Week 0 Mountain West Watch — Hawaii heroics, UNLV’s near-miss, Fresno’s forgettable afternoon | Sports

College football has mercifully returned to within our midst and it delivered a great slate of games for unofficially dubbed “Week 0.” Three of the five games had final scores within one touchdown and the Mountain West had a hand in two of those contests.

This week will be a diet version of future editions of Mountain West Watch, kind of like how Week 0 is a diet version of the start of college football. We’ll be taking deeper dives into risers, fallers, players of the week and more. For this week, I’ll start with my initial power rankings, flavored by the Week 0 results. To be honest, I’m not sure Saturday’s games significantly altered where I would have had many of these teams prior to the opening weekend.

Walker’s MW Power Rankings 

1. Boise State

• Last Week: N/A
• Week 1 game: @ South Florida (Thursday)

Until proven otherwise, the Broncos are going to be remaining at the top of the power rankings. It may be a while, especially since my number two and three teams were both…not good…in week one.

2. UNLV

• Last Week: 38-31 win over Idaho State
• Week 1 game: @ Sam Houston (Friday)

Keeping the Rebels at number two after that showing against Idaho State? Well, tell me who you’re number two is. Fresno State (see below) didn’t exactly have a stellar Week 0 and say with a straight face you’d put San Jose State second in the power rankings. Let’s keep calm and not do anything irrational with just one game as a sample size.

The one major concern was simply how long it took UNLV to wake up and finally get their rear in gear. When push came to shove, the Rebels scored on three of their final five drives (not including truly final one where they ran out the clock) with one of those failed drives being a missed field goal so they were still in scoring position. Along with that, UNLV’s defense, which was getting shredded online for how badly it’d been playing, stopped the Bengals on their final three drives and allowed just 3.5 yards per play on those possessions.

There are things UNLV ought to be addressing, but there’s no reason to be casting them into the pit of fraud teams (at least not yet).

3. Fresno State

• Last Week: 31-7 loss at Kansas
• Week 1 Game: vs Georgia Southern

If the Bulldogs had just not gotten themselves blown out, maybe they could have shifted up to number two in my rankings. They just didn’t look great. The run game was awful, averaging just 1.3 yards per carry (even factoring out QB sacks, the average doesn’t rise above 2.4). EJ Warner was sacked too many times to get comfortable and had three turnovers (two interceptions, one lost fumble). And while Kansas didn’t put up an insane amount of points, they scored on five of their first six offensive possessions and ended with very good overall efficiency (completing 18 of 20 passes and averaging 6.2 yards per rush when excluding end-of-game kneel-downs).

The Warner turnovers were especially worrying because that’s one of his biggest concerns overall. He leads active QBs in interceptions since 2022 (now up to 39). If he can’t protect the ball, Fresno State is going to have issues all year, especially if the run game is as poor as it was in game one.

Even with those negatives, I’m going to hang with the Bulldogs so long as this bad week remains isolated against higher-level competition. If they put up another dud against Georgia Southern, they’re going to plummet in these rankings quickly.

4. San Jose State

• Last Week: N/A
• Week 1 Game: vs Central Michigan (Friday)

OK, I took a bit of a dig at the Spartans in my comments about UNLV, but they’re actually just a few good weeks away from finding themselves as serious contenders for one of the top spots in the power rankings. A good showing against Central Michigan would go a long way. And a lot of Mountain West fans should be watching that late Friday 8:30 kickoff on FS1.

5. Hawaii

• Last Week: 23-20 win over Stanford
• Week 1 Game: @ Arizona

Maybe I’m not giving Hawaii enough credit for its win over Stanford. Even if the Cardinal aren’t one of the premiere Power Four teams, they still are one. And the Warriors managed a win despite having a one-legged redshirt freshman playing at quarterback for half of the game. The problem is that I watched the game and my goodness that Stanford team is just awful. Sure, a win is a win and Hawaii looked good in places (and having a healthier Micah Alejado would have led to not needing a walk-off field goal to get a win at home), but it’s hard to give significant credit for beating an awful football team.

6. Colorado State

• Last Week: N/A
• Week 1 Game: @ Washington

Colorado State is kind of just in the middle for me right now because it was a team that was a bit of a fake contender last year so I’m hesitant to put them toward the top, but they also are not one of the bottom teams in the conference. I will very much appreciate getting a chance to see them at work this Saturday, but a road game at Washington may not be the best way to truly get to know the Rams.

7. Utah State

• Last Week: N/A
• Week 1 Game: vs UTEP 

The Aggies are very optimistic about the upcoming season, but they’re probably going to be the only ones to share that optimism for a while as everyone else waits for them to prove their worth. Utah State returns almost nobody from a 4-8 team last year, which may be a good thing for long-term growth, but it means nobody knows anything about the team (which new head coach Bronco Mendenhall very much prefers).

8. San Diego State

• Last Week: N/A
• Week 1 Game: vs Stony Brook

I’m a little more bearish on San Diego State than others in the Mountain West. A lot of that was being wholly uninspired by year one of Sean Lewis which hasn’t inspired optimism from me about year two. It’s possible that Lewis simply established a foundation in that first season that he’ll build on in the future. That’s been a workable formula for many coaches who have “bad” first seasons and then go on to be rather successful. I’m just not giving Lewis the benefit of the doubt right now.

9. Air Force

• Last Week: N/A
• Week 1 Game: vs Bucknell

Although I’ve often cited Air Force’s historically solid ability to bounce back from mediocre seasons, there’s something about this season that just gives me pause on simply assuming — as many already have — that the Falcons are going to jump right back into the upper half of the conference. The transfer portal era will treat Air Force the worst given its inability to bring transfers in while also having to deal with players leaving. Development is king for the Falcons but said development is getting harder and harder. Maybe Troy Calhoun will defy the odds, he has for 19 years now, but I’ll choose a wait-and-see approach for now.

10. New Mexico

• Last Week: N/A
• Week 1 Game: @ #14 Michigan

The Jason Eck era could very well begin with a bloodbath as his squad are 35-point underdogs to the Wolverines this week. As much as there is a lack of national expectations for the Lobos, I like what Eck has been doing to build a decent team for his first season as an FBS head coach. He’s brought in some underrated talent that could push them toward a bowl eligibility that no one is currently predicting. All that isn’t stopping me from putting the Lobos near the bottom of the conference, but I might be willing to jump on the bandwagon a little earlier than others might.

11. Wyoming

• Last Week: N/A
• Week 1 Game: @ Akron

Last year was a truly uninspiring season from the Cowboys. The offense was awful, the defense only slightly better. After the offseason, there’s some hope of improvement, but so much has to change. Kaden Anderson is the clear QB1, but he was not great last year outside of one solid outing against New Mexico. He needs to make a massive jump for the Cowboys to be effective on offense and I’m not sold on him making such a huge leap this quickly.

I think the Mountain West can be far more exciting with a good Wyoming team that makes opponents be capable of adjusting to tough-nosed football. I’m just worried the Cowboys aren’t able to bring that as much anymore.

12. Nevada

• Last Week: N/A
• Week 1 Game: @ #2 Penn State

Nevada had some good things going last season, but the offseason shattered what continuity the Wolf Pack might have built on. Now it’s back to square one with a new coach and an almost entirely new team. Optimism from outside Nevada will have to be earned.