Mountain West versus Western Athletic: Who had the best showing in week one - Boise State University The Arbiter Online
What a wild weekend of blowouts, shootouts, and last second comebacks college football brought to its fans this Labor Day weekend. We saw Texas Christian University's defense stagger against a speedy Baylor team, the Wisconsin Badgers completely dominate the UNLV Rebels, and our old friends from the Western Athletic Conference, Utah State, give the national champions in Auburn a run for their money. With Boise State's convincing 35-21 win over Georgia to prove BCS worthiness, let's break down the Mountain West and WAC on how our fellow adversaries fared.
There was no surprise that Wisconsin was going to come out guns blazing in Madison against the Rebels, and with the Badgers running game hitting the 25o yd mark and amassing more than 500 yards of offense left the Rebels in the dust.
A game that was, in fact, a surprise was the TCU versus Baylor Friday night. It was understandable that there were going to be some rough patches in the Horned Frogs game play. Sophomore Casey Pachall took the reigns at quarterback and the obstacle of replacing 20 seniors, but still nothing the No. 14 ranked Horned Frogs couldn't take on with Head Coach Gary Patterson and one of the nation's longest win streaks. A Texas native named Robert Griffen III, a junior quarterback at Baylor, had something to bring to the table: running the Bear's offense off the ground with more than 35o yards passing and five touchdowns that lead to Baylor's 50-48 upset over TCU.
As for the rest of the Mountain West: Air Force's defense shined against South Dakota at Falcon Stadium in a 37-20 win, sophomore quarterback Pete Thomas led Colorado State over New Mexico 14-0, and Wyoming inched passed Weber State 35-32 with the help of freshman quarterback Brett Smith, who threw for three touchdowns. Last but not least, the post-Brady Hoke San Diego State Chieftains ran past the Cal Poly Mustangs 49-21 with sophomore running back Ronnie Hillman rushing for almost 200 yards.
Moving on over to the WAC, it seemed as if the Aggies were going to shock the SEC world by taking a victory of the ex-BCS National champion Tigers, but with a smooth onside kick in the fourth quarter and two touchdowns in under two minutes, Auburn snuck away with a 42-38 win.
It wasn't a positive weekend for the WAC, as the Vandals and their non-existent defense got knocked by Bowling Green 32-15. Senior quarterback and Heisman candidate Andrew Luck and No. 7 ranked Stanford blew San Jose State out of the water 57-3, the California Golden Bears were able to cage the Fresno State Bulldogs 36-21, and New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech both took home losses as well. The only victory came from Hawaii in which senior quarterback Bryant Moniz ran for and passed over 100 yards in a 34-17 over Colorado.
In a clear distinction, it was the Mountain West that had the most success between the two non-AQ qualifiers, but with it only being week one, there is still plenty of time for the WAC to prove itself. Hey, even skeptics need to believe sometimes.
Short URL: http://arbiteronline.com/?p=71909
06 Sep, 2011--
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