LIMPING ACROSS THE FINISH LINE. Colorado State's uninspired play and loss to UNLV on Saturday by a 36-33 score in Hughes Stadium, marked the end to the fourth season of football competition in the MWC. There have been few memorable moments this fall for the conference and too many embarrassments. Here's a look at what happened for each of the league's members this season.
THE TOP HALF. Colorado State (10-3 overall, 6-1 in the conference) was picked to finish first in the preseason media poll, although Utah received more first place votes by a margin of 8 to 5. The Rams are clearly the class of the conference and proved it from August through November. CSU lost a close game on the road to UCLA when the Bruins scored in the last five minutes to secure the win, 30-19. Another loss came on the road to Fresno State as the Bulldogs edged CSU, 32-30, in a stadium where few visiting teams win. The Rams' only false step of the season came last weekend when they allowed a wildly uneven UNLV team to steal a victory late in the fourth quarter in a game which prevented CSU from posting a perfect 7-0 record in the conference. Prior to the loss Sonny Lubick's team had compiled a 23-4 record in the month of November during his ten year tenure. The Rams' upset at the hand of John Robinson's Rebels sent CSU plummeting in the poll's and cost the conference any hope--realistic or otherwise--of landing a team in the top fifteen when the season's final polls are released in early January.
The Rams' signature win--and high point of the entire MWC season--came in a victory over their heated instate rivals, the Colorado Buffs, by a 19-14 score. The Buffs will play Oklahoma this coming weekend for the Big 12 regular season title. The Rams will head to Memphis to face Texas Christian University in the Liberty Bowl on the New Year's Eve. A victory would give CSU a school record tying eleventh win on the season.
In non-conference games this year CSU beat Virginia, Colorado, Nevada and Louisville while losing to UCLA and Fresno State. Their record and performance show Lubick and the Rams are a cut above every other team in the MWC, period.
The New Mexico Lobos(7-6/5-2) under coach Rocky Long scripted the biggest surprise in the conference this season. The league's preseason media poll slotted UNM in sixth place. In fact, New Mexico went to Fort Collins only a few weekends ago with a chance to wrest the conference title from the Rams. CSU prevailed by a 22-13 count, but had to struggle mightily to subdue the Lobos. UNM played in a bowl after the 1961 season and didn't play in another until the conclusion of the 1997 campaign. New Mexico will represent the MWC in the Las Vegas Bowl on Christmas Day.
In non-conference play the Lobos defeated Weber State and Baylor. North Carolina State, New Mexico State, Texas Tech and Utah State beat New Mexico. Talented running back Quincy Wright suffered a season ending injury early in the Lobos' schedule and the loss would have been a catastrophic one for the team had not freshman DonTrell Moore flourished by rushing for 1,117 yards and 13 TDs.
Victories against division 1-AA Weber State and division 1-A bottom feeder, Baylor, are hardly the stuff of memorable seasons and won't bring the Lobos' program or the MWC the stature and recognition they seek.
San Diego State(4-8/4-3) and Air Force finished with identical 4-3 conference records, but by virtue of its win against the Falcons, SDS can lay claim to a third place MWC finish. Picked to finish in a seventh place tie with Wyoming in the league's preseason poll, first year coach Tom Craft and his team were a moderate surprise. The Aztecs played an ambitious non-conference schedule, but were not equal to the rigors it presented. Losses came at the hands of Fresno State, Colorado, Arizona State, Idaho and UCLA. A game with Hawaii remains to be played this weekend.
One school of thought will advance the notion that playing such a difficult non-conference schedule prepared the Aztecs for their MWC games. Double digit losses to four of its five non-conference foes suggest that San Diego State was in over its head. Particularly appalling was a ten point loss to Idaho. The Vandals (2-10/1-5) served as doormats for the Sun Belt Conference, arguably the sole division 1-A aggregation whose football exploits are even less distinguished than those of the MWC.
That the Aztecs finished in third place in the conference and were the only MWC team not to register a single victory outside league play, doesn't reflect well on the level of play exhibited by the Mountain West Conference. It is a sign that the MWC has a significant gap to close before it can be regarded as being on equal footing with higher profile division 1-A leagues.
Air Force(8-4/4-3) placed fifth in the league's preseason media poll and wound up in fourth place. Fisher DeBerry's team, dominated by sophomores and juniors on both sides of the ball, started quickly, but faded badly over the second half of the season. The Falcons posted non-conference wins over Northwestern, California, Navy and Army. The team's only loss outside the conference came against Notre Dame.
The team's most impressive victory this season came on the road versus a then nationally ranked California Golden Bears team. It was the Falcons' first win over a nationally ranked team on the road since a 1998 win against Wyoming. Air Force raced to a 6-0 start on the year and an unimaginably high fifteenth place ranking in one poll entering its game versus the Fighting Irish. Thoroughly dominated by the Irish in every aspect of play save the final score, Air Force hit the skids with a midseason three game losing streak, hit rock bottom in a 34-26 loss in Laramie to the Wyoming Cowboys and squandered a chance to earn sole possession of second place in the conference by losing at home to San Diego State, 38-34.
Losses to Notre Dame and CSU were neither unexpected nor puzzling. The same cannot be said for the team's effort when playing Wyoming and San Diego State. If Air Force harbors any thought of being a conference champion, then it must manhandle the Cowboys and Aztecs rather than have any of its seasons waylaid by such interlopers.
Still, AFA's record served to push last season's 6-6 exercise in mediocrity further into the background. The Falcons have accepted a bid to play in the inaugural edition of the San Francisco Bowl in Pacific Bell Park on New Year's Eve against a team from the Big East.
THE BOTTOM HALF. One of the biggest surprises of last year's bowl season was Utah's victory over Southern Cal in the Las Vegas Bowl. Those two teams have traveled vastly divergent paths since that meeting. USC was last seen decimating Notre Dame with over 600 yards of total offense. The Trojans may wind up winning the PAC 10 and receiving a BCS bowl berth later this week if Washington State falls to UCLA.
Utah (5-6/3-4) on the other hand is a completely different story. Picked to finish second in the conference while receiving more first place votes than any team in the preseason MWC media poll, the Utes won their first two games before losing six straight outings, the last four of which were conference games. Coach Ron McBride's firing is an indication of the degree to which Utah underachieved this fall.
The fifth place Utes posted non-conference wins against Utah State and Indiana while losing to Arizona and Michigan. Utah was one of the few division 1-A teams
(Stanford was another) which played only eleven games this fall in a season during which it was permissible to play twelve. Maybe the Utes wanted to avoid a 4-9 season.
The Utes were never a factor in the conference title chase this fall and must now fill a coaching vacancy before they can construct and implement a regimen which will lead them back to respectability.
The UNLV Rebels(5-7/3-4) were seen as likely fourth place finishers according to the preseason conference media poll. The seemingly always disappointing Rebels stayed true to form by playing yet another season over which they exercised little control of their final destination. UNLV posted non-conference wins against Kansas and Nevada while losing to Wisconsin, Oregon State and Toledo.
Maybe Rebels' fans amuse themselves by enduring a football season while awaiting the arrival of the basketball season. Perhaps head coach/athletic director John Robinson is passing time until he decides which of his two hats he will wear on a permanent basis. He's the only man who serves both functions at the division 1-A level and its unlikely he'll continue in the dual role much longer.
QB Jason Thomas has finally seen his career end, "not with a bang but a whimper," as he strolled the sidelines in Fort Collins while his Rebels' teammates authored their most significant win of the fall by upending CSU over the weekend. A career which began amid ballyhoo and clamor never materialized for more than moments at a time. How fitting. Thomas is emblematic of UNLV's football program since the birth of the MWC: high expectations laced with desultory performance.
Brigham Young(5-7/2-5) was earmarked for a third place finish in the preseason poll. The Cougars' seventh place finish easily earns them the dubious distinction of being the league's most disappointing squad. The folks in Provo must be convinced that LaVell Edwards has been happily ensconced in retirement for a far longer period than is actually the case. Last year BYU was trying to upset the best laid plans of the BCS, however scatterbrained such plans were and continue to be. This year the Cougars were little more than carrion on which the remainder of the league was more than happy to feast after years of having occupied that role for Edwards' teams.
The year began auspiciously for the Cougars when they posted wins over Syracuse--although the Orangemen are down this year--and Hawaii (9-3 with a game versus SDS this weekend), before taking a turn for the worse with losses against Nevada and Georgia Tech. A victory over instate rival Utah State gave BYU its last hurrah in the preseason. In uncustomary fashion, BYU lost three consecutive conference games when league play started. The Cougars never recovered and Gary Crowton is learning that replacing a legend is indeed a tough job.
Wyoming(2-10/1-6) had its third straight disastrous football season and it cost Vic Koenning his job. The Cowboys entered the season having gone 3-19 in the previous two autumns. The Cowboys may have come in last place in the MWC, but they merit an award for creative scheduling. Athletic director Lee Moon managed to have the Pokes play a home game, on the road, in Nashville, against Tennessee. Yeah, it must have been hell for the Volunteers to be the visiting team a grueling two hours from their own campus while the home team only had to travel across two time zones to reach the site of the game. The Vols coasted to a 47-7 win in raising their record to a gaudy 13-0 against MWC teams. Here's a thought to athletic directors in the MWC: if you schedule an SEC team try someone other than Tennessee and if you sign a "home and home" contract make sure your season ticket holders actually get to attend one of the games.
Wyoming, once again, hit the road in search of big paydays in return for serving as anyone's tackling dummy du jour. Tennessee, Central Michigan, Boise State--and before you laugh at BSU have a look at your morning paper because the Broncos are in the top twenty in both major polls--and Washington. Wyoming's single non-conference triumph came over division 1-AA team, The Citadel, and the Cowboys needed to score the game's final fourteen points to secure the 34-30 victory at home.
Wyoming hadn't won a conference game since 1999 when it faced Air Force a week after the Falcons had lost to Notre Dame. Playing with focus and purpose the Cowboys beat Air Force, 34-26, thereby ending any practical aspirations of a top twenty ranking to which the Falcons may have been clinging. The victory snapped Wyoming's nineteen game conference losing skid and provided the last victory of the short lived Vic Koenning tenure in Laramie. Koenning's departure is easily understood in light of the team's having authored only one win in conference play under his guidance.
FUTURE PROSPECTS. San Diego State and Wyoming posted one non-conference victory between them and it was a come-from-behind-nail-biter against a division 1-AA afterthought, The Citadel. New Mexico posted only one victory over a division 1-A non-conference opponent and that was Baylor, a team which finished last in its division in the Big 12. Utah posted victories against Utah State, which finished 4-7 and Indiana which went 3-9. UNLV beat Kansas (2-10) and cross-state rival Nevada (5-7).
This means that five teams in the MWC combined for a total of zero victories in non-conference competition against division 1-A teams with winning records. National esteem and acclaim will not accrue to the MWC as long as its members schedule contests against also-rans of other leagues and then play in lackluster fashion in such games. Nor will the league distinguish itself if its constituents schedule games they have no realistic chance to win. If Wyoming hasn't won a conference game since 1999 what logic is there in surmising that the Cowboys could beat Tennessee in Nashville or Washington in Seattle?
It was left to AFA, BYU and CSU to register the league's most notable non-conference victories of the season. The Falcons beat a nationally ranked Cal team in Berkeley and the Bears have posted a respectable 7-5 record this season. In fact along with West Virginia and Ohio State, the Cal Bears are one of only three teams to win six more games this season than in the 2001 campaign.
The Cougars exacted a measure of revenge this season for the devastating defeat they suffered last season against Hawaii. In beating the Warriors, BYU defeated a team which has been on the cusp on entering the top twenty-five teams during the latter stages of the season.
There is one team which has separated itself from the MWC pack this season when it comes to producing wins against well regarded division 1-A competition. CSU played in the first college game of the season when it beat the Virginia Cavaliers in Charlottesville in August. Virginia, 8-5, is awaiting a forthcoming bowl bid. The Rams also beat a determined Louisville Cardinals team. The Cards have accepted a bid to the GMAC bowl to face Marshall.
Colorado State's most impressive win this season--and therefore the MWC's as well--is the Rams' victory against the Colorado Buffs. CU is ranked twelfth in both major polls and will play Oklahoma this Saturday night for the Big 12 championship. With a win against the Sooners and another in a New Year's Day bowl the Buffs would easily finish among the top ten teams in the final polls. The higher the Buffs ascend, the more sparkling the Rams' victory over them becomes.
Schools are entitled to seek lucrative paydays by going on the road to play in big stadia against teams which may be a cut above themselves. They may even assure themselves of a hefty check by signing a home and home contract with a nationally recognized powerhouse. At the same time, season ticket holders are entitled to see games in which the home team has a reasonable chance of winning. No school is going to maintain a healthy season ticket buying fan base by allowing itself to be pummeled into submission five or six times each fall before the local faithful. In constructing a schedule teams need to blend attractive opponents and realistic opportunities to win games with a compelling, competitive brand of football to draw fans, raise their profile and that of the league in which they play.
The Mountain West Conference is not part of the Bowl Championship Series at present, nor does its current level of play warrant its inclusion. A conference in its infancy cannot gain the repsect it seeks by having its constituents schedule a surfeit of games against division 1-AA teams. Neither can the MWC gain the respect it craves by having its teams act as sacrificial lambs in opposing powerhouses they have no reasonable hope of beating.
This is the first season in which the MWC has affiliations with four bowl games. It's a fortunate circumstance hindered only by poor execution since only three MWC teams are bowl qualified. The Seattle Bowl will be looking elsewhere for one of its participants. The league's poor showing in non-conference games, failure to provide the requisite number of teams for the bowl games with which it has associations and misguided scheduling have combined to embarrass the league. At some point in the future the MWC will realize the aspirations about which it can now only dream, but it will do so only when it awakens from the nightmare by which it has been held captive in 2002.