Each week when the action ends we will take a look at what went right, or horribly wrong, from the past week of Mountain West football.
1-5
That is the record of Mountain West team against FBS teams. Colorado State was the only team to be victorious with its 31-17 win over rival Colorado. Boise State collapsed in the fourth quarter against Ole Miss as the defense wore down late in the game despite playing well most of the game.
UNLV might as well not bothered to make the trip by losing to Arizona, 58-13. Fresno State pretty much faced the same fate by getting crushed by USC, 52-13. Then there is Utah State who made an early error on special teams to allow Tennessee to go ahead and never look back, but despite the blowout the Aggies defense looked all right. New Mexico also fell to rival UTEP, but at least they kept it close by only losing by seven points.
Is Colorado State the league's hope for a New Year's Day Bowl?
While Colorado is not a very good FBS team, Colorado State beating them does give the Rams a leg up over Boise State and Utah State for a chance at a big money bowl game amongst the non-power five teams. There is still San Diego State but since they played Northern Arizona it is hard to judge them fairly, yet. The Rams running game looked very good with Alabama transfer Dee Hart rushing for 139 yards and two touchdowns, and his running back mate Treyous Jarrells had another touchdown and 121 yards.
Boise State is still a good team, just no longer elite
Yes the quarterback Grant Hedrick had four interceptions against Ole Miss and he does need to improve off of that, but take away the fourth quarter and Boise State was in the whole game. The defense played well with three interceptions, 11 tackles for a loss and three sacks. On offense, running back Jay Ajayi not only rushed for 86 yards and caught 12 passes for 93 yards, and Shane Williams-Rhodes who caught 14 receptions for 53 yards. However, work still needs to be done before their next game.
Maybe expectations were too high for Utah State
Despite Tennessee being a four- to six-point favorite in this game there was the thought -- myself included -- who felt Utah State could get the win. Well, that was not the case as an early special teams turnover really hurt the Aggies, as did dropping passes and an offense that was slow.
Chuckie Keeton had some good plays but he was not effective as he went 18 of 35 for 144 yards with a touchdown but he had two picks. The running game was bad as well with starting tailback Joe Hill rushing nine times for 22 yards, and some of that goes to Tennessee getting ahead early but the ground game was not good.
Hawaii a contender?
Either Washington is really bad or Hawaii is closer than everyone thought, the latter seems to be the case for the Rainbow Warriors. If not for two bad plays Hawaii could be standing at 1-0. A bad executed trick play that should not have been called even if the end around wide receiver throw worked, which it didn't, a field goal should have been the call. That led to a 91-yard touchdown strike. The other was a late hit that was called on by Hawaii defender Ne'Quan Phillips on a failed 3rd-and-12, but the penalty led to an automatic first down and then a touchdown. Phillips had plenty of time to hold up and not hit the quarterback.
Running back Joey Iosefa is the real deal as he rushed for 143 yards and a touchdown. Quarterback Ikaika Woolsey made some nice throws in this game and completed 23 of 42 for 207, but he needs to be more accurate and connect downfield.