![\"mountain](\"http:\/\/www.wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/mountain-west.jpg\")
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The latest installment of this week in Mountain West football was certainly an entertaining one. Laramie, Wyoming have you guys recovered from your hangover yet? The Cowboys shocked Boise State on Saturday in Laramie by beating the Broncos 30-28. The game ended when Chase Applebee hit Boise State quarterback Brett Rypien near the end zone and sent the ball flying out the back of the end zone. It was the Cowboys\u2019 biggest win since 2002 when the Cowboys defeated a ranked Air Force team in Laramie. The Broncos fell from 13th<\/sup> to 24th<\/sup> in the latest AP poll this week.<\/p>\n Until Saturday night the Broncos were in the driver\u2019s seat for the Group of Five bowl berth on New Year\u2019s Day. With Wyoming beating Boise State on Saturday the Broncos are no longer in control of that seat. At this point, the highest ranked Go5 team is Western Michigan, currently 17th<\/sup> in the polls. You have to think that Craig Thompson and the rest of the Mountain West administration probably had to be restrained from hurling themselves out of the nearest window, knowing that Wyoming\u2019s win cost the conference significant post season money.<\/p>\n It\u2019s entirely possible that Western Michigan could stumble and Boise State or San Diego State could crawl back into the bowl chase, however, PJ Fleck has the Broncos rolling right now and there\u2019s not much left in their path. The Broncos will face Toledo to close the season and could find themselves in the MAC title game. A lot of dominoes have to fall for the Mountain West to wrap up that bowl game right now.<\/p>\n In other Mountain West news, the San Diego State Aztecs absolutely pummeled Utah State in Logan this weekend. Another week, another 200-yard performance from Donnel Pumphrey. He is still the national leader in rushing, for those keeping track. Air Force needed all four quarters to beat Fresno State this weekend in Eric Kiesau\u2019s debut for the Bulldogs. San Jose State got a home win against UNLV. In the night cap New Mexico needed all four quarters to beat Hawaii on the road. The Warriors had previously been surging but stumbled against New Mexico and their triple option attack.<\/p>\n Scores<\/strong><\/p>\n San Diego State 40 Air Force 31 Boise State 28 UNLV 24 New Mexico 28 Mountain West Player of the Week<\/strong><\/p>\n Wyoming tight end Jacob Hollister is this week\u2019s Mountain West player of the week. Hollister caught six passes for 144 yards and two touchdowns vs Boise State.<\/p>\n Mountain West MVP Candidates<\/strong><\/p>\n Brett Rypien, QB, Boise State. 22-35, 295 yards, 1 INT. Mountain West Power Rankings<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. San Diego State Looking Ahead to Week 10<\/strong><\/p>\n This week\u2019s Mountain West action starts off on Friday night with Boise State hosting San Jose State on ESPN2. Air Force will look to complete the last leg of the Commander-in-Chief series against Army on CBSSN. Fresno State will take on Colorado State. Hawaii will travel to take on Mountain West Pacific division leader San Diego State. Nevada will take on New Mexico. In the late game on ESPN2 Utah State and Wyoming will play for Bridger\u2019s rifle in Laramie.<\/p>\n Final Thoughts and Hot Takes<\/strong><\/p>\n – Ron Caragher may have put off his mid-season firing by winning vs UNLV this past weekend. A fine win for the Spartans.<\/p>\n – UNLV, on the other hand, looked all out of sorts. Kurt Palandech tried getting UNLV back into this game but came up short.<\/p>\n – Anymore questions on Wyoming\u2019s long-term trajectory?<\/p>\n – Didn\u2019t see Hawaii losing at home to New Mexico. The Lobos might be quietly good? They\u2019re now one win away from bowl eligibility.<\/p>\n – Three Mountain West teams are now bowl eligible, Boise State, Wyoming, and San Diego State. Two more are within one win, Air Force and New Mexico. Hawaii is currently sitting at four wins and have a difficult schedule coming up.<\/p>\n – Going to be a lot of 6-6\u2019ish teams from the Mountain West heading into bowl season this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The latest installment of this week in Mountain West football was certainly an entertaining one. Laramie, Wyoming have you guys recovered from your hangover yet? The Cowboys shocked Boise State on Saturday in Laramie by beating the Broncos 30-28. The game ended when Chase Applebee hit Boise State quarterback Brett Rypien near the end zone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[34,32,54,807,581,603,214,334,50,48,574,52,575,31,155],"class_list":["post-6991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wyoblog","tag-air-force-falcons","tag-boise-state-broncos","tag-colorado-state-rams","tag-feature","tag-fresno-state-bulldogs","tag-hawaii-rainbow-warriors","tag-mountain-west","tag-mountain-west-football","tag-new-mexico-lobos","tag-san-diego-state","tag-san-jose-state-spartans","tag-unlv-rebels","tag-utah-state-aggies","tag-wyoming-cowboys","tag-wyoming-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nUtah State 13<\/p>\n
\nFresno State 21<\/p>\n
\nWyoming 30<\/p>\n
\nSan Jose State 30<\/p>\n
\nHawaii 21<\/p>\n
\nThomas Sperbeck, WR, Boise State. 8 receptions, 80 yards.
\nBrian Hill, RB, Wyoming. 28 carries, 146 yards
\nDonnel Pumphrey, RB, San Diego State. 32 carries, 223 yards.<\/p>\n
\n2. Wyoming
\n3. Boise State
\n4. New Mexico
\n5. Hawaii
\n6. Colorado State
\n7. Air Force
\n8. Nevada
\n9. Utah State
\n10. San Jose State
\n11. UNLV
\n12. Fresno State<\/p>\n