Other football thoughts from the weekend...

The Mountain West Conference (MWC) was a resounding 6-2 with 2 victories over the Big 12. We showed well. One of the most interesting things is the begrudging respect Utah and BYU are starting to have for each other. IF things pan out and BYU goes to the National Championship game, it will be for a number of reasons, one of them being that Utah did so well last year and upped the respect level of the conference. I feel much more of a vibe of "Kill your OOC opponents so the conference looks better even if it means that you're doing well." Where as previously many fans' opinions reflected the saying on a T-shirt I have: "I'm a fan of BYU and anyone who is playing Utah". Anyway, on to other thoughts:

Air Force 72 - Nicholls State 0
I don't care who you are playing, 72-0 is a whooppin. I didn't see the game (to the mtn: Thanks for showing football on opening weekend, too bad it was women's soccer) but what does an Air Force team do when they're up by that much, pass?

Utah 35 - USU 17
Pretty close to what I expected. An improved USU and an uninspired looking Utah. I really do wonder if are uninspired or just played to the level of their competition.

Wyoming 29 - Weber St. 22
Note to Wyoming, loss to a FCS team is grounds for immediate dismissal from the conference (I wish).

New Mexico 6 - Texas A&M 41
This surprised me some. I would have expected around a 17 point victory for A&M. New Mexico just dropped to the near bottom of the conference for me. I had expected them to be better than their preseason ranking this year. At first glance it doesn't look like it.

SDSU 14 - UCLA 33
I watched some of the start of this game. I thought SDSU might have a chance. They've risen slightly and I think they might actually be able to win a few games this year.

UNLV 38 - Sac State 3
I didn't see any of this game (Thanks to the mtn!) but UNLV seemed to be efficient (from the stat line). I see UNLV as the hardest road game for BYU the rest of the year.

CSU 23 - CU 17
Way to go CSU! Didn't expect this, though I figured sooner or later CSU was bound to get better.

Final thoughts: There are still plenty of people trying to discount BYU's win over OU because of the Bradford injury, but there have been a good number of people who point out that OU wasn't winning the game when Bradford was in there and that BYU had at least as many problems/injuries as OU (though it's true that we didn't have a Heisman winning quarterback that we could lose. I think Bronco (coaches et al) did a great job game planning for this. With the depleted O-line they chose to cross train them and not just leave everyone in the same positions (see how that worked for OU?). Anyway, I've reveled in this all weekend, but it is time to go forward, because if BYU chokes at Tulane, this weekend loses a lot of luster.