Week 2 Mountain West Watch — The conference is wide open, does anybody want it? | Sports

Last week I got on the Mountain West for not having the greatest start through Week 1. Boy did things somehow get even worse for some teams. It wasn’t all bad. There are teams that have begun to turn things around, and at least one team that is doing what it can to carry the conference. It’s just hard when you watch almost half the conference struggle to beat FCS teams and then look around to realize that the league doesn’t really have a marquee non-conference win yet.

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.

We’ll get our first Mountain West conference game this week as Utah State hosts Air Force. It’ll be the only conference game, which means that one of Utah State or Air Force will be in first place by next week. I’m sure that will make for a fun moment in time.

Walker’s MW Power Rankings

1. UNLV

• Last Week: 1
• Week 2 game: 30-23 Win vs UCLA
• Next Week: Bye 

The Rebels seem to be the only team that actually wants to be considered a top team in the Mountain West. Sure, things haven’t been pretty. UNLV narrowly avoided embarrassment against Idaho State. And it nearly blew things against UCLA by letting the Bruins march down the field for what almost became a game-tying touchdown. But through it all, the Rebels are 3-0 and that’s what counts. No other team in the Mountain West can say that, with only two other teams able to claim undefeated status (and neither were preseason contenders, so they’re not getting a spot near the top of these rankings).

2. Boise State

• Last Week: 2
• Week 2 game: 51-14 Win vs Eastern Washington
• Next Week: Bye

Steamrolling an FCS opponent isn’t going to make the beatdown taken at South Florida feel any better (though the fact USF also beat an at-the-time ranked Florida team might help slightly). And with a bye this week, Boise State will be chomping at the bit to truly prove it deserved that preseason Top 25 ranking.

3. Fresno State

• Last Week: 3
• Week 2 Game: 36-27 Win at Oregon State
• Next Week: vs Southern

The win over Oregon State may have been a bit sloppy, with the Bulldogs getting outgained 528 to 318, but the game is about who gets the most points, not who gets the most yards. Special teams and defense combined to give Fresno State an extra 13 points while EJ Warner did just enough, completing 13 of 18 passes and the ground game for the Bulldogs did its job quite well, averaging 7.0 yards per carry and getting several big plays, such as a 44-yard run from Rayshon Luke and 30-yarder from Warner.

Fresno State is looking like a balanced team. I’m not sold on Warner being an effective QB in the Mountain West, but the Bulldogs’ ground game and defense are looking solid enough to put them in the conversation of being a contender in the conference this year.

4. Utah State

• Last Week: 5
• Week 2 Game: 44-22 Loss at #16 Texas A&M
• Next Week: vs Air Force

I hate having Utah State ranked this high because it makes me look like a complete homer. The Aggies have looked like a top-half team in the Mountain West in spurts, but not consistently enough to deserve this ranking. It’s mostly the incompetence of other teams against bad opponents that make Utah State look better because its at least meeting expectations so far. The Aggies beat UTEP, and looked decent enough while doing so, and then lost to a ranked Texas A&M team it was supposed to lose to (and didn’t at least look awful in doing so).

Thankfully, Utah State has a prove-it game that will make it far easier to feel comfortable ranking it this high or justify moving it back down for what would be more deserving teams.

5. Air Force

• Last Week: 7
• Week 2 Game: Bye
• Next Week: at Utah State

Air Force got a really, really early bye game and it’s made ranking them among their MW peers really hard. I’m still stuck on comparing how the Falcons did against Bucknell this year compared to how their FCS game went last year. Air Force scored just 21 points in its FCS matchup in 2024 but went off for 49 against Bucknell. The 5.2 yards per carry two weeks ago doesn’t hold a candle to the dominance of the 2021-23 Falcons teams were capable of at their peak, but it’s far better than the 3.6 the team averaged through its 1-7 start to the 2024 campaign.

6. Wyoming

• Last Week: 8
• Week 2 Game: 31-7 Win vs Northern Iowa
• Next Week: vs #20 Utah

The Cowboys’ defense is looking pretty decent this season, having allowed just seven points all year after shutting out Akron and giving up just the one TD to Northern Iowa. Citing quality of opponent in regards to allowing so few points is a little easier to bypass since bad teams will still often score against opponents who are far better than them. Wyoming has allowed one scoring drive all year, and even if their opponents are an FCS team and Akron, there’s still something to be proud about this accomplishment. The offense still has its wrinkles to iron out, but that’s something to be worked out in future weeks.

7. Colorado State

• Last Week: 4
• Week 2 Game: 21-17 win vs Northern Colorado
• Next Week: Bye

There’s a whole lot that’s been said about Colorado State’s win over Northern Colorado. The upstart Bears had victory in their grasp, what would have been their first-ever over the Rams, and it was torn away by a controversial overturned call. You can get caught up in the weeds about whether the Mountain West should issue a statement and/or fire the referees involved, or take the stance that it was the correct call, but that’s not what is important to me at this point. Colorado State looked bad, with Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi looking as bad as he’s ever looked. The one thing Colorado State had in this one was how much it controlled the run game on both sides. The Rams ran the ball for 230 yards and held UNC to just 1.9 yards per carry and 63 total yards on the ground. Though, for as impressive as that can be, it still only got them a four-point win. And that level of dominance in the trenches is unlikely to continue. After all, the Rams had the opposite occur in its loss to Washington (running for only 85 while giving up 283).

8. San Diego State

• Last Week: 6
• Week 2 Game: 36-13 Loss at Washington State
• Next Week: Bye

I questioned the offensive efficiency of SDSU even in its 42-point game against Stony Brook and it turns out there was some substantial basis for doubt. The Aztecs had three drives the entire evening that went longer than 20 yards downfield. Jayden Denegal continued his shaky start to the season by completing only 50 percent of his passes and posting an even worse Total QBR this week (11.1). His season-long QBR of 17.2 ranks worst in the Mountain West and 123rd in the nation. The one positive of the offense is that, if you adjust out Denegal’s -28 rushing yards (mainly that low due to three Washington State sacks), San Diego State averaged a solid 5.0 yards per carry in the ground game. Lead running back Lucky Sutton ran for 88 yards on 15 carries, good for 5.9 yards per attempt and remains top five in the conference in total rushing yards.

9. Hawaii

• Last Week: 10
• Week 2 Game: 37-20 Win vs Sam Houston
• Next Week: vs Portland State

Hawaii’s two wins have come despite injury troubles at quarterback. Micah Alejado was banged up during the win over Stanford and missed the entirety of last week’s win over Sam Houston. In the end, these two wins are not going to get the Warriors much credit. Stanford remains one of the worst Power Four teams in the nation, while Sam Houston is arguably a bottom-10 team in FBS. Beating both of those teams at home isn’t going to move the needle that much. Unfortunately, neither will beating up on Portland State, which is on the menu for Hawaii this weekend.

10. New Mexico

• Last Week: 9
• Week 2 Game: 32-22 Win vs Idaho State
• Next Week: at UCLA (Friday)

New Mexico moving down has a lot more to do with Hawaii getting the slight bump from beating a non-FCS team and doing so without its primary quarterback. The Lobos, meanwhile, had to rally in the fourth quarter against an FCS team that was missing its starting QB. The Bengals’ second and third-string signal-callers managed to outperform UNM’s starter, Jack Layne, combining for 265 yards on a 72.0 completion percentage.

This was not the kind of performance the Lobos needed after looking surprisingly good against a ranked Michigan team. The win over the Wolverines is already losing luster after they dropped eight spots in the AP Poll, and only looking slightly better than an FCS team will make people doubt what they saw last week. The good news is that a win this week over UCLA would pretty much shut up most of the doubters (for now, at least), even if the Bruins are a bit on the weaker side. UNLV won by seven points at home over the same UCLA team and got due credit for that victory. If the Lobos can do the same but on the road, people will look to buy stock in Jason Eck’s squad.

11. San Jose State

• Last Week: 11
• Week 2 Game: 38-7 Loss at #7 Texas
• Next Week: Bye

The computer metrics that I routinely check to get more context for these rankings like the Spartans way more than I do. SJSU ranks seventh in the Mountain West in an average of ESPN’s FPI and SP+ along with FEI and KFord ratings. Here I’ve got them at 11th in the league. The problem is that those rankings are still pretty heavily biased by preseason expectations which had SJSU as a team in the top half of the league. Two (kind of three) weeks into the season and this is what the Spartans have reaped. A loss to a team in the fringe of being a bottom 20 in FBS and a 31-point decimation against Texas, which isn’t going to earn SJSU any positive credit.

12. Nevada

• Last Week: 12
• Week 1 Game: 20-17 Win vs Sacramento State
• Next Week: vs Middle Tennessee

Much like Colorado State, the Wolf Pack deserved to lose this week against an FCS team. Nevada were gift-wrapped a go-ahead pick six with two minutes left because the Hornets thought throwing the ball during a four-minute drill was a good idea. And Sacramento State still got itself a 42-yard field goal attempt to potentially tie the game and send it to overtime, only to have that miss. Nevada is in a pretty rough state right now. The one thing it has to do is get a home win over Middle Tennessee. Fail that task, and it’ll be hard to see the Wolf Pack winning again in 2025.

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 — Fresno State

There aren’t many risers this week with how much pretty much everyone struggled. But Fresno State is pushing forward and putting themselves in a good position after a tough season-opening loss to Kansas. Two straight wins over the likes of Georgia Southern and Oregon State have made the Bulldogs look solid. And the next several weeks are going to be a breeze for Fresno State. They’ll begin that stretch with a game against Southern, then take on Hawaii, Nevada, Colorado State and San Diego State in that order. There’s a very real chance Fresno State will be on a six-game winning streak when it travels to face Boise State on Nov. 1.

FALLER — Colorado State and the Mountain West referees

All of this will eventually blow over, but it’ll be hard for Northern Colorado fans to forget what almost was. As mentioned above, the Bears had a win in their hands, but the referees, provided by the Mountain West, went back and on review said that a touchdown catch was actually incomplete because the ball was apparently moving underneath the receiver, even though said receiver had his arm tucked between the ball and the ground. Ultimately, there’s no killer angle that puts this one to bed, but that’s part of the frustration. If there was definitive evidence, you see it and move on. But there really wasn’t.

Potentially the biggest robbery in college football history.Northern Colorado is a small school, with limited resources and got scammed against CSU.Twitter… do your thing, band together, and let’s help out their athletic department. They deserve it. pic.twitter.com/r7M4IcOvZ9

— Kalshi CFB (@KalshiCFB) September 7, 2025

Fans have already written an open letter to the Mountain West and there’s probably some petition out there gaining a few hundred signatures demanding who knows what. The thing that is making silence from the Mountain West a bit worse is that the Big 12 publicly disciplined one of its referee crews over a mistake it made in allowing a punt on a kickoff during the Kansas-Missouri game this last week.

FALLER — Mountain West hopes of a CFP berth

With Boise State stuck in a slow part of its schedule and UNLV only skating by its opponents, the Mountain West is falling behind in the race for the Group of Six spot in the college football playoff. South Florida is up to No. 18 in the AP Top 25 Poll and has all the momentum that Boise State once hoped to have by being ranked in the preseason poll. And with the Broncos and Rebels both on byes this week, it’ll be a while before either can really prove to the national crowd that they can be G6 teams worthy of a spot in the playoffs.

Top Players at each position (per PFF grading)

I’d like to include more depth in these Mountain West Watch articles, so here’s a temporary feature (I’ll add others in future installments). I’m not the biggest disciple of PFF’s grading system (though I am very much a fan of the extra stats they keep which are very useful for detailed analysis), but it’s worth taking a look at how an unbiased source is viewing the players in the Mountain West. We’ll go over each position group and list the top three players based on their PFF grade. Getting ranked here requires a minimum of 45 snaps played.

Quarterback

1. Anthony Colandrea, UNLV (91.4)
2. Maddux Madsen, Boise State (70.2)
3. Jack Layne, New Mexico (69.4)

Running Back

1. Rayshon Luke, Fresno State (84.9)
2. Jai’Den Thomas, UNLV (82.5)
3. Dylan Riley, Boise State (

Wide Receiver

1. Chris Durr Jr., Wyoming (80.2)
2. Danny Scudero, San Jose State (77.4)
3. Jaden Bradley, UNLV (76.8)

Tight End

1. Var’keyes Gumms, UNLV (83.3)
2. Dorian Thomas, New Mexico (82.6)
3. Bruin Fleischmann, Air Force (82.5)

Offensive Line

1. Aaron Karas, Colorado State (80.4)
2. Jacob Spomer, Fresno State (79.1)
3. Caden Barnett, Wyoming (78.3)

Interior D-Line

1. David Latu, Boise State (81.4)
2. Braxton Fely, Boise State (76.8)
3. Lucas Conti, UNLV (74.0)

Edge

1. Keyshawn James-Newby, New Mexico (84.2)
2. Trey White, San Diego State (83.4)
3. Jonathan Maldonado, Nevada (80.4)

Linebacker

1. Brayden Johnson, Wyoming (92.1)
2. John Miller, Utah State (79.2)
3. Evan Eller, Wyoming (79.1)

Defensive Back

1. Kilinahe Mendiola-Jensen, Hawaii (84.1)
2. Chris Johnson, San Diego State (80.2)
3. Justin Taylor, Wyoming (78.3)