Nevada Appeal
The Colorado State Rams are not satisfied.
"I just told our kids, 'How good do you want to be?'" Rams coach Jay Norvell said on csurams.com on Monday. "It's really what this comes down to. Yeah, we've won seven games, we've qualified for a bowl game, and we've won a couple rivalry games. But our goals are really much higher than that."
The Rams, No. 3 in this week's Nevada Appeal Mountain West rankings, beat the No. 12 Wyoming Cowboys, 24-10, on Saturday in front of 36,720 fans in Fort Collins, Colo., to improve to 7-3, 5-0. They are just one of two teams in the Mountain West undefeated in league play — with No. 1 Boise State (9-1, 6-0) — with two weeks remaining in the regular season.
Norvell's Rams started the season 2-3, have won five in a row and now control their own destiny to qualify for the Mountain West title game on Dec. 6. No. 2 UNLV (8-2, 4-1) also is in the running for the championship game with Boise State and Colorado State.
"Our football team reminds me of my college years at Iowa," Norvell said, "When our guys just fought for each other. They didn't care who got the credit. They weren't worried about stats. They just wanted to not let their teammates down."
The Rams will meet No. 6 Fresno State (5-5, 3-3) on the road this Saturday and close out the regular season at home against No. 7 Utah State (3-7, 2-3) on Nov. 30.
Colorado State played an efficient game to beat Wyoming with quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi completing 14-of-17 passes for 192 yards and a touchdown and running backs Justin Marshall (104 yards) and Avery Morrow (84 yards, one touchdown) leading the ground game.
"We thought coming in here we were going to need to play the best football game we've played all year, and we didn't do that," Wyoming coach Jay Sawvel told gowyo.com.
Boise State, which was coming off a sluggish 28-21 win over Nevada the previous week on the road, also found itself treading water late in the third quarter at San Jose State on Saturday, trailing 21-14. The No. 5 Spartans (6-4, 3-3) jumped out to a 14-0 lead on two Walker Eget-to-Justin Lockhart touchdown passes.
"Our guys never flinched," Boise State coach Spencer Danielson told broncosports.com.
Boise State went on a 28-0 run over the final 21-plus minutes of the game to smother San Jose State and keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive. Running back Ashton Jeanty scored two touchdowns (36 and 5 yards) to key the run. Davon Banks returned an interception 70 yards as the Broncos scored two touchdowns in the final 2:23 to inflate the final score.
Jeanty, still in the running for the Heisman Trophy, ran for 159 yards and three touchdowns on 32 carries and now leads the nation with 1,893 yards and 26 touchdowns. He broke Jay Ajayi's Boise State single-season rushing record (1,823 yards in 2014) on his 36-yard touchdown run.
"We never back down," Jeanty told broncosports.com. "We couldn't have started off worse, but Coach (Danielson) kept telling us to stay in the fight."
San Jose State had a chance to go up 21-0 on the Broncos but fell short on a fourth-down pass from the 2-yard line in the second quarter.
"We always tell our guys, 'Be the hunter. Never be the hunted,'" Danielson said.
San Jose State lost two fumbles and threw two interceptions in the loss.
"If we take care of the ball, we're going to win that game," San Jose State coach Ken Niumatalolo told the Associated Press. "The whole country will see the score, but the score wasn't indicative of the game."
UNLV whipped San Diego State at home in front of 30,386 fans. Rebel quarterback Hajj Malik-Williams was 20-of-29 for 244 yards and a touchdown and also ran for two touchdowns. Seven UNLV players rushed for between 15 and 58 yards as the Rebels ran for 253 yards and four touchdowns as a team.
UNLV needs to beat San Jose State on Friday and Nevada on Nov. 30 and also needs Colorado State to lose at least once in the final two weeks to have a chance at qualifying for the conference championship game. UNLV lost to Boise State, 29-24, on Oct. 25 but Colorado State will not play either the Rebels or Boise State in the regular season.
Boise State, which has just one league game left this year (at Wyoming on Saturday), has already clinched a spot in the title game because it beat UNLV and would win the head-to-head tiebreaker.
"We are now in position to play another meaningful game in the month of November," UNLV coach Barry Odom told unlvrebels.com.
No. 4 New Mexico (5-6, 3-3) upset No. 19 (Associated Press) Washington State, 38-35, as quarterback Devon Dampier scored on a 1-yard run with 21 seconds left. New Mexico had lost its last 26 games against a Top 25 opponent.
"I expected our team to do something remarkable in our first year," Lobos coach Bronco Mendenhall told golobos.com. "There were times when it looked like it wouldn't happen. But it has now."
Dampier passed for 174 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 193 yards and three touchdowns and would be in serious contention for the league's Player of the Year award if not for Boise's Jeanty.
"I am glad I get to be the head coach of that young man on our football team," Mendenhall said of Dampier.
No. 7 Utah State (3-7, 2-3) blasted No. 9 Hawaii, 55-10, in Logan, Utah, on Saturday. Quarterback Spencer Petras was 20-of-30 for 255 yards and two touchdowns and running back Rahsul Faison had 191 yards and two touchdowns (both 37 yards, just three minutes apart in the third quarter).
Utah State has now won two of its last three games after losing six games in a row. "That's a huge win, just an unbelievable performance for where we're at," head coach Nate Dreiling told utahstateaggies.com.
"This is just not the football team I've coached all year," Hawaii coach Timmy Chang told utahstateaggies.com, trying to explain the one-sided loss.
No. 11 Air Force, which plays at Nevada this Saturday, crushed Oregon State, 28-0, at home last weekend. Quarterback Quentin Hayes was 5-of-5 passing for 110 yards and ran for 84 yards and two touchdowns. Dylan Carson ran for 97 yards and a score.
Air Force controlled the ball for just under 42 minutes and ran for 270 yards and four touchdowns. The Falcons also held Oregon State to just nine first downs and 69 rushing yards on 24 carries.
The Nevada Appeal Mountain West football rankings for the week of Nov. 18:
1. BOISE STATE (9-1, 6-0): Last week: Boise State 42, San Jose State 21. This week: Boise State at Wyoming (Saturday).
2. UNLV (8-2, 4-1): Last week: UNLV 41, San Diego State 20. This week: UNLV at San Jose State (Friday).
3. COLORADO STATE (7-3, 5-0): Last week: Colorado State 24, Wyoming 10. This week: Colorado State at Fresno State (Saturday).
4. NEW MEXICO (5-6, 3-3): Last week: New Mexico 38, Washington State 35. This week: Bye.
5. SAN JOSE STATE (6-4, 3-3): Last week: Boise State 42, San Jose State 21. This week: UNLV at San Jose State (Saturday).
6. FRESNO STATE (5-5, 3-3): Last week: Bye. This week: Colorado State at Fresno State (Saturday).
7. UTAH STATE (3-7, 2-3): Last week: Utah State 55, Hawaii 10. This week: San Diego State at Utah State (Saturday).
8. SAN DIEGO STATE (3-7, 2-3): Last week: Boise State 42, San Diego State 21. This week: San Diego State at Utah State (Saturday).
9. HAWAII (4-7, 2-4): Last week: Utah State 55, Hawaii 10. This week: Bye.
10. NEVADA (3-8, 0-5): Last week: Bye. This week: Air Force at Nevada (Saturday).
11. AIR FORCE (3-7, 1-4): Last week: Air Force 28, Oregon State 0. This week: Air Force at Nevada (Saturday).
12. WYOMING (2-8, 2-4): Last week: Colorado State 24, Wyoming 10. This week: Boise State at Wyoming at (Saturday).