this week with the closing of Sam Boyd Stadium. Next season the Rebels will move into Allegiant Stadium, the new home of the Oakland Raiders. The new stadium will be a little bit closer to campus, but man.. that place is going to be a cavern during UNLV games. On NFL Sundays it will be filled with Broncos orange, or Kansas City red. Just don’t see how either team will benefit from playing in this stadium. Vegas is still cool though.. except I’m still fighting off a flu bug I picked up there three weeks ago. No, I did not pick this up at a gentlemen’s club or any other place if ill-repute. Probably.
Wyoming has now won four Border War games in a row. That’s really gotta chap the ass of Colorado State alums, players, fans, and administration. They paid Mike Bobo a lot of money to win games like this, and a lot of folks are probably now wondering why they pay Bobo in American currency. I’d guess that if it wasn’t for his buy out he’d be on his way out the door after this season. However, I don’t think Colorado State is too interested in paying that buy out. The Rams certainly have talent on that team, but they just don’t seem to put it all together at the same time.
Boise State straight up crushed Utah State this weekend. On one hand I guess I could see that happening. Boise State hasn’t looked like themselves the last couple weeks and Utah State has definitely not lived up to their preseason hype. All that being said, bad week for Utah State to play probably their worst game of the season. That last minute loss to Wake Forest at the beginning of the season seems like a long time ago.
I’m a little surprised at Hawaii playing for the Mountain West championship. I thought the Warriors would be good this season, but didn’t expect them to finish at the top of the West. San Diego State picked a bad week to not score points. Not that Hawaii was all that effective on that side of the ball either. Testament that while good defense does win championships, you need to score a couple points in the process. Wyoming and San Diego State have both been undone by this at times this season where the defense leaves it all out on the field and the offense just doesn’t capitalize, and eventually get those wins.