Scout.com: 2009 CFN M-West Expert Picks, Schedules, More

2009 CFN M-West Expert Picks, Schedules, More

By Staff

CollegeFootballNews.com
Posted Nov 14, 2009

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Click on each team for game recaps, thoughts, schedules and more and scroll down for the games, results, players of the week and the conference roundup.

2009 Mountain West ... Week 12

	CFN EXPERT PICKS	Fiu	Rich	Matt	Michael	Clucko	PICK
2:00	TCU -31.5 at Wyom	TC	TC*	TC*	TC*	UW	TC*
3:30	Air Force at BYU -10	BY*	BY	BY	AF	AF	BY*
4:00	SDSU at Utah -17.5	UT*	UT*	UT	UT	UT	UT
6:00	Col St -4.5 at N Mex	NM	CS	CS	CS	CS	CS
	Straight Up	53-11	50-14	47-17	47-17	39-23	50-14
	ATS	29-26	23-32	29-26	29-26	30-25	30-25

Mountain West Standings
	Conf.		Overall
TCU	6	0	10	0
Utah	5	1	8	2
BYU	5	1	8	2
Air Force	5	2	7	4
Wyoming	3	3	5	5
SDSU	2	4	4	6
UNLV	2	5	4	7
N Mexico	0	6	0	10
Col State	0	6	3	7
Players of the Week 11/14 Jerry Hughes, DE TCU 11/7 Max Hall, QB BYU 10/31 Ryan Lindley, QB SDS 10/24 Ryan Lindley QB & DeMarco Sampson WR SD 10/17 Max Hall, QB BYU 10/10 Harvey Unga, QB BYU 10/3 A. Carta-Samuels, QB UW 9/26 A. Carta-Samuels, QB UW 9/19 Omar Clayton, QB UNLV 9/13 Jerry Hughes, DE TCU 9/5 Max Hall, QB BYU Games of the Week 11/14 UW 30, SDSU 27 11/7 Utah 45, N Mex 14 10/31 SDSU 23, N Mex 20 10/24 Utah 23, AF 16 OT 10/17 BYU 38, SDSU 28 10/10 Utah 24, CSU 17 10/3 Idaho 31, Col St 29 9/26 Wyom. 30, UNLV 27 9/19 UNLV 34, Hawaii 33 9/13 Oreg St 23, UNLV 21 9/5 BYU 14, Okla. 13 Scoreboard BYU 24 at New Mexico 19 - BYU sluggish in win over Lobos - New Mexico fights hard in loss to Cougars CFN Prediction: BYU 48-17 Line: BYU -27 at Air Force 45 UNLV 17 - Air Force runs over Rebels for easy win - UNLV fires Mike Sanford after loss to Falcons CFN Prediction: Air Force 31-13 Line: Air Force -17 at TCU 55 Utah 28 - TCU dominates Utah in signature win - Utah gets run over by the Horned Frogs CFN Prediction: TCU 27-9 Line: TCU -19.5 Wyoming 30 at San Diego State 27 - Wyoming roars back to keep bowl hopes alive - San Diego State collapses in loss to UW CFN Prediction: SDSU 28-20 Line: SDSU -7

GAME OF THE WEEK

Wyoming 30 … at San Diego State 27
Down 27-6 going into the fourth quarter, Wyoming scored 24 unanswered points with Ian Watts hitting a 43-yard field goal with 23 seconds to play to get the win. Austyn Carta-Samuels ran for a ten-yard score and connected with David Tooley for a nine-yard score. Alvester Alexander added a 33-yard scoring dash. San Diego State got up on two Brandon Sullivan touchdown runs from one and five yards out, but the defense collapsed down the stretch.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
TCU DE Jerry Hughes made eight tackles, 1.5 sacks, 2.5 tackles for loss, and three quarterback hurries in the win over Utah.

CONFERENCE ROUNDUP
Air Force … at Air Force 45 ... UNLV 17 ... UNLV never had a chance against the Falcon attack with a running game at its best. The Falcons have won four of their last five games with the only loss coming in overtime at Utah, and they couldn’t be playing better going into the big game at BYU. If the Falcons want to break through and be a part of the top three in the conference, now is the time with Asher Clark running extremely well and Tim Jefferson making good decisions and running the offense well.

BYU … BYU 24 ... at New Mexico 19 ... Yuck. New Mexico might have played one of its better games of the season, but BYU barely showed up. The offense failed to show the same crispness it had in the blowout win over Wyoming, and the defense let the bad Lobos hang around for far too long. There was no excuse for just 41 rushing yards, and to beat Utah and Air Force, there has to be more balance. BYU is just flaky enough to turn the machine back on after the strange win.

Colorado State … Didn’t Play This Week

New Mexico… BYU 24 ... at New Mexico 19 ... New Mexico came up with a strong game, showing how the team hasn’t quit for Mike Locksley, but it was still a loss making it 14 straight going back to last season. The effort was there, and if the Lobos can play like this against Colorado State, they’ll get a win in the home finale. The game at TCU might be a 50-point blowout; New Mexico can’t score to keep up the pace. Donovan Porterie tries to bomb away, but he’s not getting any yards after the catch and nothing is happening down the field.

San Diego State … Wyoming 30 ... at San Diego State 27 ... Alright Brady Hoke; now it’s time to do some coaching. Just when it seemed like the Aztecs had pulled up from the blowout loss to TCU, they collapsed in the fourth quarter against a bad Wyoming offense in the home finale. A bowl bid was likely with a win, needing to beat Utah or UNLV on the road to get a 13th game, but now SDSU has to beat both teams and it isn’t likely to get by the Utes. The offense got a nice day from Brandon Sullivan on the ground, but Ryan Lindley didn’t get enough going down the field. He’ll have to bomb away to have a chance in Salt Lake City.

TCU … at TCU 55 ... Utah 28 ... This was the huge statement TCU needed to make. With everyone watching, the team put on a show of dominance with a tremendous day on the ground and a strong performance on defense when the game was still in question. Style points will continue to count, and while the team made this look easy, and everyone will start to give more respect when it comes to the BCS Championship talk, it can all be erased in a hurry with mediocre performances against Wyoming and New Mexico to close.

UNLV … at Air Force 45 ... UNLV 17 ... And now the Mike Sanford era is over. The defense never showed up this year after the opening day win over Sacramento State, but the big problem is an offense that never found its groove. Sanford was supposed to be an offensive guru, and he still might be, but he couldn’t get the job done as a head coach. The pass rush has been miserable and the run defense continues to struggle, and there should be even more problems against a desperate San Diego State team.

Utah … at TCU 55 ... Utah 28 ... Utah came into the game with the right attitude, and seemingly, the right frame of mind, but TCU was simply the better team. Jordan Wynn wasn’t the problem, completing half of his passes for 219 yards and a score with a pick six, but the run defense got dominated by the TCU offensive front. It didn’t help Wynn that OT Tony Bergstrom didn’t get much help against Jerry Hughes, while the team didn’t help itself with 14 penalties. As ugly as this loss was, the season can turn quickly back around with a win over San Diego State before the showdown against BYU. Finishing 10-2 with a win over the rival Cougars wouldn’t be a bad year by any measure.

Wyoming … Wyoming 30 ... at San Diego State 27 ... Just when the season appeared to be over, Austyn Carta-Samuels led the Cowboys back in a huge win over San Diego State to keep bowl hopes alive. If the Cowboys lost, they would’ve had to beat TCU to get a 13th game, but now all they have to do is beat a bad Colorado State team after taking the beating from the Horned Frogs. The defense did a decent job against the SDSU passing game, but it’s going to have to be special against the run to keep TCU from winning by 30.

Saturday, November 21
TCU at Wyoming
Air Force at BYU
San Diego State at Utah
Colorado State at New Mexico

Friday, November 27
Wyoming at Colorado State

Saturday, November 28
New Mexico at TCU
Utah at BYU
San Diego State at UNLV