Best In The West: Week Six
Best in the West is The Aggship's weekly Mountain West football round-up.
Fresno State, 20 Nevada 17
Fresno State escaped an unlikely scare against Nevada to become the first Mountain West team to reach 2-0 in conference play, 20-17.
The Bulldogs took a few early gifts for granted, and it nearly cost them when Nevada figured some things out later in the game. Four turnovers and a missed field goal for Nevada could have put the game out of reach in the first half, but Fresno State left the door open for a comeback that nearly came to fruition.
For Nevada, it was a tale of two halves. The first was marred by those four turnovers and no touchdowns, with a 20-3 deficit to show for it. The second represented a potential fresh start for the Pack in the form of the emergence of true freshman quarterback Carter Jones and a 14-0 run that got the Wolf Pack within three points of the Bulldogs. They even had a chance to take the lead, claiming possession with a little under 11 minutes to play, but that drive ended after just three plays, and Fresno State drained the final 8:42 off the clock to secure the win.
Fresno State signal caller E.J. Warner completed 18 of 26 passes for 190 yards and two touchdowns with one pick. Tight end Richie Anderson III led the team in targets and yards with seven catches for 67 yards. Ezekiel Avit had 41 yards on just one catch, and Josiah Freeman had three catches for 40 yards and two touchdowns. Running back Rayshawn Luke also caught three balls for eight yards. On the ground, Luke was much more dangerous, logging a game-high of 83 yards on eight attempts. Bryson Donelson had 14 carries for 39 yards, and Brandon Ramirez had five carries for 38 yards.
Nevada head coach Jeff Choate has been scrambling to find a reliable quarterback between Chubba Purdy and AJ Bianco all year long and hadn't yet achieved the desired results. In the second half of this game, on the verge of Nevada's 10th consecutive FBS loss dating back to last year, Choate turned to Carter, who showed out in his de facto debut (he appeared very briefly against Western Kentucky in September). He went 11 of 15 for 121 yards and two touchdowns. He did throw a pick but didn’t take a sack and added eight yards with his legs.
Nate Burleson II was Nevada's leading receiver with just one catch for 45 yards. Caleb Ramseur had two receptions for 22 yards and a touchdown and was the leading rusher with 77 yards on 16 carries. Dakota Thomas had a 15-yard touchdown catch as well, his only reception of the night.
Fresno State is in action again on Friday, Oct. 10, with a trip to play Colorado State. Nevada will square off with San Diego State at home late on Saturday, Oct. 11.
UNLV 31, Wyoming 17
A flurry of early October hail gave the Mountain West its first snow game of the year, weather pedants be damned. UNLV was opportunistic enough to take a win from a Wyoming team that did just about everything it could to give the game away.
The Cowboys committed three turnovers, two turnovers on downs and had two punts blocked – one after a three-and-out, and both returned for a touchdown. After all of that, UNLV won by 14. Despite the numerous missteps, the Wyoming offense outgained UNLV’s 356 to 255 and more than doubled UNLV’s passing yards, 254 to 102.
Erik Sandvik hit a 36-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead early in the game, but it ended up being the only Cowboy points of the half, and the Rebels had a 24-3 lead at the break. The Pokes scored the only touchdown of the third quarter to cut the Rebel lead to 14, and the teams traded touchdowns in the fourth to keep that margin.
UNLV’s refusal to close the door on Wyoming didn’t end up impacting the result, but in a game where the Cowboys gave the Rebels 14 points on failed punt attempts, a two-score differential isn’t an especially impressive margin. For the Rebels, Anthony Colandrea connected on 11 of 20 passes for 102 yards and ran for 32 yards on 11 carries. Jaden Bradley was his top target, with 65 yards on seven targets for five catches. Jai’Den Thomas had two catches for 17 yards and a touchdown and 16 carries for 96 yards. Keyvone Lee ran five times for 17 yards and a touchdown.
UNLV is 5-0. It's a strange 5-0, but it's 5-0 all the same. The Rebels host the Air Force Falcons this week. After three straight losses, Wyoming has a losing record for the first time of the season, and that might not change for a while. Up next, the Cowboys play a San Jose State team that appears to be finding its high-powered offense.
San Jose State 35, New Mexico 28
The Spartans, led by a breakout offensive performance, outlasted New Mexico to earn their first FBS win of the season. Notably, San Jose State strayed from its pass-heavy identity and ran the ball to get there, improving to 2-3 while dropping New Mexico to 3-2.
The offense was the highlight of last year’s 7-6 SJSU team but hadn’t yet accomplished anything of note in the first four games of the year. Its 35-point game here is, at this point, easily the best performance of the season for Ken Niumatalolo's squad. They had 34 rushing attempts, their most of the season, and 157 yards, their second most of the season.
Fueling San Jose State’s success on the ground was the debut of freshman Steve Chavez-Soto. Chavez-Soto’s first college carry was a six-yard rush to set up his second career carry, a four-yard touchdown run to put the Spartans up 7-0.
SJSU led 21-17 at the half, and Chavez-Soto added some insurance with a 10-yard touchdown to open the third quarter. Quarterback Walker Eget found Leland Smith for an eight-yard touchdown pass later in the quarter to give the Spartans 35 points and an 18-point lead. They would need nearly every bit of that, because they wouldn’t score again, but Jack Layne and the Lobos would. They added 10 points in the fourth to get within a score, but San Jose State held on.
Eget was 26-of-30 passing for 334 yards and three touchdowns. Danny Scudero was the top receiver, as usual, with seven catches for 151 yards, an average of 21.6 yards per catch. Even without his 70-yard touchdown, he averaged 13.5 yards per catch. Chavez-Soto had 14 carries for 71 yards and scored twice. He has already tied Floyd Chalk IV and Jabari Bates for the most rushing touchdowns on the team with two. Lamar Radcliffe had 15 carries for 64 yards.
As noted above, San Jose State will travel to Wyoming this weekend, while New Mexico heads to Boise State.
San Diego State 45, Colorado State 24
All it took for San Diego State to get its offense back on track was to play Colorado State. The Aztecs, after posting just six points against Northern Illinois, exploded and effortlessly dropped 45 points on the conference foe as the Rams continued to flounder on all fronts, falling to 1-4 on the year.
Jayden Denegal hit Donovan Brown for a 45-yard touchdown pass to get the Aztecs started. They added one more touchdown before the Rams got on the board, then scored two more to bookend a Colorado State field goal and take a 28-10 lead into the half. San Diego State added 10 more in the third quarter to put the game on ice with a 38-10 lead after three quarters before letting off the gas in the fourth, when Colorado State scored two touchdowns to San Diego State’s one.
The Aztecs, who moved to 4-1 (1-0) with the win, were led by Denegal going 13-of-16 passing for 256 yards and two touchdowns. Jordan Napier had seven catches for 153 yards and a score, and Brown had two catches for 55 yards and a score. Byron Cardwell Jr. had 15 carries for 129 yards and a touchdown, Lucky Sutton had 21 attempts for 113 yards and two touchdowns, and Christian Washington had eight carries for 28 yards and a touchdown.
SDSU is back in action this weekend at Nevada, and Colorado State has a tall task ahead of it on Friday night against Fresno State.
Notre Dame 28, Boise State 7
The Broncos dropped their second non-conference game of the year as they fell to 21st-ranked Notre Dame, 28-7. Boise State is now 3-2 overall, with the other loss coming in blowout fashion at South Florida in the first week of the season.
So far, Boise State seems to struggle against top-end teams but trounces everyone else. That's a trend that will work pretty well for the majority of conference play if it holds, though Boise State’s lack of close games leaves a lot of uncertainty about its place in the college football food chain. The Broncos shouldn’t struggle with New Mexico this week, but even with all its flaws, UNLV the following week could cause trouble. They're winning games by an average of 27.3 points and losing by an average of 24 points.
The Broncos had a pretty solid start in South Bend but just couldn’t keep up. The Fighting Irish scored first, though Boise State blocked the PAT and took the lead with a touchdown of its own. Notre Dame retook the lead with under a minute to play in the first half and added a pair of unanswered touchdowns in the second half.
Maddux Madsen was 22-of-37 passing for 215 yards and no touchdowns, with four interceptions and four sacks. Chris Marshall had four catches for 58 yards but also had a fumble. Latrell Caples led the receiving corps with six receptions, accounting for 52 yards. The Boise State running game was stifled, and none of the Bronco ball carriers eclipsed the 40-yard mark. Sire Gaines had 39 yards, Dylan Riley had 33 yards, and Cameron Bates had 17 yards.
Navy 34, Air Force 31
Air Force fought hard against the unbeaten Midshipmen of Navy, driving to Navy's side of the field with a little over three minutes to play with a chance to win the game. A Liam Szarka fumble cut the series short and effectively ended the contest, as Navy ran out the clock to maintain its 34-31 edge.
Navy delivered the first strike with a 39-yard field goal, but a touchdown in the first and a field goal in the second briefly gave the Falcons a 10-3 lead. The Midshipmen responded swiftly. Back-to-back Navy touchdowns set the halftime difference at seven points, 17-10. Air Force tied the game three times in the latter half but couldn’t retake the lead.
Szarka led the Falcons in passing and rushing yards and accounted for 364 all-purpose yards with four touchdowns. He was 11-of-19 passing for 212 yards and two touchdowns, plus another 25 carries, 152 yards and two more touchdowns on the ground.
Dylan Carson, Kade Frew, and Cade Harris supplemented Szarka’s rushing attack. Carson added 24 yards on nine carries, Frew added 10 yards on seven, and Harris had a pair of attempts for 14 yards. Tight end Bruin Fleischmann was the top target with six catches for 166 yards and a touchdown. The other touchdown pass went to Jonah Dawson, his only catch of the night worth 53 yards. Frew also reeled in an eight-yard catch. It was a tough night for Harris, who was held to three receptions for seven yards.
There’s no shame in losing to Navy. Plenty of teams will have that opportunity this year. The Midshipmen are now 5-0, and the Falcons took them down to the wire, sticking to a theme of tight losses against solid opponents that has defined the first half of Air Force's season.
Still, Air Force now has to sit with the fact that it has lost four in a row, with a trip to Las Vegas to play an undefeated Rebels squad on deck this weekend. The path gets a lot easier after that, but Troy Calhoun can’t be thrilled with Air Force’s second 1-4 start in two years.