San Diego State running back Adam Muema rushes through the Nevada Wolf Pack defense for a gain on Friday night. The Aztecs went on to win in overtime 51-44. (Photo via Lenny Ignelzi of the AP)
This was a devastating week in the Mountain West if you’re one particular team in Utah, and a pretty devastating week if you were a team in New Mexico. If you’re in the state of Idaho, particularly the North panhandle, you really had a bad week. Also, if you happen to turn into the Mountain West broadcast of the San Jose State/Hawaii game you were treated to the serene voice of Robert Kekaula (thanks for this gem, @BlockU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbnsH0tSvXI) while the Spartans handled the Rainbow Warriors. Okay, I’ve been silly enough, let’s get to some recaps!
The week started off with BYU making the trip north on I-15 to Logan to take on the Utah State Aggies. These two teams have played very close in the past but this night would end in tragedy if you’re an Aggie fan. Mr Charles F. Keeton was lost for the season when he tore and ACL and MCL late in the first quarter. The Aggies are really going to miss him on the field. The Cougars got the scoring started early when Kyle Van Noy returned a Keeton pass for a touchdown on the first drive of the game. From there the Cougars never looked back. The Aggies lost 31-14 and will hope that that junior QB Craig Harrison can keep their season alive. Won’t get any easier this week as the Aggies will host Boise State.
In the WAC game of the week Nevada went South to take on the San Diego State Aztecs. Man was this game fun, if you’re into the whole no defense thing. These two teams were playing pretty close at the half with the Wolf Pack (two words) being down by a score 23-17. Running back Adam Muema got back into the swing of things for the Aztecs rushing for 134 yards and a pair of scores. The game looked like it was going to be over in the third quarter when the Aztecs jumped out to a 44-23 lead. Nevada quarterback Cody Fajardo (fa-hardo, not fa-jardo for those wondering) weren’t going to let the Wolf Pack go howling into the night without a fight. Nevada running back Kendall Brock punched in the last of his three touchdowns to start the Wolf Pack comeback (it rhymes!). Two more scores evened it up for overtime. However, once overtime came around the Aztecs took over and won on their first possession with Eric Judge catching his second touchdown of the night from Quinn Kaehler. The Wolf Pack get a bye week, while the Aztecs will play the waiting to see to see if our lame-ass federal government is going to let the Air Force Falcons play on Thursday night.
Speaking of Air Force.. thanks to a generous donation from the insurance company USAA the Falcons were able to fly East to take on Navy. Not a terrific day offensively for either team, and a fairly sloppy game for the Falcons. The Falcons committed three turnovers and never could get their offense rolling. Third string quarterback Karson Roberts got a warm welcome to the Commander-in-Chief series by getting picked off in one of his 14 pass attempts and only rushing for 31 yards. At times he looked like a veteran, but other times not quite as much. Navy, on the other hand, got quite a performance from their quarterback Keenan Reynolds as he rushed for 126 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Midshipmen to victory 28-10. As mentioned earlier, assuming our lame-ass government gets its stuff together the Falcons will play Thursday at home vs San Diego State.
I’m probably on an NSA watch-list now.
Ha, who am I kidding, I was probably on it long before this.
One does not simply go to Idaho and win by one score. Typically you go win by 2-3 scores, and if you’re Fresno State you win by like.. 50’ish. This game was over as soon as Derek Carr threw his first touchdown pass to Devante Adams. At that point the score was 7-0. I’m probably just going to hit the fast forward button here until we get to the 4th quarter when things really started to get spicy. The TL;DR version: Derek Carr threw a boat load of touchdowns to Devante Adams. Also, some running back named Marteze Waller rushed for about a third of his career yardage, 157 yards, and two scores. In the fourth quarter with a 54-0 lead Fresno State decided to pull the starters as they didn’t think Hawaii would return to the field and score on them. Idaho, on the other hand, scored twice. Chad Chalich had a game he’d like to forget going 14/32 for 100 yards 1 TD and 3 INTs. That’s a whole lot of bad. Fresno State gets a bye before they’re at home against UNLV.
I wrote that last recap while listening to Taylor Swift. Idaho will “never ever ever get back together (with the endzone).”
Speaking of never ever ever getting back together, I don’t think New Mexico will be getting a fruit cake basket from New Mexico State this year at Christmas after the manhandling the Lobos gave to the Aggies. Quite literally the Aggies could be the worst team in FBS, I can’t even think of a FBS transition team that might be worse except UMass. The Lobos did Lobo things by rushing for 541 yards (WTF??) in a single game. Texas Tech rushes for that much in one season, I think. Quarterback Cole Gautsche and running back Kasey Carrier abused the Aggie defense rushing for 253 yards by themselves, they combined for four touchdowns. Gautsche, by some miracle, connected on one of his two pass completions for a touchdown. Basically, all you need to know about this game is New Mexico scored 66 points, and won the Rio Grande Rivalry. The Lobos get a date with Wyoming in Laramie next weekend.
In the nightcap and for those of you silly enough to stay up until 1:30am and watch a game only shown online, San Jose State and Hawaii played football. Robert Kekaula provided some awkward and homer’ish commentary and I eventually got fed up and went to bed. The more and more I see of David Fales the more I think he may not be ready for NFL primetime. He’s struggling against defenses he shouldn’t be. On the other hand, he’s still better than all four of Hawaii’s quarterbacks. Norm Chow settled on just two this week, and it appears that Taylor Graham might be out for a few. Sean Schroeder came in and gave an uneven performance by throwing for 342 and 3 TDs, but also had 3 picks. David Fales threw for 318 and 3 TDs but had 2 picks. Fales has found a new best friend on the field, Tyler Winston, who caught 159 yards worth of passes and a touchdown. Schroeder spread the ball around to his receivers but it wasn’t enough for a comeback. San Jose State will take on Colorado State next, while Hawaii will be at UNLV.
This next week of Mountain West football should be much better. I don’t know how Utah State is going to be without Keeton. I’m sure Craig Harrison is a fine quarterback, but he’s no Charles F. Keeton. Boise will be a huge test for the Aggies. Air Force’s season looks pretty much over. Wyoming and New Mexico could break the scoreboard next week as neither team plays defense. Hawaii and UNLV should be interesting.. Hawaii’s playing better football and UNLV probably needs this win to be taken seriously.