Mountain West Week 7 Lessons Learned

Week 7 of the college football season featured four Mountain West Conference games. These contests separated the contenders from the pretenders. What did we learn this week?

San Diego State can contend for the title
A week after losing to BYU, the Aztecs jumped back into the race by defeating Air Force 27-25. San Diego State played much better in front of the home crowd with RB Ronnie Hillman ripping two long TD runs. QB Ryan Lindley and the Aztec receivers torched the Falcon secondary for 247 yards on only 14 completions.

Despite the loss to BYU, San Diego State controls its own destiny. The Aztecs play TCU the week after the Horned Frogs play Utah. They host Utah the following week, as the Utes conclude a brutal three game stretch of Air Force, TCU, and Notre Dame. With both top contenders coming off tough contests, San Diego State could very easily find itself playing the Las Vegas Bowl as the Mountain West Champions.

TCU remains the top contender to win the MWC title
By thrashing BYU 31-3, the Horned Frogs have established themselves as the clear-cut front-runner in the Mountain West title race. While BYU has a 2-5 record, they did defeat San Diego State last weekend, making this victory more impressive than it might otherwise appear.

The TCU has dominated its conference schedule so far. The Horned Frogs have yet to allow a TD in conference play, and have outscored their opponents 103-3. If TCU continues to dominate like this, they will likely end up in a BCS game.

Utah has work left to do
While TCU solidified its position as the favorite, Utah took a step back against Wyoming. While the Utes defeated the Cowboys 30-6, they played very sloppy football in the second half. Utah continues to turn the ball over at an alarming rate, finishing the game with a -3 turnover ratio. If the Utes want to win the Mountain West, and play in a BCS game, they must stop turning the ball over.

Colorado State escapes the bottom of the conference
Colorado State remained in bowl contention after defeating UNLV this weekend. While the Rams will need to pull an upset or two to get to 6-6, they showed that they were heads and shoulders better than the teams at the bottom of the conference by defeating the Rebels.

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