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Mountain West Football: 12 Statistics That Have Shaped the Season So Far
Ball doesn’t lie. Neither do these numbers and how they tell the story of Mountain West football in 2023 to this point.
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Which numbers have shaped the narrative to this point?
-53
It isn’t easy for any team to dig their way out of an early hole, but Utah State has taken that to a rare extreme so far in 2023. In four first quarters, the Aggies have been outscored 60-7, which equates to a -53 point differential. Such a lopsided result means that it isn’t likely you can pin the blame on any one party, though it isn’t a new problem for Blake Anderson’s Aggies, either: USU was outscored 101-62 in the first quarter last year, and 106-62 during their 2021 conference championship run.
The cruelest irony is that Utah State has outscored its opponents in each of the other three quarters to date. That also happens to be an achievement they managed when they won the Mountain West two years ago, so it bears watching whether they can finally overcome their propensity for sluggish starts and begin playing up to the standard of a title contender.
0
Zero can mean a lot of different things but, in this instance, it is to note that, despite a surprising change at quarterback, Colorado State’s pass catchers have been adept at not beating themselves in the young season. According to Pro Football Focus, three Rams — Tory Horton, Dallin Holker, and Louis Brown — have combined for 89 targets and zero drops in four games.
What does it mean? To start, it could suggest that Horton’s 10.1% drop rate a year ago was more an aberration than a trend since he now currently sports a respectable 5.8% career drop rate on 247 targets. Brown, meanwhile, is a small-sample hero who has yet to record a drop on 39 career targets and counting while Holker has so far maintained his solid production from last year at BYU; he didn’t have any drops in 2022, either.
As for the one name not mentioned here, Justus Ross-Simmons, bear in mind that though he has two drops on 23 targets, that rate was only 3.7% in 2022 so there probably isn’t much reason to panic. Collectively, this sure-handed group could make the Rams passing game more difficult for defensive coordinators to deal with in Mountain West play than anticipated.
4.31
Air Force’s defense has excelled to this point in the season, allowing a Mountain West-best 4.31 yards per play through their first four contests. For the sake of context, San Diego State led the conference in allowing 4.36 YPP during the shortened 2020 season, but if the season ended today, this would be the lowest average by anyone in the conference since TCU gave up just 4.16 YPP en route to their Rose Bowl victory in 2010.
When you narrow the focus to whittle away garbage time and the like, it remains a respectable average. According to Brian Fremeau, in three games against FBS competition, the Falcons have only allowed 4.67 defensive yards per play and rank 23rd in the country on that front, just ahead of Fresno State for the best mark in the Mountain West. Granted, some of that has to do with the level of competition they’ve faced so far — Sam Houston State is dead last among FBS teams in yards per play, for instance — but they’re doing what good teams should do against inferior opponents: Leave no doubt. For that, defensive coordinator Brian Knorr deserves a lot of kudos.
8.5
The New Mexico Lobos might have had the country’s most lifeless offense in 2022, but it’s amazing what a new accomplished quarterback can do. After averaging an FBS-worst 4.9 yards per attempt as a team last year, UNM quarterback Dylan Hopkins has averaged 8.5 yards on 97 pass attempts through four games, surpassed by only Air Force’s Zac Larrier in the early going this fall.
To really drive home the level of improvement, consider that the Lobos had just 15 passing plays on 255 total attempts (5.9%) that went for 20 or more yards in 2022. By contrast, Hopkins already has 13 such plays in only 97 attempts (13.4%). While there’s plenty to be done in Albuquerque, the big-ticket transfer has been as advertised thus far.