Mountain West Mania: Takeaways From The Second Week of Mountain West College Football
Week 2 was disappointing to say the least for the Mountain West.
Not one but two teams from the conference suffered losses to FCS teams, and two more just barely beat opponents from that subdivision. But a handful of teams did exactly what they needed to last weekend as well.
Here are my top five takeaways from how Mountain West teams performed after Week 2:
North Dakota State Keeps Showing Up
This is by far the result of the weekend that stands out to me in this conference. We already knew North Dakota State was a team to be reckoned with as it made the move up from the FCS. And that notion was further proven correct when the Bison dismantled Jacksonville State in Week 0.
But now the Bison appear like a frontrunner to win the Mountain West. They went on the road and defeated Air Force, another preseason contender in the conference, 38-32. NDSU is now 3-0 and is 1-0 in league play with its first conference victory as an FBS program.
Air Force outgained NDSU 386-374, won time of possession by nearly two minutes, ran for 207 yards on 4.1 yards per rush and was 8 of 16 on third and fourth downs. If you had told me those stats going into the game, I would’ve figured the Falcons would win.
But the score as well as those stats are a bit misleading, because NDSU was dominant. The Bison led 35-13 going into the fourth quarter, and Air Force played a frantic game of catch-up just to get it to within one possession with less than a minute to go.
The Bison are now 3-0 with two impressive FBS wins.
UNLV’s Step Back
Just when UNLV seemed to be back on track following a win over Hawaii, the Rebels faltered once again. But this time, it wasn’t even close.
UNLV lost to a new-look North Texas team 44-6, which is Neal Brown’s first win as UNT’s head coach.
We learned a lot about both teams in this one. For the Rebels, maybe UNLV’s defense hasn’t improved from last season as much as we thought after some solid performances against Memphis and Hawaii. And maybe their offense isn’t superb either after Jackson Arnold was 18-for-27 passing with 194 yards while star running back Jai'Den Thomas totaled 37 yards on 10 carries with zero receptions.
It’s a non-conference loss, so UNLV is still 1-0 in league play, but the Rebels have plenty to fix during their bye this week.
Nevada, Northern Illinois Fall Flat
Nevada and Northern Illinois both lost to FCS teams — granted, some pretty good FCS teams.
Wolf Pack head coach Jeff Choate fell to his former team, Montana State, 20-7. The Bobcats just won the FCS national championship last season and were favored in this one, but you would have liked to have seen a little more from Nevada.
The Wolf Pack, who were missing starting quarterback Carter Jones due to injury, turned the ball over four times and only found the end zone once. Granted, Nevada gave up just 20 points to a high-powered MSU team, but it wasn’t enough.
NIU fell 28-24 to an in-state opponent, Illinois State, which made it to the FCS national title game last season. NIU outgained ISU 308-254 as Huskies running back Telly Johnson Jr. accumulated 83 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries.
But it wasn’t enough, as ISU scored in the final two minutes to go ahead and steal the win at NIU. The Huskies are now 0-2 going into their matchup at Arizona next week.
But they weren’t the only Mountain West teams that would’ve liked to have performed better against the FCS. Wyoming beat Northern Colorado 21-13, and San Jose State scored 10 points in the final 12 minutes to defeat Cal Poly 30-20. Either one of those games very easily could’ve gone the other way.
Hawaii Rebounds
Hawaii was regarded as a true contender to compete in the Mountain West this season, but the Rainbow Warriors started off in disappointing fashion, losing to Stanford and UNLV. However, they responded and won last weekend.
Hawaii beat New Mexico State 29-19 at home as Micah Alejado completed 33 of 45 passes for 346 yards. DeVon Rice led Hawaii with 59 yards and two touchdowns rushing, and Tama Uiliata caught 10 passes for 107 yards. Hawaii also forced three turnovers on defense.
This is exactly what Hawaii needed before going into a bye week.
New Mexico, UTEP Take Care Of Business
While multiple Mountain West teams struggled against the FCS, New Mexico and UTEP didn’t.
The Lobos set a program record with 42 points in the second quarter to beat Mercyhurst 70-7 and improve to 2-0 overall. Scottre Humphrey led the way for UNM, rushing for 110 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries. UNM outgained Mercyhurst 460-155 and forced six turnovers on defense. Despite missing quarterback Jack Layne, the Lobos have some momentum going into their game against Oklahoma next week.
Meanwhile, UTEP got into the win column with a 51-10 victory over Texas Southern. UTEP quarterback EJ Colson Jr. threw for 239 yards and four touchdowns, two to Cash Cheeks, on 14-of-21 passing. The Miners put up 491 yards of total offense while limiting their opponent to 211.
Colton Pool is a Group of Six college football writer and has covered the G6 for five years. He’s the host of The Pool Report Podcast and writes for The Pool Report Substack.
From humiliating FCS upsets to statement road victories, the Mountain West turned into absolute chaos last weekend. While conference newcomers North Dakota State continued their dominant FBS transition by dismantling Air Force, stalwarts like UNLV hit an unexpected brick wall, and two other programs suffered embarrassing home drops to lower-subdivision foes. But amidst the wreckage, a few programs took care of business, racked up record-setting blowouts, and found their footing.
Here are the top five takeaways from a wild, unraveling week of Mountain West college football with Colton Pool.