In a week with many matchups that weren’t expected to be close, there were a lot of close games, including a scare for the conference leader, and an upset that’s left one team scrambling for answers late in the season. Some teams climbed closer to an elusive bowl game with others being eliminated.
Let’s start with the updated standings.
Week 11 Mountain West Standings / AP Poll Rankings
| Rk | Team | Record | MW Record | AP Poll |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boise State | 8-1 | 5-0 | 12th |
| 2 | Colorado State | 6-3 | 4-0 | – |
| 3 | UNLV | 7-2 | 3-1 | – |
| 4 | San Jose State | 6-3 | 3-2 | – |
| 5 | Fresno State | 5-5 | 3-3 | – |
| 6 | New Mexico | 4-6 | 3-3 | – |
| 7 | San Diego State | 3-6 | 2-2 | – |
| 8 | Hawai’i | 4-6 | 2-3 | – |
| 9 | Wyoming | 2-7 | 2-3 | – |
| 10 | Utah State | 2-7 | 1-3 | – |
| 11 | Air Force | 2-7 | 1-4 | – |
| 12 | Nevada | 3-8 | 05 | – |
Not too many changes in the standings from last week. Boise State is still the only ranked team, not moving in the AP Poll (though dropping in the College Football Playoff Rankings). Fresno State dropped a spot with its lost. And for the first time in a while, we’ve got a new team at the bottom, Nevada. Though that didn’t really change my thoughts on them or Air Force in my power rankings.
Speaking of which…
1. Boise State
- Last Week’s Rank: 1st
- Week 11 Result: 28-21 Win vs Nevada
- This Week: @ San Jose State
Boise State nearly fell victim to a trap game, being forced into holding off an upset-minded Nevada team that had the game tied at halftime and was within one TD entering the fourth quarter. Perhaps the Broncos’ should have seen it coming, given the Wolf Pack nearly took down SMU back in August. The same SMU squad now ranked 14th in the AP Poll. And while there wasn’t an upset, Boise State did drop a spot in the CFP Rankings to No. 13, though you could argue that was maybe going to happen anyway since Ole Miss (the one team to leapfrog the Broncos) beat the No. 3 ranked team and was going to get a boost big enough regardless.
2. UNLV
- Last Week’s Rank: 2nd
- Week 11 Result: 29-27 Win @ Hawai’i
- Next Game: vs San Diego State
The Rebels had their own upset scare, narrowly edging out Hawai’i to keep UNLV’s hopes at a rematch with Boise State in the MW title game alive. UNLV still needs help from Colorado State’s upcoming opponents, though, and it’s seeming less and less likely that the Rams are going to lose. But given some of the near and actual upsets we saw this week, don’t ever count it out.
3. Colorado State
- Last Week’s Rank: 3rd
- Week 11 Result: Bye
- This Week: vs Wyoming
A week off has given the Rams a rest before what’s now the most crucial stretch of the season. Wins over Wyoming, Fresno State and Utah State would guarantee a spot in the conference title game. This week may be the hardest of them all. Not because the Cowboys are the toughest opponent, but because it’s a rivalry game. And anything can happen in rivalry games.
4. Hawai’i
- Last Week’s Rank: 4th
- Week 11 Result: 27-29 Loss vs UNLV
- This Week: @ Utah State
Last week, putting Hawai’i in the top four kind of felt a bit too much. After seeing the Warriors going toe-to-toe with the No. 2 team in my rankings I’m a lot more secure in that decision. Unfortunately, the Warriors losing makes the road to bowl eligibility as thin as it can be. Hawai’i has four wins and two games left. The good news is that those two teams that themselves have just six combined wins (Utah State and New Mexico).
5. Fresno State
- Last Week’s Rank: 5th
- Week 11 Result: 28-36 Loss @ Air Force
- This Week: Bye
Despite the painful loss against Air Force being more than enough to drop Fresno State in most rankings, the fact that the Bulldogs two most recent wins (distant as they seem now) are against the two teams below them in my rankings (one of them being 33-10 over SJSU), it’s hard to justify dropping them below either. I factor head-to-head matchups in my rankings when teams are next to each other and that comes into play here.
6. San Jose State
- Last Week’s Rank: 6th
- Week 11 Result: 24-13 Win vs Oregon State
- This Week: vs No. 12 Boise State
The Spartans made program history by becoming bowl eligible for a third consecutive year, something that’s never been done before at SJSU. There’s a definite feeling of a turnaround with the program seeing as if they had one more win in each of 2021 and 2019 they’d be looking at six straight bowl seasons. Ken Niumatalolo has a team that’s on a good trajectory not just for this season, but for the years ahead. This week could be rough, though, seeing as Boise State is smarting a bit after nearly losing their perfect season to Nevada at hom.
7. Nevada
- Last Week’s Rank: 7th
- Week 11 Result: 21-28 Loss @ Boise State
- This Week: Bye
So close, yet so far. That’s pretty much been the story all season. Nevada has been in seven games decided by a touchdown or less and they’ve lost five of them. The Wolf Pack have kept it close against two teams currently ranked inside the top 15, along with several other solid teams. And yet they sit at 3-8. Life isn’t fair sometimes.
8. New Mexico
- Last Week’s Rank: 9th
- Week 11 Result: 21-16 Win @ San Diego State
- This Week: vs No. 21 Washington State
A huge improvement from New Mexico’s defense in this game, just the second time all year they’ve held an opponent under 35 points. Perhaps significant is the fact both have come in the last three weeks (spoiled only by giving up 49 points to arguably the worst offense in the conference, Wyoming’s). Hopes for a bowl game are not that realistic with games against No. 19 Washington State and at Hawai’i left on the schedule, but this team is fighting for that rebuild and seemed to have bought in to what Bronco Mendenhall is trying to establish.
9. San Diego State
- Last Week’s Rank: 8th
- Week 11 Result: 16-21 Loss vs New Mexico
- This Week: @ UNLV
The game against New Mexico was supposed to be a relief after facing Washington State and Boise State. Instead, it’s extended the Aztecs’ losing streak to three games. A fourth is probably likely to follow with a trip to UNLV up next and that would end SDSU’s bowl hopes in year one of the Sean Lewis era.
10. Utah State
- Last Week’s Rank: 10th
- Week 11 Result: 28-49 Loss @ Washington State
- This Week: vs Hawai’i
No one really expected USU to compete with Washington State and they didn’t for the most part. The loss eliminated the Aggies from a bowl but that’s been written on the wall for a few weeks now. The remaining games for them will be to salvage what pride they can and develop as many players as possible and then hope they stick around for the new coach.
11. Wyoming
- Last Week’s Rank: 11th
- Week 11 Result: Bye
- This Week: @ Colorado State
Kaden Anderson got his first start and it went swimmingly. Is it an indicator that the offense can now score points or was it just playing New Mexico’s defense? We’ll find out this week with a big test against Colorado State. A win would not only be wonderful for bragging rights over a rival, but it also might be enough to earn a free vacation to Las Vegas courtesy of what would be a very grateful UNLV fan base.
12. Air Force
- Last Week’s Rank: 12th
- Week 11 Result: 36-28 Win vs Fresno State
- This Week: vs Oregon State
A surprise win for the Falcons late in the season. It goes to show that even when teams are considered to be at the tail end of a lost season, you can’t overlook them because athletes are competitive at heart and they’ll take advantage of teams that don’t take them seriously.
The following were the official Mountain West players of the week on offense, defense, special teams, and the top freshman.
Offensive Player of the Week — Ashton Jeanty (RB) Boise State
- 34 rush, 209 rush yards, 3 rush TD, 2 receptions, 12 receiving yards
For the sixth time this year, Jeanty is the offensive player of the week and it ended a three-week span in which he hadn’t earned the award (kind of crazy that three weeks between winning this award sounds like a long time for him to not be the reining OPOTW). This week was also his first 200-yard game since Oct. 12 and first three-TD game since Oct. 5. Surely, it felt good to get back to statistical dominance and maybe it’ll help with a late Heisman push and a run at Barry Sanders’ rushing record.
Defensive Player of the Week — DJ Harvey (CB) San Jose State
- 7 tackles, 2 TFL, 1 sack, 1 INT (a pick-six)
A strong performance in SJSU’s bowl-sealing win. And it seems getting a pick-six is a secret recipe for earning this award seeing as last week’s winner had pretty similar box score totals, including having a pick-six. It was obviously a huge play in what was an 11-point win.
Special Teams Player of the Week — Matthew Dapore (K) Air Force
- 3/3 on FGs (of 35, 36 and 37 yards), 3/3 on PATs
Dapore didn’t have any kicks that were out of this world, but going 6 of 6 on all kicks is plenty enough to get this recognition, especially with it being in Air Force’s first win in three months.
Freshman of the Week — Lajuan Owens (LT) New Mexico
- 59 snaps with no sacks, hits, pressure or hurries allowed (27 drop-backs)
You gotta love some offensive lineman recognition. Owens played a key role in a big win for New Mexico and gets some justified attention.
Fresno State’s collapse from conference contender to mediocre team
Once upon a time the Bulldogs were meant to be the primary challenger to the two preseason favorites, Boise State and UNLV. Eight games into the season, things were going OK. Losses to Michigan and Washington State were hurting Fresno State’s top-end potential, but the only damaging loss for conference hopes was against UNLV. But with a 5-3 record, a 3-1 mark in conference play and three games left, a lot was possible.
Two games later and a lot has changed.
Fresno State went from being a shoe-in for a bowl game and an outside shot at a conference title game appearance to maybe getting one of those things. It started with the late collapse against Hawai’i but has only been made worse by losing to Air Force, a team that hadn’t defeated a Division I opponent all season. That same Falcons team, which had been routinely scoring in the single digits or low teens, put up 36 against the Bulldogs. It was nothing short of an embarrassment.
These last two losses have basically taken everything from Fresno State, which will now have (mostly) just a bowl game to play for in the final weeks of the season.
Chance for multiple teams to be ultimate spoilers (some have nearly pulled it off)
Roughly half the conference is now in a place where there’s nothing more they can accomplish. For the majority, a conference title is either a mathematical impossibility or it might as well be. For slightly fewer teams a bowl game is out of reach (four teams at that stage) or a fairly unlikely prospect. With those goals not there, a new form of motivation can form.
Boise State just showed quite a bit of their mortal side with the narrow win over Nevada. Now, it may just be Nevada’s ability to keep it close with almost any team, ranked or otherwise, but San Jose State will get to host the current conference frontrunner. Beating the Broncos wouldn’t be near enough to get the Spartans into the title game, since Colorado State would have to lost at minimum two games and UNLV would also need to lose one (or, better for tiebreakers, Boise State would have to lose another game), but a win over a ranked team would be quite the feather in the cap for
Wyoming is the team that will have even more motivation that just to play spoiler. Their opponent in this week’s Border War rivalry game, Colorado State, is in line to be in the Mountain West title game but has three more opponents with a chance to say something about that. The Cowboys are the first and would love nothing more than to help deny their rival a spot in the title game, especially since the Rams are abandoning the Mountain West (which will significantly impact this rivalry) in the near future. Wyoming has some notable momentum too. Winning last time out against New Mexico could have breathed new life into the team, especially its offense.
The final big spoiler chance will come next week. Fresno State, as explained above, has lost a lot of luster. But they could still take it out next week against Colorado State — provided Wyoming doesn’t get to the Rams first. A few weeks ago, the Fresno State/Colorado State matchup was looking like it could be a marquee late-season matchup. Now it’s become more of a spoiler game.
Some of these upsets seem unlikely, but the only two teams to really win or lose games solely based on who’s the better team on paper are Boise State and UNLV. Every other team has played far above or below their potential to get wins they maybe shouldn’t have or lost games they should’ve won. This week alone showed how close teams came to pulling off massive upsets, Air Force even pulling one off as a very unlikely spoiler candidate.
