WAC off to a strong start

Before the season started, Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson talked about the importance of nonconference victories against conferences that have automatic entries into the Bowl Championship Series.

The WAC got off to a good start over the weekend with Louisiana Tech's 22-14 win over Mississippi State and Fresno State's 24-7 win at Rutgers.

"(They) got us off to a fine start," Benson said.

Benson went on to point out that teams from the Mountain West, Mid-American and Sun Belt conferences also beat schools from the guaranteed conferences, and all three were on the road. It's the first time that all five of the non-guaranteed conferences beat the big boys on the same weekend.

The conference has been fortunate to send Boise State and Hawaii to BCS games the past two years, and Benson wouldn't be surprised if that trend continues.

Certainly Fresno State looks to be strong though the Bulldogs have a challenging schedule.

Don't count out Boise State, Utah or BYU, either. Utah was impressive against Michigan.

THIRD TO FIRST

San Jose State's Kyle Reed and Hawaii's Inoke Funaki both started the season No. 3 on their respective depth charts.

However, after impressive season-opening performances, they earned starting nods this week. Funaki starts against Weber State, while Reed, a transfer from Cal, starts in a road game at Nebraska.

Neither Greg Alexander or Brent Rausch performed well under center. Alexander went 11-for-21 with two interceptions and just 57 yards. Rausch went 2-for-7 with an interception and just 28 yards.

When Funaki finally got his chance, he didn't disappoint. He went 8-for-11 passing for 110 yards and a 13-yard TD pass.

"All he did was try to help the other quarterbacks," Hawaii coach Greg McMackin said. "He got his opportunity and made the most of it."

On the horizon for the Warriors is Tyler Graunke, who was Colt Brennan's back-up. He is now eligible to play, and many experts believe it won't be long until he is the starter.

"He's pretty far behind," McMackin said. "We'll see how fast he can catch up."

Reed completed 14 of 18 for 132 yards and two SJSU scores in the come-from-behind win over UC Davis.

Reed missed most of spring practice with a broken foot suffered when he tried to change direction at practice.

"Myles Eden did a good job," said Tomey, referring to his first-game starter. "Kyle did an amazing job. He hasn't played a football game in over three years.

"We knew we were going to play Kyle. We knew we needed to get him in a game to see what would happen. He showed so much poise under so much pressure."

BULLDOGS' DEFENSE STEPS UP

Fresno State coach Pat Hill took his team 3,000 miles and came up with an impressive performance.

"Anytime you travel cross country, it's real tough," he said. "We have 35-40 players who were on their first trip, and they handled it well.

"I was real proud of the defense. Except for Ikenna Ike and Jon Monga (both seniors) that whole defense was mostly freshmen and sophomores. They stepped up against a veteran Rutgers team. They pressured them and played hard."

AGGIES FALL SHORT

Nonconference wins continue to elude Utah State, which lost to UNLV last weekend.

In the Brent Guy era, the Aggies have lost 10 of their last 11 nonconference games, including two straight to UNLV, and it doesn't get any easier this weekend when USU travels to Oregon.

Guy got a first-hand look at his two new quarterbacks, Sean Setzer and Diondre Borel.

"Both quarterbacks at times played well," Guy said. "Sean opened the game, and until he threw the interception (right before the half) threw the ball and ran our offense very well.

"Diondre did a good job of making things happen. He ran the ball better than we did from the running back spot. He made a couple of nice throws, but made more plays with his feet than his arm."

Guy said the starter for Saturday's game at Oregon won't be decided until game day.

"We will wait and see how they do in practice and announce somebody before the end of the week," Guy said. "We are going to need both of those guys to get through the year. We are going to have two different styles of play, but when they are on both of them play very well."

POW HONOREES

Fresno State's Ryan Mathews was named the WAC Offensive Player of the Week after rushing for 163 yards and three scores in the win over Rutgers.

"He was outstanding," Hill said. "That was a very good defensive front we played against. Ryan had the hot hand and made big plays."

Louisiana Tech safety Deon Young and Tech place-kicker Brad Oestricher won the honors on defense and special teams, respectively.

Young finished with seven tackles and intercepted a pass in the red zone in Tech's 22-14 win over Mississippi State.

Oestricher made all three of his field goal attempts in the win, including kicks from 48 and 50 yards, respectively. Both of those kicks were career highs.

PARTING SHOT

The WAC has called a press conference for this morning for a major announcement. My guess is that it's to either announce a new television agreement with ESPN or to announce a new conference tie-in for the Roady's Humanitarian Bowl.