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

2009 CFN M-West Expert Picks, Schedules, More

By Staff

CollegeFootballNews.com
Posted Nov 3, 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 10

	CFN EXPERT PICKS	Fiu	Rich	Matt	Michael	Clucko	PICK
2:00	BYU -13 at Wyom.	BY*	BY	BY*	BY*	UW	BY*
3:30	Army at A. Force -17	AF	AF*	AF*	AF*	AR	AF*
4:00	TCU -24 at SDSU	TC	TC*	TC*	TC	TC	TC
6:00	N Mex. at Utah -27	UT*	UT	UT	UT	UT	UT
10:00	Col St -1.5 at UNLV	LV	CS	LV	LV	CS	LV
	Straight Up	45-10	43-12	39-16	39-16	36-19	42-13
	ATS	25-21	21-25	25-21	23-23	26-20	25-21

Mountain West Standings
	Conf.		Overall
TCU	4	0	8	0
Utah	4	0	7	1
BYU	3	1	6	2
Air Force	4	2	5	4
SDSU	2	2	4	4
Wyoming	2	2	4	4
UNLV	1	4	3	6
N Mexico	0	4	0	8
Col State	0	5	3	6
Players of the Week 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 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 Air Force 34 at Colorado State 16 - Air Force & Jefferson get past the Rams - Colorado State O sputters in loss to Falcons CFN Prediction: Air Force 23-16 Line: Air Force -3.5 at TCU 41 UNLV 0 - TCU blows past the Rebels - UNLV gets stomped by the Horned Frogs CFN Prediction: TCU 45-13 Line: TCU -34 at San Diego State 23 New Mexico 20 - San Diego State comes back to beat Lobos - New Mexico loses late to the Aztecs CFN Prediction: San Diego State 35-17 Line: SDSU -17 at Utah 22 Wyoming 10 - Utah & freshman QB gets by Cowboys - Wyoming O fizzles in loss to Utes CFN Prediction: Utah 24-10 Line: Utah -17

GAME OF THE WEEK

at San Diego State 23 …. New Mexico 20
Ryan Lindley connected with DeMarco Sampson for a four-yard touchdown pass midway through the fourth quarter to lift the Aztecs to the win. New Mexico came up with ten points in the second quarter, highlighted by a five-yard Daryl Jones touchdown catch, to take the lead, but the defense couldn’t hold on. This was the first game back for UNM head coach Mike Locksley after being suspended.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
San Diego State QB Ryan Lindley completed 22-of-38 passes for 253 yards and three scores in the win over New Mexico.

CONFERENCE ROUNDUP

Air Force … Air Force 34 ... at Colorado State 16 ... Air Force is doing what Air Force does. It’s once again looking like the fourth best team in the Mountain West, rolling through the mediocre and losing to the top teams, and with home games against Army and UNLV up next, it looks like another bowl is going to happen. With Tim Jefferson back and looking solid, the offense was humming again while the nation’s leading pass defense was tremendous against the Colorado State downfield passing game. The defense is playing as well as anyone in the conference, including TCU, and it’ll be hard to stop the Falcons if Jefferson keeps playing well.

BYU … Didn’t Play This Week

Colorado State … Air Force 34 ... at Colorado State 16 ... What happened to the downfield passing game? The Ram air attack has gone stagnant with Grant Stucker and Jon Eastman combining to complete just 7-of-19 passes for 49 yards with an interception, and while the running game was fine, with 180 yards and two scores, it wasn’t nearly enough to match the 271 yards of production from Air Force. On an ugly six-game losing streak, all the positives from the first three games of the season are long gone, but two of the conference lightweights, UNLV and New Mexico, are up next. There’s still time to get to six wins, but the offense has to show up in a hurry and the secondary has to be far better.

New Mexico… at San Diego State 23 ... New Mexico 20 ... Donovan Porterie threw well, but he didn’t have too many open receivers and the San Diego State secondary was able to make too many big plays. The Lobos didn’t abandon the ground game, but it didn’t try to rely on it for key stretches and the offense became stagnant. This was one of the defense’s better games, but it was still a loss and the season keeps getting worse. Now the Lobos are on a 12-game losing streak with Utah and BYU up next and TCU still to deal with.

San Diego State … at San Diego State 23 ... New Mexico 20 ... It wasn’t pretty, but the Aztecs didn’t make mistakes, the secondary came up with seven broken up passes, and they’re on a nice run of three wins in the last four games going into the date with TCU. The offensive line is playing just well enough to have a shot against the Horned Frogs, but the running game can be ignored. SDSU can’t run, it’s not going to run on TCU after being stuffed by New Mexico, and it’ll be up to Ryan Lindley to bomb away. A bowl game is still possible, but the big win has to come in two weeks against Wyoming to set up a possible sixth win coming against UNLV. The Aztecs will struggle at Utah with no running game.

TCU … at TCU 41 ... UNLV 0 ... That’s what you’re supposed to do with a miserable team like UNLV. TCU never left any doubt with a tremendous stomping that was dominant on both sides. Now the team has won its last three games by a combined score of 123 to 13, and with the nation’s No. 1 defense and a diverse and ever expanding offense, it doesn’t look like anyone has a shot to come close to pulling off the upset over the final month. At this point, only TCU can beat TCU before getting to the post-season.

UNLV … at TCU 41 ... UNLV 0 ... TCU is stomping on everyone right now, so there’s no reason to get too upset about an ugly loss on the road. But the Rebels have to quickly rebound and beat a dying Colorado State team to show that there’s still life in the program. Yeah, it’s TCU, but to only complete 9-of-23 passes for 42 yards shows that the offense simply isn’t improving, and the talent level just isn’t there compared to the top teams in the Mountain West.

Utah … at Utah 22 ... Wyoming 10 ... Utah’s offense struggled and sputtered, and although Terrance Cain wasn’t bad, he didn’t provide the pop that freshman Jordan Wynn did. It’s a little late in the season to start experimenting, especially considering the Utes are 7-1 and unbeaten in conference play, but the coaching staff trusts its defense and the running game enough to mess around with the quarterback situation. The timing is right to see what Wynn can do against a bad team facing New Mexico up next. After giving up just 202 yards of total offense to Wyoming, the defense, especially against the run, should dominate next week.

Wyoming … at Utah 22 ... Wyoming 10 ... Everything was going wrong, the offense didn’t produce, and it took a trick play to score, but the Cowboys were in the game against Utah late. The D was fine, but it wasn’t special, and to have a shot at coming up with a win against BYU next week or even at San Diego State to follow, the offense has to start doing more through the air. The Cowboys need to prepare to get into a few shootouts, and they might not be equipped.

Saturday, November 7
BYU at Wyoming
Army at Air Force
TCU at San Diego State
New Mexico at Utah
Colorado State at UNLV

Saturday, November 14
BYU at New Mexico
UNLV at Air Force
Utah at TCU
Wyoming at San Diego State

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