The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: Bowl Week (Part Two)

Week two of the bowl season is behind us, and four out of the six Mountain West teams have completed their games. I think it is fair to say that week two did not go well for the Mountain West. Let’s revisit the good, bad, and ugly moments of the Frisco and Hawaii Bowls.

The Good

The Opponents

Look, I was searching for something nice to say about San Diego State and Hawaii, but there is not much to say. I guess you could argue that Hawaii did a nice job forcing turnovers, but that is about it. Ohio absolutely manhandled the Aztecs at the line of scrimmage and ran the ball with relative ease, which was quite a surprise.

Boise State’s 2019 recruiting class

Nearly a top 50 class with only 15 signings. Five 4-star recruits. I would say that December 19th was a successful day for the Broncos.

The Bad

This was quite a bit easier.

The Hawaii Quarterback Situation

What was Rolovich trying to do here? Is he trying to appease Cordeiro so he doesn’t transfer? Or is he that upset with McDonald? The quarterback carousel has been a suspicious one. Both quarterbacks struggled mightily with McDonald completing 10 of 20 passes for only 85 yards and two interceptions. Cordeiro was not much better, completing 7 of 13 passes for 83 yards and one interception. The Hawaii bowl was a messy game in general, but that style benefited Louisiana Tech.

Hawaii’s Defense

This is where we are really going to learn about Nick Rolovich as a coach. He was able to put together a solid offense this year, but can he build a defense that can make them one of the better teams in the Mountain West? I’m not so sure. Hawaii gave up over 450 yards of total offense to the Bulldogs in what was essentially a home game for the Rainbow Warriors.

The Ugly

San Diego State and Everything About Their Performance

I’m going to take the easy way out here and talk about the entire Aztec team. The offense struggled all year; bad quarterback play was going to come back to haunt them at some point, and it finally happened. Maybe the coaches were focused on signing day? I can’t imagine it had to be easy to juggle all of that. The Aztecs had one of their worst defensive showings in recent memory. Ohio running back, AJ Ouellette, asserted his will against SDSU’s front seven, carrying the ball 29 times for 164 yards. The Aztecs’ incompetence on offense was mind boggling. They decided to go with Agnew for the majority of the game, and he was constantly being pressured. Agnew failed to complete 50 percent of his passes, and the Aztec offense struggled to move the ball for the majority of the game.

The Mountain West fell to 2-2 this bowl season, as the conference will look to redeem themselves in week three. Can Boise State and Nevada save face for the conference? What were your good, bad, and ugly moments of week two of the bowl season?