Week 1 Mountain West Watch — Boise’s blunder, SDSU and USU rising | Sports

The Mountain West hasn’t exactly had its greatest football seasons in the 2020s, with the luster falling off a few of its top programs like San Diego State, Utah State, Fresno State and (for like a season-and-a-half before last year) Boise State. Programs like UNLV and San Jose State looked like maybe they could step in, but this year so far isn’t exactly looking stellar for just about anyone. Some teams are showing life, but those at the top of the preseason poll are not quite living up to the hype of maybe being in the College Football Playoff by season’s end.

Let’s dive into the Mountain West after Week 1, with the full complement of standings, power rankings, and the biggest risers and fallers following the first full week of college football in the west.

The standings aren’t going to be very coherent for a while, but there are those who will enjoy seeing many of the 1-0 teams that were picked below the likes of Boise State and Fresno State sit above them for at least this week. The Mountain West took a big hit AP Poll with Boise State going on a nosedive from 25th to now being unranked. UNLV, despite a win over Sam Houston, lost votes, going from 21 points last week to just four this week).

Walker’s MW Power Rankings

1. UNLV

• Last Week: 2
• Week 1 game: Won 38-21 at Sam Houston
• Next Week: vs UCLA

I called for everyone to pump the brakes on panicking over UNLV’s less-than-stellar outing against Idaho State. And even though the Bengals looked awful against Southern Utah, the Rebels clearly showed improvement against Sam Houston. It should be enough to quell pessimism, for now. The 17-point margin is a bit deceptive as UNLV had a 31-7 lead going into the fourth quarter and the final TD by the Bearkats came with five minutes left and the game already well in hand.

2. Boise State

• Last Week: 1
• Week 1 game: Lost 34-7 at South Florida
• Next Week: vs Eastern Washington (Friday)

I seem to recall saying “until proven otherwise, the Broncos are going to be remaining at the top of the power rankings.” I also said it may take a while, but mere days after publishing that the Broncos were buried by 27 points. That’s enough to knock them out of the top spot for a while. Could they earn it back? Probably. It’s a long season. But the hopes of a return to the College Football Playoffs are slipping away fast and the Broncos probably won’t get a chance to beat an opponent that will make everyone take them seriously again until their road trip to Notre Dame. 

3. Fresno State

• Last Week: 3
• Week 1 Game: Won 42-14 vs Georgia Southern
• Next Week: at Oregon State

Fresno State shook off a really poor showing against Kansas last week by shellacking Georgia Southern. Admittedly it wasn’t the toughest opponent, but it was the largest margin of victory this week by a Mountain West team against an FBS opponent. Things are trending in the right direction again for the Bulldogs.

4. Colorado State

• Last Week: 6
• Week 1 Game: Lost 38-21 vs Washington
• Next Week: vs Northern Colorado

The Rams get a boost this week thanks to a few teams falling and the fact that, despite losing, it wasn’t that bad of a Saturday for them. Covering the spread is usually cold comfort for coaches, but it’s something (more on that later for the Rams and another team further down these rankings). The biggest things to keep an eye on going forward is CSU’s run game, which was good (Jalen Dupree averaged 6.1 yards per carry) and its run defense, which was not good (gave up 283 rushing yards).

5. Utah State

• Last Week: 7
• Week 1 Game: Won 28-16 vs UTEP
• Next Week: at #19 Texas A&M

I didn’t expect to be moving the Aggies up multiple spots, even with a win. But a really solid defensive showing combined with decent offense makes it hard not to be optimistic about the upcoming weeks. Maybe not next week specifically, but Utah State should now be trending toward bowl eligibility instead of most preseason projections that had them barely missing out.

6. San Diego State

• Last Week: 8
• Week 1 Game: Won 42-0 vs Stony Brook
• Next Week: at Washington State

The Aztecs suffocated the life out of Stony Brook’s offense, allowing less than 100 yards of total offense. This could be a sign of SDSU’s return to being the dominant defensive team we saw so often in the 2010s. The offense, though, might still have some questions. San Diego State was weirdly inefficient for a team that scored 42 points. They only averaged 4.2 yards per carry and quarterback Jayden Denegal completed just 13 of 25 passes. Something to keep an eye on, but overall it was a great week for SDSU on the field.

7. Air Force

• Last Week: 9
• Week 1 Game: Won 49-13 vs Bucknell
• Next Week: Bye

Sure, it was just a win over an FCS team, but last year the Falcons scored just 21 points against their lower division opponent and it heralded a truly awful offense compared to what Air Force is usually able to do. If nothing else, this game was a good sign the Falcons won’t be incompetent on offense.

8. Wyoming

• Last Week: 11
• Week 1 Game: 10-0 Win at Akron
• Next Week: vs Northern Iowa

This is the furthest down I have a team that won its Week 1 game, but similar to how little credit I gave Hawaii for beating an awful Stanford team, the Cowboys aren’t getting much for scoring 10 points against an Akron team that has an argument to be the worst team in college football. But Wyoming is getting points for pitching a shutout, which is hard to do even against the worst teams in the nation.

9. New Mexico

• Last Week: 10
• Week 1 Game: Lost 34-17 at #14 Michigan
• Next Week: vs Idaho State

At first I almost moved New Mexico down, despite having a solid performance against a ranked Big Ten team and the fact I feel the Lobos are underappreciated. They still have to get their first win, but I’m going to continue to be optimistic that a climb up these power rankings is coming.

10. Hawaii

• Last Week: 5
• Week 1 Game: Lost 40-6 at Arizona
• Next Week: vs Sam Houston

Hawaii taking a nosedive is a combination of a bunch of things. Firstly, I wasn’t all that impressed by beating an awful Stanford team last week. Then the Warriors lost by 34 points to an alright Power Four team. And there’s also the fact that a bunch of teams that hadn’t played ended up having decent Week 1 showings. Hawaii should be able to climb its way back up, but the post-Week 1 overreactions are hitting it hard.

11. San Jose State

• Last Week: 4
• Week 1 Game: Lost 16-14 vs Central Michigan
• Next Week: at #7 Texas

It’s hard to take the Spartans seriously after a loss like they took at home to what is likely a bottom 25-30 team in the country. Maybe Central Michigan will end up being better and SJSU can recover with better performances later. But for now, the Spartans are reaping what they sow for losing a game they really should have won and won comfortably.

12. Nevada

• Last Week: 12
• Week 1 Game: Lost 46-11 at #2 Penn State
• Next Week: vs Sacramento State

Nevada was supposed to lose by a lot to Penn State and they did. Week 1 wasn’t really ever going to tell us much about the Wolf Pack, but it will sting that other teams in the conference had better performances against their P4 foes.

Risers and Fallers

These are the biggest winners and losers of Week 1, the teams and players whose stock has gone way up or way down relative to where it was a week ago.

RISER — Teams that didn’t lose by as much as they thought (New Mexico, Colorado State)

The points spreads for New Mexico and Colorado State were both rather large, taking on a pair of Big Ten teams. The Lobos were 34-point underdogs and the Rams were expected to lose by 22. Both only went down by 17 points, New Mexico losing 34-17 to No. 14 Michigan and Colorado State 38-21 to Washington.

Is it wrong to celebrate losing by not as much as you thought? Maybe. The coaches don’t always appreciate fans throwing around terms like moral victory, but sometimes you need to take whatever positive you can get when you lose by three scores. Things could have been a lot worse for both teams, but the Rams and Lobos were both decently competitive for most of the game against tough opponents. That counts for something.

FALLER — Maddux Madsen

You could choose to pick on the whole of Boise State, or even other position groups, such as running back (Sire Gains and Malik Sherrod were tabbed as top five running backs in the MW by the conference but averaged a combined 3.6 yards per carry) or even the entire defense, which retained some of its issues from last year. But I’m going with the man selected as the preseason Offensive Player of the Year. Maddux Madsen was supposed to be the best offensive player in the conference and he looked nothing of the sort. I had my doubts about his ability to be a top-level QB based on what he showed last year, but I also assumed he could take a step forward. He did not.

Madsen completed just 54 percent of his passes, fumbled the ball twice, and just overall didn’t do what QBs are supposed to be able to do, drive the offense. His Total QBR of 26.0 ranks him 108th in FBS and last among quarterbacks in the Mountain West.

RISER — The old championship contenders (San Diego State, Utah State)

Back in 2021, SDSU and Utah State played for the Mountain West championship and throughout the 2010s, both were consistently good and/or great teams in the conference. But from 2022 to 2024, neither the Aztecs and Aggies posted a winning record in any season. That’s not the trend either wants to be seeing, especially now that both are heading to the Pac-12.

Week 1 showed a glimpse of a possible return to glory for both teams. Neither of their wins, SDSU’s 42-0 against Stony Brook or USU’s 28-16 over UTEP, are marquee victories and don’t indicate a return in and of themselves. But they were both good starts and the Aggies and Aztecs showed a flash of their former dominance. 

FALLER — San Jose State

The Spartans went from fourth in my post-Week 0 power rankings to 11th. I doubt they’ll stay there, but it’s reflective of just how bad their week was relative to the rest of the conference. Boise State lost badly, but there’s still confidence it’ll be a good team. San Jose State’s loss to Central Michigan casts doubt on whether the Spartans can even be a bowl team this year. The only good thing is that there’s a lot of time to fix things. But by golly to a lot of things need to be fixed.