Week one in the Mountain West is in the books and we had another great weekend of football. Oh by the way, football is back! Hawaii technically started their season a week ago, but the rest started this week. There was a lot of lopsided scores this week, some of them in favor of the Mountain West some of them.. well, better luck next week. At the time of this writing it is now 10pm in Laramie and the Wyoming and Northern Illinois game as not yet kicked off.
The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors made another cross country road trip to face Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines. That trip didn’t go very well. The Rainbow Warriors suffered a 63-3 loss in Ann Arbor. Boise State made a trip across the country and beat up on Louisiana-Lafayette. Colorado State lost a really bad game to their in-state rival Colorado in Denver. Utah State and Weber State played the first game ever broadcast by Twitter. Tony Sanchez’s second season at UNLV started with a 63-3 victory over FCS Jackson State.
FCS Cal Poly gave Nevada more than they would have liked and ended up in overtime. Cal Poly has never been an easy out for Mountain West teams and Nevada was the latest team to get a scare from the Mustangs. New Hampshire made a trip across country to play San Diego State and lost 31-0. I’m guessing New Hampshire wished they still had Chip Kelly running their offense against the Aztecs. Abilene Christian put up a fight for a while, but ultimately was beat down by Air Force.
Scores
Michigan 63
Hawaii 3
Boise State 45
Louisiana Lafayette 10
Air Force 37
Abilene Christian 21
Tulsa 45
San Jose State 10
New Hampshire 0
San Diego State 31
Nebraska 43
Fresno State 10
Northern Illinois 34
Wyoming 40
Weber State 6
Utah State 45
South Dakota 21
New Mexico 48
Jackson State 13
UNLV 63
Colorado State 7
Colorado 44
Cal Poly 27
Nevada 30
Player of the Week
Thomas Sperbeck, Boise State. Sperbeck had six receptions, 130 yards, and one touchdown in Boise State’s victory over Louisiana-Lafayette.
Mountain West MVP Candidates
Brett Rypien, Boise State, 22/33 347 yards and two touchdowns.
Thomas Sperbeck, Boise State, 6 receptions, 130 yards, two touchdowns. 1/1 passing, 48 yards, one touchdown.
Donnell Pumphrey, San Diego State, 21 carries, 98 yards, 1 touchdown. 4 receptions, 41 yards.
Devante Mays, Utah State, 18 carries, 208 yards and three touchdowns.
Brian Hill, Wyoming, 33 carries, 132 yards, two touchdowns.
Mountain West Power Rankings
1. Boise State
2. San Diego State
3. Air Force
4. Utah State
5. New Mexico
6. Wyoming
7. UNLV
8. Nevada
9. Fresno State
10. Colorado State
11. San Jose State
12. Hawaii
Final Thoughts and Hot Takes
– Colorado State losing to Colorado is one thing, but to lose by 37 points? That’s unbelievable. The Rams were supposed to perhaps contend for a Mountain West title, but getting scrubbed by a Pac12 bottom dweller is not how you make a case for Big 12 membership.
– Schedule makers didn’t do Hawaii any favors by booking them in back to back weeks traveling a ridiculous distance. They should have had a week off between those two contests. Honolulu to Sydney to Honolulu to Ann Arbor and back to Honolulu just isn’t how you keep the grades up of your student athletes.
– Without watching the game and looking at it on the surface it appears that Boise State might be a pretty good team this year. Drubbing Louisiana-Lafayette on the road is impressive. Boise State isn’t getting a lot of attention this year given the amount of success that Houston is having. Boise State needs to be rooting for Houston to lose a contest and take care of business on their end.
– Brett Rypien and Thomas Sperbeck are two names that we’re going to see in this blog a lot, I have a feeling. They do pretty good things with the football in their hands.
– As we discovered at the tailgates in Laramie this weekend… don’t put Vegas money down on San Jose State on the road. You will lose your money.
– Great win for Wyoming over Northern Illinois. This Wyoming team is much better than last year.