Nevada Appeal
The UNLV Rebels nearly destroyed their chances at a Mountain West championship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on Saturday night.
The Rebels, who remain No. 2 in this week's Nevada Appeal Mountain West football rankings, escaped Honolulu with a narrow 29-27 victory over the No. 5 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. UNLV trailed 17-15 before Ricky White caught a 37-yard touchdown pass with just under seven minutes to play in the third quarter and Jai'Den Thomas scored on a 32-yard touchdown run with six minutes left in the game.
"We knew it was going to be a tough challenge," UNLV coach Barry Odom said on unlvrebels.com. "But we found a way to win in a place UNLV hasn't won very often."
UNLV, which last won at Hawaii in 2000 (34-32), is now 3-9 against the Warriors on the road in their football history. Their only other victory in Hawaii before this past Saturday and in 2000 was in 1979 (48-31).
"We're now 7-2 (and 3-1 in Mountain West play) with three games left in November to do something special," Odom said.
UNLV finishes its regular season against San Diego State (this Saturday at home), San Jose State on the road (Nov. 22) and Nevada at home (Nov. 30). The Rebels are in the mix for one of two spots in the conference title game on Dec. 6 with No. 1 Boise State (8-1, 5-0), No. 3 Colorado State (6-3, 4-0), No. 4 San Jose State and, technically, No. 9 San Diego State (3-6, 2-2). Everyone else in the league has three or more league losses.
"We'll build on this," Odom said.
UNLV never could shake Hawaii on Saturday because of a couple mistakes early in the game. The Rebels had an 83-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and a 21-yard interception return for another score, both in the first quarter, wiped out by penalties.
"We left 14 points out there," Odom said. "If we would have taken care of business, we could have blown the game open early."
The Rebels, instead, needed a safety (on White's fourth blocked punt of the season) late in the first quarter to help beat Hawaii. The Rainbow Warriors (4-6, 2-3) got two Brayden Schager-to-Jonah Panoke touchdown passes (49 and 5 yards left) to remain in the game. Schager was just 14-of-35 but he threw for 282 yards and three touchdowns.
UNLV quarterback Hajj Malik-WIlliams was 13-of-27 for 175 yards and a touchdown and was sacked three times. Williams, though, also had a game-high 122 yards on the ground. Thomas had 109 yards for the Rebels, who ran for 290 yards.
Boise State also narrowly escaped with a victory last Saturday, surviving a scare from the No. 8 Nevada Wolf Pack, 28-21. Nevada never led in the game but did rally from a 14-0 deficit to tie the game by halftime.
Running back Ashton Jeanty proved to be the difference in the game for Boise, running for 209 yards and three short touchdowns. Jeanty leads the nation with 1,734 yards and 23 touchdowns and remains among the leaders for the Heisman Trophy.
"It wasn't pretty," Boise State quarterback Maddux Madsen (9-of-20, 119 yards) said on broncosports.com. "But you see games like this all the time. Winning is hard."
Boise State, which has won seven games in a row, struggled to beat both Nevada teams this year, narrowly beating UNLV (29-27) two weeks ago and holding off the Wolf Pack on Saturday.
"There are hard feelings between these two schools," said Madsen of the Wolf Pack-Broncos rivalry. "But we'll see everybody's best even when we play teams with nothing to lose."
Nevada quarterback Brendon Lewis was 17-of-26 for 185 yards and a touchdown. Lewis also had an eye-opening 17-yard touchdown run for the Pack's first touchdown late in the first quarter even though he finished with just 32 yards on the ground on 10 carries. Madsen had 58 on eight.
"That was a hard-fought battle," Boise State coach Spencer Danielson said. "We knew going in it would be an absolute dogfight. That's a hard game to win."
Boise State has now won 32-of-45 games in its rivalry with Nevada, including 18 of the last 20 since 1998.
"It was a gritty win," Danielson said. "You can't win every game 56-14 (like Boise beat Portland State in late September). We didn't play our best football."
No. 4 San Jose State beat Oregon State, 24-13, in Corvallis, Ore., on Saturday as D.J. Harvey returned an interception 16 yards for a touchdown and Floyd Chalk ran for an 11-yard score in the fourth quarter. Spartans quarterback Walker Eget was 18-of-35 for 395 yards and a touchdown. Wide receiver Nick Nash caught six passes for 161 yards and a touchdown.
"We just kept stalling," Oregon State coach Trent Bray said on oregonlive.com. "We were driving the ball, getting into the red zone and not putting points on the board."
Oregon State is just 4-5 this year and has lost four in a row, a streak which began Oct. 12 in Reno with a 42-37 loss to Nevada.
"It's about executing when its critical," Bray said. "That's the big thing of why we're in this rut we're in."
No. 6 New Mexico (4-6, 3-3) knocked off San Diego State, 21-16, in San Diego. Lobos quarterback Devon Dampier was 16-of-24 for 175 yards and a touchdown and also ran for 127 yards on 17 carries. Running back Eli Sanders had 173 yards and two touchdowns.
"We adopted a style (against San Diego State) that catered to how the game was going with defense," New Mexico coach Bronco Mendenhall said on golobos.com. "To go on the road in November and pull that off, that's gratifying."
New Mexico, now 3-3 in league play, was just 7-48 in Mountain West games from 2017-23 combined. The Lobos also went 7-40 in the Mountain West from 2009-14. Overall, New Mexico won as many as three Mountain West games in a season just twice in 16 years from 2008-23.
"There's just a lot to be proud of in terms of resiliency, grit and determination," said Mendenhall, in his first season as New Mexico's head coach.
No. 11 Air Force upset No. 7 Fresno State, 36-28, at home. The Falcon rushed for 344 yards and three touchdowns in one of the most productive games of the season for their run-based triple-option offense. They had 325 yards and four touchdowns in a loss at New Mexico last month.
Air Force's Quentin Hayes had 112 yards rushing and Dylan Carlson had 120. Fresno State quarterback Mikey Keene was an efficient 23-of-26 for 289 yards and three touchdowns but the Bulldogs had minus five yards rushing on just 12 carries.
"We didn't stop the dive," Fresno State coach Tim Skipper said. "If you are not able to stop the dive their whole offense opens up. They knocked us off the ball."
The Nevada Appeal Mountain West football rankings for the week of Nov. 11:
1. BOISE STATE (8-1, 5-0): Last week: Boise State 28, Nevada 21. This week: Boise State at San Jose State (Saturday).
2. UNLV (7-2, 3-1): Last week: UNLV 29, Hawaii 27. This week: San Diego State at UNLV (Saturday).
3. COLORADO STATE (6-3, 4-0): Last week: Bye. This week: Wyoming at Colorado State (Friday).
4. SAN JOSE STATE (6-3, 3-2): Last week: San Jose State 24, Oregon State 13. This week: Boise State at San Jose State (Saturday).
5. HAWAII (4-6, 2-3): Last week: UNLV 29, Hawaii 27. This week: Hawaii at Utah State (Saturday).
6. NEW MEXICO (4-6, 3-3): Last week: New Mexico 21, San Diego State 16. This week: Washington State at New Mexico (Saturday).
7. FRESNO STATE (5-5, 3-3): Last week: Air Force 36, Fresno State 28. This week: Bye.
8. NEVADA (3-8, 0-5): Last week: Boise State 28, Nevada 21. This week: Bye.
9. SAN DIEGO STATE (3-6, 2-2): Last week: New Mexico 21, San Diego State 16. This week: San Diego State at UNLV (Saturday).
10. WYOMING (2-7, 2-3): Last week: Bye. This week: Wyoming at Colorado State (Friday).
11. AIR FORCE (2-7, 1-4): Last week: Air Force 36, Fresno State 28. This week: Oregon State at Air Force (Saturday).
12. UTAH STATE (2-7, 1-3): Last week: Washington State 49, Utah State 28. This week: Hawaii at Utah State (Saturday).