Mountain West Power Rankings Week Three : The Steele Stocks

1. Boise State Broncos : Boise State was handed their first loss of the 2020 season, in a national spotlight game against the BYU Cougars. The Broncos could not hold up their end of the bargain in this showdown, losing 51-17. Granted, an injury bug has hit all three of their top quarterbacks, with the deck being shuffled to the quarterback position the defense did not help so much either. As BYU quarterback Zach Wilson is now getting national attention after his 21 for 27, 359 yard, two touchdown performance. Boise State is no longer nationally ranked but I am keeping them at number one, why? WHY? Well, look to my number two spot to find that out. 

2. Nevada Wolf Pack : Nevada, while shutting out the worst team in the mountain west (Utah State) for three quarters, I can not move them up to the one spot for doing so. Nevada has looked great in all three of their games, I am not discrediting that. But, it is a damn shame the Boise State Broncos and Nevada WolfPack will not meet up in 2020 because I really need to see the two teams square off for my number one spot. The bottom line is this, Carson Strong is the best quarterback in the conference, he had 411 yards and three touchdowns this game. He also tossed all three of them to Romero Doubs who had a total of 137 yards off of seven catches. Nevada is really good, although I can not move them to the one spot after beating the Aggies, c’mon... 

3. San Jose State Spartans : A two spot lead for the Spartans after a slugfest win over the San Diego State Aztecs. Plenty of worrisome emotions regarding the injury situation of Spartan quarterback Nick Starkel as he was hurt on his first drive of the game. But, back up Nick Nash came in and controlled the game just fine leading the Spartans to a huge win. San Jose was able to make San Diego pay off of their mistakes and I feel like even without Nick Sarkel, Nick Nash can come in and spread the wealth just fine. He completed a pass to six different Spartans in this game and had two touchdowns for a modest 169 yards. The Spartans are now, you know, 3-0, for the first time in a long time. 

4. San Diego State Aztecs : Aztecs find themselves solely at fourth again even after a tough loss to the hands of the Spartans. The defense is still good but the offense needs to find more of a rhythm with Carson Baker, who tossed an interception and was 21 for 30 passing with no touchdowns. It is no secret that the Aztecs play hard-hitting, smashmouth, run the ball and play tough defense kind of ball. But, when it came time to clutch up and take over the game in the second half the Aztecs were late to the party. Leaving San Diego at four, they are 2-1 and frankly that style of football they play should keep them winning games in the Mountain West. 

5. Fresno State Bulldogs : Moving up one spot in this week's rankings on the shoulders of Ronnie Rivers. Fresno State found themselves in a close one with the Rebels for three quarters but in the fourth and final, the Bulldogs took over and a lot has to do with mountain west player of the week Ronnie Rivers.  Rivers scored four total touchdowns in this game, three on the ground and one through the air, for a combined 232 yard performance. Bulldogs are getting better as the season progresses, Rivers has now scored in 11 straight games and after Saturday looks somewhat unstoppable. 

6. Colorado State Rams : From eleven to six in the rankings, what’s up Colorado State? After what looked like a long season ahead in an opening loss, the Rams bounced back and dominated the Wyoming Cowboys. The Rams defense was buzzing everywhere around to the ball, making an extremely miserable outing for Cowboys quarterback Levi Williams. On top of that, the Rams settled in with one quarterback for this game unlike previously before against Fresno State where they flip flopped around. It was Patrick O’Brien in this game, finding Dante Wright 10 times for 146 yards. Trey McBride was on the receiving end of both O’Brien touchdown passes and the Rams put together a great team win knocking off a Wyoming team that I had put some faith in through the first two games, now they have to face some music after the Rams dominated this one 34 - 24. 

7. Hawaii Rainbow Warriors : Barely hanging onto my seven spot in the rankings after a electrifying game against New Mexico State. A 39 - 33 win showed the Rainbow Warriors flipping their entire game plan and well, shut me up. Remember, me saying they are one dimensional? They can only run the rock, yeah, well in this game it was a Chevan Cordeiro passing display! 410 yards, four touchdowns and yes two interceptions. But, more importantly they proved to the mountain west we can do more than run the ball. Granted, I would have liked to see more of a dominant display from Hawaii as I think they are far better than New Mexico State but maybe the Lobo’s brought enough of a challenge to potentially bring the Rainbow Warriors offense to new heights.  

8. Wyoming Cowboys : Three to eight, I am slowly losing my faith that I have been putting into the Wyoming Cowboys. After a tough loss to the hands of the Colorado State Rams, once again the inconsistency of the Cowboys has been their death wish. When the Boy’s are on, well they are a top five team in the conference, when it seemingly looks like they have rolled out of bed late, they are off, completely out of sync. Now, Wyoming should get back on track with a win against the Utah State Aggies, but it is about how they win, keep that in mind...

9. New Mexico State Lobos : Back at nine and I wish I could move the Lobos up a spot after the amazing efforts in the Hawaii game. The Lobos brought it to the Rainbow Warriors, jumping on them early and then finding themselves in a bit of a back and forth affair. Nevertheless, this game showed that mountain west teams can not take New Mexico State lightly, it would speak volumes for their program if they keep themselves in these games on a weekly basis. Then, to ultimately start winning them. 

10. UNLV Runnin’ Rebels : A tale of two halfs in the Fresno State game, as the Rebels are still yet to score points in the fourth quarter this season. At 0-3, the bright spot is the competitiveness of quarterback Max Gillum. Gillum did a lot of improvisation in this game, rushing for 139 yards and a touchdown while also tossing a nice ball to Tyleek Collins from 43 yards out. So many questions about whether he is the guy or even the right fit in Arroyo’s system, have now been answered. The Rebels were only down three at half time and also found themselves with opportunities to win the game, turnovers were costly and the lack of stopping Ronnie Rivers as well. But once again it is something to build off of for the Rebels. 

11. Utah State Aggies : Firing Gary Andersen is the start to fixing this dumpster fire over there in Logan, Utah. The Aggies are 0-3 and have yet to prove much of any sort of competition. The coaching search is on for the Aggies and the schedule will get tougher and tougher, as they face Fresno State in week four. 

Air Force, not ranked after a game postponed against Army.