The Mountain West might have had the best weekend of the five Fringe conferences (although the WAC has a claim too), picking up two wins against ranked BCS conference teams. On the flip side, they have New Mexico.
Colorado 24, Colorado State 3- Not the way CSU wanted to begin a season that needs a turnaround. The Rams got behind early and never made a game of it (Prediction: CSU to keep it closer. 0-1). Next Week: Colorado State at Nevada
Air Force 65, Northwestern State 21- I don’t like to see FCS teams scoring 21 in the first half- that’s bad, even if your team is ahead. Air Force put the clamps on in the second half, but they’re going to need a complete game to compete this week. Next Week: BYU at Air Force
Oregon 72, New Mexico 0- Oregon could have easily gone over 100 but put the brakes on after halftime. Can Locksley survive the season? Will he punch someone after another losing streak to start a season? (Prediction: Oregon State by plenty. 1-1) Next Week: Texas Tech at New Mexico
BYU 23, Washington 17- Here the news gets better for the MWC. Washington led into the fourth quarter, but 10 unanswered points from the Cougars put them ahead. BYU’s dual-quarterback system seems to be working (Prediction: Washington to win outright. 1-2). Next Week: BYU at Air Force
TCU 30, Oregon State 21- TCU wasn’t perfect in this one, but they played well enough when it counted to send the well-regarded Beavers home with a loss (Prediction: TCU would win but not by the 13 Vegas liked. 2-2). Next Week: Tennessee Tech at TCU
San Diego State 47, Nicholls State 0- If you’re scoring at home, Nicholls State has been outscored 119-0 in week 1 games against the MWC. SDSU started a little slow, with a scoreless first quarter, but ran away after that. Next Week: San Diego State at New Mexico State
Wyoming 28, Southern Utah 20- Wyoming was ahead 28-10 after the third quarter, so they can be forgiven a bit for coasting to the finish. That said, if their defense struggles near the end of future games, we’ll look back to this one as an omen. Next Week: Wyoming at Texas
Wisconsin 41, UNLV 21- UNLV capitalized on Wisconsin mistakes in the first half to keep it close, 14-17, but couldn’t stop the Badgers running attack in the second half (Prediction: the line was 20.5 at the time and I predicted UNLV would keep it closer. I’ll take that half-point win. 3-2 on the day).
What We Learned This Week
BYU may not have dropped off as much as some (myself included) predicted, but we’ll really find out this weekend.
New Mexico is not a good football team. Well, we already knew that. This belongs in a section called What We Confirmed Again This Week.
Utah is not going to be content to let TCU hog the spotlight this year. Long way to go, but I like the chances of both teams being undefeated when they square off in November.
San Diego State knows how to handle a FCS team. Would have liked to see the same from Air Force and Wyoming.
UNLV and Colorado State still have a long way to go, but we also need time to evaluate the BCS teams that they lost to.
Week 1 Power Rankings
- TCU
- Utah
- BYU
- San Diego State
- Air Force
- Wyoming
- UNLV
- Colorado State
- New Mexico