Last night, UAB upset Southern Mississippi at home, which is just throwing everything into confusion in CUSA East. USM had a chance to drive, down 6 inside the last 90 seconds, when UAB snagged a pick-6 to put the game away. UAB now moves to 2-1 in conference play, temporarily out in front.
Tonight, BYU hosts Utah State as they look to advance to 4-1 after beating CSU last week. They are, of course, heavily favored, and I do expect them to take care of the Aggies without much difficulty. And with that, let’s look at weeks 4 and 5 in the Mountain West:
What we learned last week
Air Force continues to roll, moving up to 3-1 with their only loss coming when Minnesota was opening a new stadium. They dispatched SDSU comfortably.
I warned readers about Wyoming after they gave Texas half a game. And as if on cue, they knocked off UNLV, who should have been coming in with momentum after their win over Hawaii. It looks again like the fight for 4th in the league is going to be wide open.
Utah isn’t done yet. They responded to their Oregon loss by beating Louisville soundly. I don’t know if they’ll win the league, but I think they’ll be in every game.
This Week
Air Force goes to Navy, 3:30 PM on CBS College Sports, in one of my overall games of the week. Both teams have been playing well lately, and this is probably the deciding game for the Commander in Chief’s trophy this year.
New Mexico goes into Texas Tech. That can’t be good.
Wyoming is in Florida playing FAU. FAU hasn’t won a game yet, so this should be a win for Wyoming, if the travel and relative unimportance of this game don’t get to them.
UNLV goes up the road to Nevada, so we have a nice state rivalry game. Neither team has had the start they wanted, so this is a chance for one team to get back on the right track.
TCU hosts SMU in the Dallas vs. Fort Worth matchup. TCU is favored by some four touchdowns. I think SMU will give them more of a fight than the prognosticators seem to think.
San Diego State welcomes New Mexico State. More bad teams hoping for a spark.
The late game, not kicking off until 10:30 Eastern, should be a good one- Colorado State goes north to play upstart Idaho, which will be a good game to help both teams find out where they stand before getting back into conference play.
Mountain West Power Rankings
- TCU
- BYU
- Air Force
- Utah
- Colorado State
- Wyoming
- UNLV
- San Diego State
- New Mexico