Jeremy and Matt are back to preview the final week of the Mountain West regular season. There are five league games and two non-conference games. There is not really much on the line this week as there are no more bowl bids that can be earned and the championship game has been set with Hawaii and Boise State.
Speaking of Boise State, they need to win to keep pace in the Group of Five mix and the Cotton Bowl and that is the biggest storyline of the week. We also discuss the coaching changes at both New Mexico and UNLV and what is next for those openings at each school.
You can find the Mountain West Wire podcast below or subscribe to the show via Anchor, Stitcher Radio, TuneIn, iTunes, and more. Listen in, subscribe and rate it and let us know what you think!
After eight seasons as the head coach of the New Mexico Lobos, it was announced today that Bob Davie will depart from the program following the team’s season finale against Utah State next Saturday.
Following a meeting between and athletic director Eddie Nuñez, the AD acknowledged that “the time has come for a new director for our football program” after a third straight season in which the Lobos can finish with no more than three wins.
Davie himself appeared appreciative of the opportunity despite the ups and downs of his eight-year tenure, saying that he was “proud of what we accomplished at UNM, [though] we are all disappointed that we have not been able to sustain the success we acheived and all desire.”
Davie inherited a team that finished 1-11 in 2009, 2010, and 2011 and slowly began to build one of the most interesting teams in the Group of 5, developing an option-based running game that would finish third among FBS teams on a per-carry basis in 2012 and in the top 16 every year until 2016. It took four seasons for New Mexico to reach .500, but they did so in a 2015 campaign which marked the team’s first bowl appearance in eight years.
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The Lobos followed that 7-6 finish by going 9-4 in 2016, a high point the program hadn’t seen since 2007, on the strength of that run-heavy offense which finished first in the country with 6.61 yards per carry. That momentum quickly tapered, however, when New Mexico fell back to 3-9 in 2017.
He goes into Saturday’s game against New Mexico with a 35-63 record, which makes him the third-winningest head coach in Lobos history. He also leaves the program with a 1-1 record in bowl games.
Air Force – Donald Hammond III lived up to the Falcon moniker by throwing for 327 yards on just 9 of 10 passes and four touchdowns. This performance might have just gave the Falcons signal-caller the player of the year award.
Boise State – Apparently, it doesn’t matter who plays quarterback for Boise State as Jaylen Hendersen helped lead the Broncos to a thrasing of a win over Utah State which clinched the Mountain Division title.
Colorado State – We learned that when the Rams play a really good defense like it did vs. Wyoming that it offense struggles. This is nothing new when teams play the Cowboys but Colorado State’s offense has been extremely good of late and it just happened to run into a tough defense.
Fresno State – Oh boy. The offense line was a complete mess in this game and the coaching staff made some odd coaching decisions like not giving the ball to running back Ronnie Rivers and also passing three consecutive times with 90 seconds left and in the shadow of their goal posts.
Hawaii – Warriors win a defensive game and stopped the San Diego State rushing game to clinch the West Divison. The offensive passing game was pretty efficient but the standard Warriors eye-popping numbers were not there. However, the turnovers were held to a minimum of just one and for some reason head coach Nick Rolovich swapped between Cole McDonald and Chevan Corderio.
Nevada – Welcome to 2019, Toa Taua. The sophomore running back had just his second game of more than 100 yards on the ground. Taua’s season can be classified as a sophomore slump but he does have two games left to build up on the 135 yards he had vs. Fresno State.
New Mexico – Nothing. Literally nothing. The top two running backs are out with injuries and starting quarterback Tevaka Tuioti left the game. It is only a matter of time before Bob Davie is released of his duties.
San Diego State – The running game was completely shutdown vs. Hawaii and this area of the team has been an issue all year and it continued on the islands on Saturday night.
San Jose State – Josh Love is really good. He had 465 yards and three touchdowns but he had four picks. The only problem is that Love can not do it all and the running game did not really help his cause this week.
UNLV – The defense is better thane expected as they forced five turnovers vs. San Jose State. This is the second game they had a good defensive performance as they held Hawaii to just 21 points the week prior, but it was a game they lost.
Utah State – Where to begin? The glamour position of quarterback has not been nice to Jordan Love. He had another bad interception that led to a pick-six in the blowout loss to Boise State. The defense of the Aggies was not good and they were taken apart by third-string quarterback Jaylen Henderson.
Wyoming – There is depth at quarterback people did not know. Levi Williams had to enter the game vs. Colorado State and he moved the ball well, specifically with his feet, as Tyler Vander Wall was getting treatment for an injured leg. Also, the Cowboys defense put the clamps down on a pretty good Rams offense.
PODCAST: 2019 Mountain West Week 13 Recap Division titles have been clinched. Contact/Follow @MWCwire The championship game is set, bowl dreams dashed. Jeremy and Matt are back to recap another week of Mountain West football and there was a lot on …
Jeremy and Matt are back to recap another week of Mountain West football and there was a lot on the line this week. Boise State and Hawaii both clinched the division crowns and there will be a rematch for the league title vs. the two teams. Bowl dreams were dashed with Fresno State, Colorado State and San Jose State all going down this weekend.
Also, we go through and attempt to figure out who should be offensive player of the year through each game recap, and it looks like the vote could go to any number of players.
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You can find the Mountain West Wire podcast below or subscribe to the show via Anchor, Stitcher Radio, TuneIn, iTunes, and more. Listen in, subscribe and rate it and let us know what you think!
Mountain West Football Bowl Projections After Week 13 Only seven teams will be bowl eligible. Contact/Follow @JeremyMauss & @MWCwire No more bowl eligible teams. The Mountain West will have seven bowl-eligible teams this season since the teams in …
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Mountain West Football Bowl Projections After Week 13
The Mountain West will have seven bowl-eligible teams this season since the teams in contention to get to six wins all lost. The seven teams are Boise State, Air Force, Utah State, Nevada, Hawaii, San Diego State, and Wyoming.
All have seven more wins except for Utah State and with the Mountain West having just six official bowl tie-ins there is a chance a team could get left out. At this time that team would be Utah State if they end up with six wins. The NCAA has a rule that they must take all teams with seven or more wins before they can choose a six-win team. The Aggies finish the season at New Mexico and that should allow them to get to seven wins.
As where teams will be placed it is getting more clear each week but there will be some changes if the New Year’s Six spot goes to the Mountain West.
The Broncos are in line to win out and have a good chance to do so, but there are two AAC team ahead of them in the pecking order in Memphis and Cincinnati. The latter has struggled mightily against bad teams and just keeps escaping with wins. The new College Football Playoff rankings probably will have Boise State pass the Bearcats but not Memphis. Those two AAC team will play on the final week of the season and then most likely again the following week.
Things can change and as much as Boise State looks to be good enough to be ahead of any American team, that pick can not be justified currently since the Broncos are not the highest-rated team in the Group of Five.
A few notes about the bowl lineups. Starting with the Hawaii Bowl. The game has a vaguely worded tie-in which is a combination between BYU, Hawaii or an AAC team. The Warriors have a 13-game schedule and must have seven wins to secure a bowl berth. Technically, BYU takes the Mountain West spot but a Cougars vs. Warriors matchup would be a classic WAC rivalry renewal.
There is a new bowl this year and it’s a Power Five opponent from the Big Ten in the Armed Forces Bowl.
Overall, the league has six guaranteed bowl berths and is a backup for the Cheez-It Bowl if the Pac-12 or Big 12 does not have enough teams eligible. As always, there can be trades for the best matchups.
Finally, if the Mountain West is the highest-rated team in the College Football Playoff then a New Year’s Six Bowl game is an option at either the Cotton or Orange Bowl.
1. Las Vegas vs. Pac-12
– Famous Idaho Potato Bowl vs. MAC
– Gildan New Mexico Bowl vs. Conference USA
– Hawai’i Bowl vs. BYU or American
– NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl vs. Sun Belt
– Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl vs. Big Ten
– Cheez-It Bowl Conditional for MW if bowl can’t fill a spot.
Congratulations to this week's New Mexico Man, @Micah_Gray33! This is his second career honor and the Clovis native will lead UNM out of the tunnel on Saturday. Micah started as a walk-on, earned a scholarship this summer and scored his first career touchdown last week #GoLobospic.twitter.com/z2M2IFE62C
The Lobo football team once again takes the field to take on the Air Force Falcons from Colorado Springs. The 2-8 Lobos are doing their best to get a win or two in the last two regular-season games to wrap up the 2019 season.
Last week’s game against the 19th ranked Boise State had one of those, as head Ccach Bob Davie has said recently of this season, “did that just really happen?”
Coach Davie at his presser said, “on the very first play of the game, after all the buildup of the game, after all our preparation for the game, all the emotion after the Najah Flowers memorial at midfield, on the very first play of the game, to give the ball up and Boise scores.
“On the third play of the game, our losing our leading rusher Ahari Davis tears his ACL, and then on the sixth or seventh play of the game, Bryson Carroll has a very serious ankle injury.
“With all that said, we have lots of injuries on this team, and we have had 83 scholarship players to start the season, and we only have 57 scholarship players to play in this game against Air Force Saturday.”
New Mexico has had a whopping 14 season-ending injuries this year that started with our starting quarterback Brent Hughes & starting nose guard Aaron Blackwell In the first game of the year.
New Mexico enters the game Saturday with many backups being pulled up from the scout team to help shore up the wide receivers and running backs where they are most hurt by injuries and most critical for them to compete per Davie.
“Their Air Force talent level is the best I have seen since I have been at New Mexico as the head coach and schematically are a nightmare running the trip option,” Davie said.
“They run a two offense that they really started full speed at Hawaii and has caused lots of team’s problems and made it harder schematically to teams playing them.”
The Lobos have their hand’s full playing with a ton of injuries to significant players and playing one of the best Air Force teams that Coach Davie has seen since he has been here.
Saturday’s game at DreamStyle in Albuquerque is being called Heroes Day; it will be a day that the military, armed forces, and first responders, as well as those affected by breast cancer, will be honored.
So what does UNM have to do to pull the upset?
1) The offensive line must by physical and dominate the line of scrimmage.
This is going to be a challenge for the Lobos with their starting running backs being hurt of banged up. The Lobo offensive line must use their size and dominate the line of scrimmage to be effective to run the ball for first downs.
The Falcons rank 7th in the nation in rushing defense and 68th in passing defense, so it will be a challenge running the ball but should be able to pass against them.
Air Force is a fierce team defending the run this year and have played some top rushing teams the last few weeks and held they are own staying top ten in the nation against the run.
If the quarterbacks can be accurate in throwing the Lobo receivers in open spaces to use their athleticism to make plays or could be a long game, they must throw the ball; after all, it’s a spread offense.
2) The defense must contain the trip option or not give up big plays
The Lobo defense has actually improved against the run, thanks to their three-headed New Mexico linebacker monster, Alex Hart, Mo Vainikolo and Jacobi Hearn, who have combined for 27.5 tackles for loss and all have had outstanding seasons helping the Lobos stop opponents running the ball.
These guys have played lights out and more than likely because two of them are seniors and see the writing on the wall that this football days and all the years of playing could be coming to an end soon.
The triple-option is a considerable challenge to any teams who have are not used to defending it. There is no better challenge at stopping the triple option of playing the service academies.
They keep the ball away from your offense in time of possession and then score, so must games are not high scoring games, but the Falcons are more balanced this year.
They have an outstanding fullback and solid quarterback who will not only run on you and hit you but will throw when you least expect it to catch the defense off guard.
These Falcons are going some sharp guys and very academically inclined and play smart on the football field. So if you plan to defeat them, you will have to play smart football.
They are not at the Air Force Academy because they are not sharp; on the contrary, they are very smart and will have a game plan on how to beat you.
Troy Calhoun is one of the top coaches in the country, and there is a reason he is 92-69 and has been the head of the helm there since 2007.
3) Win special teams wars
The Lobo football team as one strength that stands out, and it’s their special teams play.
They have a very good kicker on kickoffs, a very accurate field goal kicker, and one of the best punters in the country.
Their punters, Tyson Dyer is one of ten semifinalists in the country for the Ray Guy Award, which honors the nation’s top punters.
Dyer averages over 45 yards per punt and leads the nation with 31 punts inside the 20-yard line, and he also leads the nation in percentage of punts inside the 20, which is 62 percent of those kicks.
Combine that with maybe a run back for a touchdown or punt return for a touchdown; you don’t know in a college football game what will happen.
Special teams are one of those things that fans never realize how vital they are until you need a game-winning field goal or a big play to change the momentum in the game.
The Lobo trip of field goal kicker Andrew Shelley, punter Tyson Dyer, and kicker Donovan Murphree have been reliable this year and could come into play should the game be a low scoring game or it becomes about field position late in the game.
After 12 weeks of Mountain West play the teams have separated throughout with Boise State at the top and has been there for the past few weeks. They will have a challenge this week as the go on the road to face Utah State, which moved up two spots from four to six, this weekend.
The game is going to be interesting as the starting quarterbacks on both sides are up in the air and also the division title is on the line. A Broncos win seals it but an Aggies win will make things go down a rabbit hold of scenarios which are explained here.
That result has a chance to shake these up, especially if Utah State wins.
On the other side, there is a definitive Division title game on the line with San Diego State which remained at three at Hawaii which is five. This one is a winner-take-all and advance to the Mountain West championship game.
As for the rest of the poll, the Wyoming Cowboys dropped from three to six after losing consecutive games to Boise State and Utah State. They are at six wins and they would feel a whole lot more comfortable for a bowl bid by getting to seven so a repeat of missing out on a bowl game like last year does not happen.
Week 13 Mountain West Football Expert Picks Find out who our staff likes this week. Contact/Follow @MWCwire All 12 teams in action this weekend. Colorado State at Wyoming (-6.5) Jeremy: SU: Wyoming | ATS: Wyoming | Score: Wyoming 28, Colorado State …
Jeremy and Matt are back to preview the 13th week of Mountain West football. There are rivalries and championships on the line. The Bronze Boot gets things started on Friday night with Colorado State taking on Wyoming. The Rams are wanting to remain in the discussion for a bowl game.
The Saturday games have two big ones that could determine the championship game attendees. A Boise State win over Utah State puts them in the title game and hosting, a loss means tiebreakers come into play. San Diego State vs. Hawaii is a winner-take-all in the West Division and is a late-night Facebook game.
Nevada takes on Fresno State and the Bulldogs are wanting to get to a bowl game and need to get this win to have at least five and then win next week as well. The other game is San Jose State who is also looking to stay on track for a bowl game and they are on the road at UNLV.
You can find the Mountain West Wire podcast below or subscribe to the show via Anchor, Stitcher Radio, TuneIn, iTunes, and more. Listen in, subscribe and rate it and let us know what you think!
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