WAC Roundup - Week Five Standings & More

CollegeFootballNews.com
Posted Sep 29, 2008


WAC conference roundup, standings, player and game of the week

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.

Boise State | Fresno State | Hawaii | Idaho | Louisiana Tech
Nevada | New Mexico St | San Jose State | Utah State

- Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

WAC Game of the Week

Fresno State 36 … UCLA 31
Fresno State moved the ball without a problem, but it had a hard time shaking the plucky Bruins. Ryan Mathews ran for a 49-yard touchdown, and he caught a 25-yard touchdown pass. Special teams played a huge role for both sides. Marlon Moore opened up the scoring with a 63-yard punt return for a touchdown for an early Bulldog lead, but UCLA’s Terrence Austin went ballistic with 44 yards in punt returns, 206 yards on kickoff returns, 19 yards receiving and 29 yards rushing for a school-record 298 yards of total offense. The Bruins stayed alive with a blocked extra point return for two points by Bret Lockett and a 20-yard Chane Moline touchdown, but couldn’t get any closer as the Bulldogs recovered a fumble and ground out the final 8:55 with a 16-play drive.


WAC Player of the Week
Nevada QB Colin Kaepernick completed 11-of-16 passes for 176 yards and two touchdowns, and ran 18 times for 240 yards and three touchdowns in the win over UNLV.

Standings

Conference

Overall

 

W-L

PF

PA

W-L

PF

PA

STK

San Jose St

1-0

20

17

3-2

90

95

W1

Utah State

1-0

42

17

1-3

93

168

W1

Boise State

0-0

0

0

3-0

106

46

W3

Fresno St

0-0

0

0

3-1

125

105

W2

La Tech

0-0

0

0

2-1

63

69

W1

Nevada

0-0

0

0

2-2

134

144

W1

New Mex St

0-0

0

0

1-2

65

106

L1

Hawaii

0-1

17

20

1-3

70

138

L2

Idaho

0-1

17

42

1-4

104

235

L3

Saturday, September 27
3:30  Fresno State 36 ... at UCLA 31
CFN Prediction: FSU 31-13  FSU -7
8:00  at San Diego State 45 ... Idaho 17
CFN Prediction: SDSU33-20  SDS -11.5
8:00  New Mexico 35 ... at New Mexico St 24
CFN Prediction: NMSU 34-30  UNM -3
10:00  Nevada 49 ... at UNLV 27
CFN Prediction: UNLV 34-27  UNLV -4.5
12:00  San Jose State 20 ... at Hawaii 17
CFN Prediction: SJSU 23-17 Hawaii -3
Games of the Week
Aug. 30 - SJSU 13 - UC Davis 10
Sep 6 - TT 35 ... Nev 19
Sep 13 - Wis 13 - FSU 10
Sep 20 - Fresno 55 - Toledo 54 2OT
Sep 27 - FSU 36 - UCLA 31
Players of the Week
Aug. 30 - Ryan Matthews, RB Fresno State
Sep 6 - Tyler Graunke, Hawaii
Sep 13 - Yonus Davis, SJSU
Sep 20 - Kellen Moore, BSU
Sep 27 - Colin Kaepernick, Nev

Conference
Roundup

 

Boise State … Didn’t Play This Week
Fresno State … Fresno State’s coaches are making a really big deal out of beating a bad, beaten up UCLA team. If the Bulldogs were the real deal, they’d have blasted these Bruins BYU style. UCLA’s offensive line has been awful, yet the mediocre FSU run defense got ripped up for 234 rushing yards. The bad run D will be hidden over the next month, but keep what happened against Toledo and UCLA in mind when Nevada comes to Fresno on November 7th. With that said, this is still an important win for a program that lives off beating the big name teams. Now it’s about maintaining focus. No one on the schedule should touch the Bulldogs until the Boise State showdown to end the regular season.
Hawaii Hawaii still needs to come up with a quarterback. Inoke Funaki had his moments, but he threw three interceptions and he failed to get the offense moving in the second half against San Jose State and was replaced by Tyler Graunke, who failed to do much better. The defense did a great job against the Spartans and stuffed the running game, but the offense didn’t come through. 11 penalties for 115 yards didn’t help. Hawaii has to win its home games, and now it’s in huge trouble with a trip to Fresno State up next.
Idaho Idaho’s defense remains a complete and utter disaster. To get ripped up by Utah State and San Diego State is awful, but with Nevada and Fresno State coming up, things should only get worse. Nathan Enderle isn’t getting the passing game working, while Deonte Jackson, last year’s star for the running game, hasn’t done anything. The program needs a lot of work. A lot.
Louisiana Tech … Didn’t Play This Week
Nevada And that’s what Colin Kaepernick can do. Against UNLV, Kaepernick showed off the mobility and the home run hitting ability to make up for the loss of RB Luke Lippincott, and he was tremendously efficient throwing the ball. The defense struggled a bit with the UNLV passing game, but it stuffed the running game and got the Rebel offense off the field. Nevada will win a lot of games if it can convert 10-of-14 third down chances.
New Mexico State The New Mexico State passing game was effective and came up with the big plays needed to get up on New Mexico going into the fourth quarter, but the run defense got battered and bruised while the passing game fizzled down the stretch. It’s one thing to be explosive, but the offense has to be far more consistent. There’s a week off before going to Nevada.
San Jose State It wasn’t pretty, but the win over Hawaii was a nice comeback that came though when needed. The offense moved the ball just enough in the second half to get by, while the defense was fantastic at forcing mistakes with six takeaways while keeping the Warrior offense to just 225 passing yards. Now, with an off week and winnable games against Utah State, New Mexico State and Idaho in the next four dates, the chance is there to lay the foundation for a great season.
Utah State… Didn’t Play This Week