We’re nearly to the halfway point of the college football season and what a ride it’s been so far. Non-conference games are pretty much all out of the way and that means the truly exciting portion of the season is underway. Every team in the Mountain West has now played at least one conference games, with a handful having played two or three. There are some big rivalry games just over the horizon and important championship-deciding contests in the coming weeks as well.
For now, let’s take a look at the updated standings:
Mountain West Football Standings (post-Week 6, 2025)
| Rk | Team | Record | MW Record | AP Poll |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fresno State | 5-1 | 2-0 | — |
| 2 | UNLV | 5-0 | 1-0 | RV (32nd) |
| 3 | San Diego State | 4-1 | 1-0 | — |
| 4 | Boise State | 3-2 | 1-0 | — |
| 5 | Utah State | 3-2 | 1-0 | — |
| 6 | San Jose State | 2-3 | 1-0 | — |
| 7 | Hawaii | 4-2 | 1-1 | — |
| 8 | New Mexico | 3-2 | 0-1 | — |
| 9 | Wyoming | 2-3 | 0-1 | — |
| 10 | Colorado State | 1-4 | 0-1 | — |
| 11 | Nevada | 1-4 | 0-1 | — |
| 12 | Air Force | 1-4 | 0-3 | — |
UNLV got a bump in votes for the AP Top 25 poll, jumping from the high 30s to the low 30s in this week’s poll. A marquee win would push them over the top into the rankings themselves, but an opponent of the caliber necessary for that jump is another week away. Until then, more wins will bring more votes.
Risers and Fallers
Here are this week’s biggest winners and losers, or risers and fallers as I’ve taken to calling them.
RISER — Walker Eget & Danny Scudero
The Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week is back to his best form with back-to-back weeks of 300-plus yards passing. Over the last two weeks, Walker Eget has completed 70.5 percent of his passes, thrown for 807 yards and six touchdowns with zero interceptions. The Spartans are 1-1 in that stretch, but the loss is hard to pin on Eget with how he’s been performing.
And it wouldn’t be fair to mention Eget without his go-to receiver, Danny Scudero. The 5-foot-9 receiver may be small, but his impact has not been as he leads the nation with 665 receiving yards and is second in receptions per game 8.0, or 40 on the season.
FALLER — New Mexico
The Lobos took a pretty big hit to their momentum by losing a game they probably shouldn’t have lost based on how the season had been going so far. Turnovers doomed the offense to underperform and it was New Mexico’s defense that allowed the aforementioned great performance from Eget. And as I’ll note later, this was not the time for the Lobos to drop a very winnable game.
RISER — San Diego State’s offense
At the tail end of this article you’ll notice that three of the top five best offensive performances by PFF’s grading came from San Diego State players. After weeks of lackluster and inefficient performances, it was finally time for the Aztecs to have a breakout party on offense.
Walker’s MW Power Rankings
The Championship Contenders
These are the teams I’ve very certain will be in the running in the last few weeks of the season. Games between these teams should be must-watch TV for Mountain West fans as they’ll have massive implications for appearances in the conference title game.
1. UNLV
- Last Week: 2
- Week 6 game: 31-17 win at Wyoming
- Next Week: vs Air Force
I’m not particularly happy with putting UNLV up at the top as I can’t say last week’s performance was any more convincing to me in determining if the Rebels aren’t potential record frauds. They sit at 5-0 and are receiving votes in the AP Poll (with some adamant that such a record indicates automatic qualification for making it inside the top 25), but the strength of opponent — and UNLV’s often lackluster performance against these iffy teams — remains a serious concern. But I’ll go back to what I’ve said before: winning is winning, and the Rebels keep doing it. And that’s worth something at the very least.
2. Boise State
- Last Week: 1
- Week 6 game: 7-28 loss at #16 Notre Dame
- Next Week: vs New Mexico
Boise State’s at-large playoff hopes are dead, with the only faint hope now to win out and pray that the top teams in the American beat each other up enough to ensure none of them rise too high in the rankings to claim the final conference champion automatic qualifier.
3. San Diego State
- Last Week: 4
- Week 6 Game: 45-24 win vs Colorado State
- Next Week: at Nevada
I think I’ve seen enough to come to the conclusion that the Aztecs are going to be Mountain West contenders this year. Their defense is top-notch. And though the box score for their game this week may read 24 points to Colorado State, 14 of those came in the fourth quarter after SDSU had established a 38-10 lead. Those were garbage-time points that ought not be held against the main defensive effort. The offense had a coming-out party, which was especially encouraging for them coming off the heels of putting up a mere six points in the win over Northern Illinois.
4. Fresno State
- Last Week: 3
- Week 6 Game: 20-17 win vs Nevada
- Next Week: at Colorado State
The Bulldogs have now had back-to-back close games against teams they really should have been beating by two or three touchdowns if they have aspirations of making the Mountain West title game. Narrowly holding off Hawaii can be waived aside as a one-off (especially since the Warriors seem to be decent this year). Following that up by nearly blowing a 20-3 lead against Nevada makes it harder to ignore these results. Fresno State is 5-1, but it’s worth noting that it does also rank 129th in strength of schedule according to College Football Reference. Maybe the Bulldogs can form a club with UNLV.
Need to See More
These are the teams that could contend for a spot in the title game, but there’s something missing or a lack of substantial proof that they are, in fact, capable of standing up to the best teams in the conference.
5. Utah State
- Last Week: 6
- Week 6 Game: Bye
- Next Week: at Hawaii
The one thing separating Utah State from the contender’s club is a capable defense. If the Aggies can learn to stop teams, they’ll be a serious threat. Otherwise, they’ll just be the biggest wild card with a high-powered offense to make teams sweat, but a bad enough defense to ensure USU itself can never sit comfortably.
6. Hawaii
- Last Week: 7
- Week 6 Game: Bye
- Next Week: vs Utah State
Hawaii is probably ranked far lower than you’d expect a four-win team to be and it’d probably be fair to put them above Utah State depending on how you split some hairs as both teams lack a marquee win and have had some lackluster performances that cast doubt on whether they can be contenders.
7. New Mexico
- Last Week: 5
- Week 6 Game: 28-35 loss at San Jose State
- Next Week: at Boise State
New Mexico already took a big enough hit with the loss, but it can get even worse for the Lobos as they’re heading into the toughest stretch of the year with games at Boise State, at UNLV and against Utah State in the next four weeks.
Unencouraging Teams
The following are the teams whose seasons are probably not going anywhere. Fighting for bowl eligibility is the primary objective at this point because they’re not getting anywhere beyond that.
8. Air Force
- Last Week: 9
- Week 6 Game: 31-34 loss at Navy
- Next Week: at UNLV
Liam Szarka is going to try and carry this team on his back to a win. So far it hasn’t really worked as the Falcons are 0-4 against FBS teams despite Szarka running and throwing the ball at very impressive rates. Szarka has 850 passing yards already this season, an insanely impressive feat for an Air Force QB in which the typical range for a 13-game season is between 900 and 1,200 yards. And on top of that, Szarka leads the Falcons in rushing by a wide margin with 448 yards and six touchdowns.
9. San Jose State
- Last Week: 11
- Week 6 Game: 35-28 win vs New Mexico
- Next Week: at Wyoming
The Spartans got a bit of their mojo back by beating New Mexico. That helps spring them up from where I had them last week as the second-worst team in the conference. And if they can capitalize one what is a relatively easy stretch of games for the next month (Wyoming, Utah State, Hawaii, Air Force, Nevada), there’s still an opportunity for San Jose State to go bowling this year.
10. Wyoming
- Last Week: 10
- Week 6 Game: 31-17 loss vs UNLV
- Next Week: vs San Jose State
Wyoming has now lost three straight after starting the year with a 2-0 record. Last week was fairly humiliating as even though the Cowboys have had some offensive issues, they were in the game against UNLV for most of the evening. Special teams issues simply killed their chances of snagging an upset win in their conference opener.
11. Colorado State
- Last Week: 8
- Week 6 Game: 24-45 loss at San Diego State
- Next Week: vs Fresno State
Jay Norvell’s seat is getting pretty hot at this point. But I guess this was better than what he might have had at Nevada?
12. Nevada
- Last Week: 12
- Week 6 Game: 17-20 loss at Fresno State
- Next Week: vs San Diego State
At least Wolf Pack fans can enjoy Norvell’s downfall in Fort Collins. And there’s some hope for the future after a decently surprising performance by their freshman QB, Carter Jones. The young man stepped in and played fairly well, completing 11 of 16 passes for 121 yards and two touchdowns (plus one interception). If he turns out to be something special, maybe they’ll be able to finally get out of the trap Nevada’s been in of nearly getting wins but almost always losing them (they’re 3-8 in one-possession games since the start of last season).
Top Performers This Week (per PFF grading)
New Week I’ll get into a mid-season ballot for each of the end-of-season awards (Offensive/Defensive Player of the Year, etc.). For now, here’s another look at the top performers according to Pro Football Focus, both for this last week and for the entire season.
Top Performers in Week 6 (Offense)
- Jayden Denegal (QB, San Diego State) – 91.1
- Walker Eget (QB, San Jose State) – 87.4
- Jordan Napier (WR, San Diego State) – 87.4
- Lucky Sutton (RB, San Diego State) – 86.4
- Bruin Fleischmann (TE, Air Force) – 85.7
Top Performers in Week 6 (Defense)
- Payton Zdroik (DT, Air Force) – 90.4
- Niles King (EDGE, San Diego State) – 86.9
- Mumu Bin-Wahad (S, UNLV) – 85.1
- Dylan Labarbera (EDGE, Nevada) – 84.1
- Trey White (EDGE, San Diego State) – 83.2
Best Season Grade (Offense)
- Liam Szarka (QB, Air Force) – 87.3
- Jaiden Thomas (RB, UNLV) – 85.3
- Anthony Colandrea (QB, UNLV) – 85.3
- Quin Smith (WR, Air Force) – 85.0
- Rayshon Luke (RB, Fresno State) – 84.3
Best Season Grade (Defense)
- Dylan Labarbera (EDGE, Nevada) – 90.9
- Chris Johnson (CB, San Diego State) – 90.7
- Jonathan Maldonado (EDGE, Nevada) – 89.5
- Keyshawn James-Newby (S, New Mexico) – 86.9
- John Miller (LB, Utah State) – 85.5
