Around the Mountain: Long Leads the Way for CSU

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., -- Here's this weeks news and notes from around the Mountain West Conference.

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WEEK 5 ACTION
Eight of 12 Mountain West teams are in action in Week 5, all on Saturday, with five games set to appear on national television. Air Force hosts Hawai‘i on FS1 in the lone Conference game of the week. Two MW programs will face A4 competition, with Utah State visiting No. 20/18 Vanderbilt on the SEC Network and San José State taking on Stanford on the ACC Network. New Mexico hosts rival New Mexico State on the Mountain West Network and MW App.

RANKED TEAMS CAN'T STOP AGGIES
Utah State has scored at least 20 points in each of its last four games against teams ranked in the AP Top 25. The longest such streak ever by a MW team is five straight, done four times, most recently by San José State (2016-19).

MW VS. THE TOP 25
This season, MW squads have a total of 12 nonconference games scheduled against teams ranked or receiving votes at the time of the contest or in the current US LBM Coaches and/or AP top-25 polls.

RILEY'S HUGE DAY
Against Air Force in Week 4, Boise State's Dylan Riley notched 171 rushing yards, 84 receiving yards, four rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown. The only other FBS player to have a game reaching those four stats over the last 30 years is North Carolina's Omarion Hampton last season at Florida State.

HOME (BLUE) FIELD ADVANTAGE
Over the last 26 seasons, Boise State is 142-15 (.904) at home. The 15 losses are tied with Oklahoma for the fewest over that time among teams that have been in the FBS every season since 2000. The Broncos have won 13 straight games at Albertsons Stadium.

FALCON IN RAREFIED AIR
Air Force wide receiver Cade Harris is the only FBS player this season with at least 300 receiving yards (323) and 100 rushing yards (153). He’s the only FBS player this century to have at least 320 receiving and 150 rushing yards through his team’s first three games of a season.

AIR FORCE'S GROUND GAME
Air Force has recorded at least 250 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns in seven straight games. That is the longest streak by any Mountain West team all-time, surpassing five-game runs by San Diego State (2017), New Mexico (2012) and the Falcons themselves (2009-10).

MW AGAINST THE A4 AT HOME
MW teams went 3-1 against A4 opponents at home this season. Hawai‘i earned the MW's first A4 win of the 2025 season with its 23-20 win over Stanford in Week 0. UNLV made it 2-0 with a 30-23 win over UCLA in Week 2. San Diego State picked up a third MW home win over an A4 when it throttled California 34-0 in Week 4.

MW AGAINST THE A4, PART II
New Mexico outscored UCLA, 21-0, in the fourth quarter of its 35-10 win in Week 3. The 21 points were the most scored by a Mountain West team in the fourth quarter of a win against an ACC/Big Ten/Big 12/SEC opponent since BYU scored 21 at Virginia in a 38-35 overtime win on Sept. 2, 2000. … San Diego State’s 34-0 victory over Cal in Week 4 was the second-largest shutout win ever by a MW team against an autonomous conference school. The only larger such win was BYU’s 59-0 win versus UCLA in 2008.

MW AGAINST THE A4, PART III
MW teams will play 16 autonomous conference opponents in 2025, including three of the four CFP semifinalists from last season (Nevada at Penn State on Aug. 30, San José State at Texas on Sept. 6 and Boise State at Notre Dame on Oct. 4). … Since 2018, the MW has the best winning percentage over Autonomous 5 teams (30.41) among its peer conferences. MW teams have collected 45 wins over such teams in that span, also the most among its peer conferences (the American is second with 39).

CENTURY-MARK STREAKS
The two longest active streaks for games with at least 100 rushing yards by an FBS team are both by Mountain West teams. Air Force has done so in 88 consecutive games and Boise State is on a 41-game run.

CONSISTENT RECEIVING CORPS
Both Hawai‘i and Utah State have had at least one player with five or more receptions in 21 consecutive games, dating back to November 2023. That's the longest active streak in the FBS.

DISCIPLINED PLAY
Through three contests, New Mexico leads the FBS with just seven penalties accepted against it. Conversely, the Lobos committed a MW-record 119 penalties in 2023 and 112, the fourth-most in Conference history, last season. San José State has committed just 11 penalties in its three games to rank fifth in the FBS lead this season.

FBS LEADERS
Wyoming paces the FBS with four blocked kicks, including two by Aneesh Vyas, who shares the national individual lead. … Hawai‘i's Kansei Matsuzawa and San Diego State's Gabe Plascencia are among 29 kickers still perfect on field goals this season. Matsuzawa is a nation's best 13-for-13 this year and has connected on 14 straight dating back to last season, while Plascencia is on a run of 16 straight field goals converted, as he made his last 12 in 2024 and is 4-for-4 to start this season. … UNLV's Aamaris Brown is alone in first in the FBS with four interceptions and 1.0 per game. … Boise State's Dylan Riley leads the FBS with 9.81 rush yards per carry. … Colorado State's Owen Long leads in tackles per game with 12.7. … San Diego State is one of five team in the FBS without a turnover lost this season. … UNLV is one of two teams with 10 turnovers gained and one of two with eight interceptions. … Air Force (15-for-15) and San Diego State (11-for-11) are both still perfect in the red zone.

75-YARD SCORES ABOUND
Against Eastern Washington in Week 2, Boise State’s Dylan Riley had a touchdown run of 77 yards. Over the last two seasons, the Broncos have five touchdown runs of at least 75 yards, tied with UTSA for the most by any FBS school.

DUAL-THREAT AGGIE
Utah State’s Miles Davis is one of two FBS players (Kenny Tracy, Miami [Ohio]) to have a game this season with at least 50 rushing yards and multiple receiving touchdowns (at No. 22/19 Texas A&M, Week 2). The only other MW player to have such a game over the last six seasons is Ashton Jeanty (9/30/2023 at Memphis).

ROAD REBS
UNLV has won six straight road games against non-MW teams, the longest such win streak by any Mountain West team in conference history. The only longer active such streaks in the FBS are 11 straight by Oklahoma and seven straight by Georgia.

UNLV PICKS
Since the beginning of 2022, UNLV’s defense has an FBS-best 57 interceptions. Texas has the next-highest total with 52. The Rebels have eight picks through three games this season, with Aamaris Brown nabbing a team-best four, with one in each game.

BROWN'S INT STREAK
With interceptions in all four UNLV games this season, Brown becomes the sixth player in MW history with interceptions in four straight team games and the first since Utah State's Frank Sutera in 2014. Boise State's Dont’e Deayon also had interceptions in four straight personal games in 2014 but missed a team game in that span.

KEEP IT OVER 20
UNLV has scored at least 20 points in each of its last 26 regular-season games (excluding MW championship games), marking the second-longest active such streak in the FBS, behind only Memphis (41 straight). The Rebels are 22-4 over that stretch.

PLAYER AVAILABILITY REPORTS
The Mountain West has added player availability reporting for the 2025 season for all regular-season Conference games and the MW Championship Game. The policy standardizes the submission of student-athlete availability information for football contests to protect student-athlete privacy, reduce outside pressure on student-athletes for inside information, ensure transparency, and promote competitive integrity. This policy also addresses public confidence in fair play and the integrity risks associated with sports wagering. Availability reports will be posted publicly at TheMW.com/reports.

MW CHAMPIONSHIP GAME TIME SET
The 2025 Mountain West Football Championship game on Friday, Dec. 5, will kick at 6 p.m. MT/5 p.m. PT/3 p.m. HT, as announced this week. The contest will be nationally televised on the FOX broadcast network for a sixth consecutive season.

-PRESS PASS: Roaming The War