Around the Mountain: Utah State Rolls Falcons in League Opener

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

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WEEK 4 ACTION
Eleven of 12 Mountain West teams are in action in Week 4, all on Saturday. UNLV, receiving votes in both major national polls, gets the day going at Miami (Ohio) on ESPNU at 12 p.m. ET. Two conference games are on the slate, with Air Force hosting Boise State and Hawai‘i welcoming Fresno State in a battle of 3-1 squads. Two MW programs will face A4 competition, with San Diego State hosting California on CBSSN and Wyoming visiting Colorado on ESPN. Two games will appear on the Mountain West Network/MW App and the Hawai‘i game against Fresno State will be available on Spectrum Sports and the MW App.

MW AGAINST THE A4 AT HOME
MW teams are 2-1 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 will vie for a third MW home win over an A4 when it hosts California on Saturday. The Golden Bears are receiving votes in the US LBM Coaches Top 25.

LOBOS IMPRESSIVE LATE
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.

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WARNER WAS DEALING
Fresno State quarterback E.J. Warner went 20-for-24 (83.3%) with a conference season-high four touchdown passes in a 56-7 win over Southern in Week 3. Warner is the only FBS quarterback this season to have a game with at least 20 completions, four TD passes and such a high completion percentage.

ROAD REBS
UNLV has won five 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 55 interceptions, which is the most in the FBS during that stretch. Texas has the next-highest total with 51. The Rebels have six picks through three games this season, with Aamaris Brown nabbing a team-best three.

MADSEN TAKING CARE OF THE BALL
Boise State quarterback Maddux Madsen has thrown 220 consecutive passes on the road without an interception, the longest active streak in the FBS by 58 passses (Ben Finley, Akron, 162). Madsen's last road pick was on Aug. 31, 2024, against Georgia Southern.

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 87 consecutive games and Boise State is on a 40-game run.

CONSISTENT RECEIVING CORPS
Both Hawai‘i and Utah State have had at least one player with five or more receptions in 20 consecutive games, dating back to November 2023. The only other FBS team with an active such streak of at least that long is UTSA (32 straight), Colorado State's Week 4 opponent.

ELITE COMPANY
UNLV’s 30-23 win over UCLA in Week 2 was its fourth win since the beginning of last season against schools from the ACC, Big Ten or Big 12. That’s the most wins by any program other than Notre Dame against those three conferences by a nonconference opponent in that time.

DISCIPLINED PLAY
Through three contests, New Mexico shares the FBS lead 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 also committed just seven penalties in its two games to share the FBS lead this season.

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, the most by any FBS school.

KEEP IT OVER 20
UNLV has scored at least 20 points in each of its last 25 regular-season games (excluding MW championship games), marking the second-longest active such streak in the FBS, behind only Memphis (40 straight). The Rebels are 21-4 over that stretch.

DUAL-THREAT AGGIE
Utah State’s Miles Davis is the only FBS player 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).

FALCONS' GROUND GAME
With 266 yards and four touchdowns on the ground at Utah State in Week 3, Air Force has recorded at least 250 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns in six 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).

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FOURTH-DOWN EFFICIENCY
Since the beginning of the 2023 season, Mountain West teams have a combined fourth-down conversion rate of 56.7%, the highest by any FBS conference. This season, Air Force has converted all six of its fourth-down attempts, the most by any FBS team with a 100% conversion rate. UNLV (3-for-3) and Utah State (1-for-1) are also perfect on fourth down this season.

MW AGAINST THE A4, PART II
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 (30.14) among its peer conferences. MW teams have collected 44 wins over such teams in that span, also the most among its peer conferences (the American is second with 37).

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.

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.

PRESEASON FAVORITES
Boise State is the preseason favorite to win the Mountain West again in 2025, marking the 18th straight season that the Broncos have been picked to claim either a conference or division crown, including every year since joining the MW in 2011. The Broncos earned 35 of 39 first-place votes and 464 total points in the poll.

NEW MW COACHES
Former Florida and Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen, the 2014 National College Football Coach of the Year, takes the reins at UNLV after spending the last three seasons as an ESPN college football analyst. This season marks his return to the MW, as he served as the quarterbacks coach at Utah for 10 seasons, helping develop 2005 NFL No. 1 overall pick Alex Smith. … Matt Entz, a two-time FCS National Coach of the Year during a five-year stint as the head coach at North Dakota State, where he led the Bison to a pair of FCS championships, takes over at Fresno State after serving as the assistant head coach for defense and linebackers coach at USC in 2024. … Utah State hired New Mexico's Bronco Mendenhall in December. Mendenhall, who led the Lobos to a 5-7 record in his lone season at the helm, returns to his home state, where he led BYU for 11 seasons and earned MW Coach of the Year honors in 2006. … New Mexico later announced Jason Eck as its new head coach. Eck spent the previous three seasons at Idaho, leading the Vandals to FCS national rankings and playoff berths each season.