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The 2012 Mountain West bowl season was a disappointment as the league went just 1-4 in bowl games this year. The one win was Boise State's win over Washington in the Las Vegas Bowl. In reality the Mountain West should have won all five of their bowl games, as they were favored in three of them.
If we include future Mountain West teams, then the record improves to 3-4 as Utah State and San Jose State won their bowl game.
Not sure exactly what happened in the Mountain West losses, or why they did not perform as they should have. We all saw how Nevada gave up 14 points in less than a minute to Arizona, and that was just tough to watch. Nevada blew open that game with a 21-0 lead, and looked like they were going to win. The defense came up short, once again, to allow the Arizona offense get the win.
The Poinsettia Bowl was really the Kyle Van Noy Bowl as he won the game all by himself with two touchdowns. San Diego State was held in check by BYU's defense which held the Aztecs to field goals instead of touchdowns. That was pretty much it, San Diego State could not score touchdowns, or stop Van Noy from getting into the backfield.
Then there is the Hawai'i Bowl, not sure what happened there Fresno State, but they must have got off the plane and went straight to the beach. Well, quarterback Derek Carr had a solid game, but the rushing game was stopped and somehow SMU's offense actually showed up and just easily drove up and down the field all day.
The Armed Forces Bowl was the final game for the Mountain West in this bowl season, and it was terrible. Rice was able to defeat Air Force while going to their second string quarterbacks through the game. Air Force's running game was held to just 166 yards in that game, which was their second worst output of the year.
The one bright spot of the bowl season for actual Mountain West teams was Boise State, but they nearly fell the same fate as the others. Washington overcame an 18-3 lead to eventually take a 26-25 lead, but the most amazing thing about the win is that Boise State actually won a game by the foot of a kicker.
Mountain West is usually really good in bowl season, but 2012 was not their year, so that was your uber quick bowl game coverage from the Mountain West. For more, we have all of our bow coverage right here.