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Mountain West Football: Week 9 Winners And Losers
Who came out ahead and who left something to be desired across the Mountain West in Week 9 of the college football season?
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Encouragements and letdowns from the week that was.
You might as well have called last weekend in Mountain West football “Statement Saturday.”
While there wasn’t a lot of high drama (though they had that covered in the Central Valley almost single-handedly), everyone got a chance to send a message to the rest of the conference: It’s Air Force and it’s everyone else. Boise State isn’t dead yet and neither is Fresno State. Nevada may have found some footing after all.
Because some of those statements were less encouraging than others, however, here are the winners and losers from Week 9.
Winners
1. Air Force running back Emmanuel Michel
The battle for the Ram-Falcon Trophy may have turned out to be tougher and snowier than expected for the Mountain-West leading cadets, but Michel’s performance in the second half of Air Force’s 30-13 win over Colorado State helped ensure the road team would hang on rivalry bragging rights. He picked up 113 of his 130 rushing yards after halftime, including a key 53-yard scamper in the third quarter that flipped the field and helped to set the Falcons up with a ten-point lead, and capped the scoring with a five-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
2. Fresno State linebacker Levelle Bailey
The Bulldogs’ senior star has developed a knack for being in the right place at the right time, killing UNLV’s last-gasp rally with a game-sealing interception to secure a 31-24 win over the Rebels.
Most people will immediately point out that isn’t even Bailey’s first game-sealing pick of the season — he did the same thing to Eastern Washington back in September — but it’s also worth mentioning he tied for the team high with eight total tackles, broke up a second pass in the first quarter and, per Pro Football Focus, allowed just 25 total yards on the five times he was targeted in coverage.
3. Nevada cornerback Michael Coats Jr.
Sometimes, it’s just your day. That certainly appeared to be the case for the former East Central Community College transfer on Saturday in a 34-24 win over New Mexico, as the Lobos tested him early and often but, according to PFF, would be repeatedly denied: His second quarter interception would set up a short scoring drive that extended the Wolf Pack lead to 24-0 at that point, but he also broke up two passes and allowed just three receptions on a team-high ten targets. For a team sorely lacking in bright spots in the first half of the season, Coats Jr.’s performance came at just the right time for the Nevada faithful to think things might be headed in the right direction after all.
Losers
1. UNLV wide receiver Senika McKie
Catching a football is sometimes harder than it looks. It’s important to remember that when someone lets a well-placed goal-line fade — far from the easiest play to make on a route tree under most circumstances — slip through their fingers like McKie did on Saturday night in a 31-24 loss to Fresno State.
PFF notes it was the only pass dropped by a Rebels receiver against the Bulldogs, though McKie now has twice as many dropped passes (six) as anyone else on the roster on just 34 targets this season. For the moment, that 27.3% drop rate is the highest among all qualifying Mountain West players; the latest misfortune just happened to come at a moment that many UNLV folks will probably be thinking about for a long time.
2. Wyoming
Cowboy football’s remaining skeptics came away with plenty to talk about on Saturday in the wreckage of a 32-7 defeat on the road to Boise State. The offense was dead on arrival, averaging 2.5 yards per play, finishing 1-of-11 on third downs, and crossing midfield only because Stefan Cobbs muffed a punt return late in the first quarter. On defense, Jay Sawvel’s secondary was simply overmatched by Eric McAlister and couldn’t capitalize on Ashton Jeanty’s limited availability, allowing Maddux Madsen to move through the air seemingly at will while George Holani’s return from injury allowed the Broncos to survive on the ground.
Now effectively eliminated from the Mountain West title chase, the Cowboys are sitting at 5-3 with a -20 point differential after eight games. They were also 5-3 after games in 2022, but the difference is that this was supposed to be the year in which their returning production advantage might finally put them over the top. The more things change, though, the more they seem to stay the same in Laramie.
3. Hawaii
Are Timmy Chang’s Warriors regressing before our eyes? It’s not what you hoped to see on the back half of his second year in charge, but a 35-0 shutout to San Jose State marked the third time in four conference games that Hawaii has lost by at least three touchdowns. Quarterback Brayden Schager never got going, finishing 17-of-29 for 132 yards and one interception before being relieved in the fourth quarter, while punter/kicker Matthew Shipley ended up as the team’s leading rusher with a 17-yard run on a third-quarter fake.
The more serious concern is that the defense has stagnated even more, allowing the Spartans to average 6.9 yards per play through the first three quarters. Perhaps no one is more emblematic of the team’s growing pains than sophomore linebacker Jalen Smith, who collected two of his three tackles for loss on SJSU’s second possession but also picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that enabled to Spartans to extend the drive and, eventually, collect their first points of the game. Patience is probably still a virtue here, but you can’t blame fans for feeling a little angst at blowout after blowout.
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