Friday, October 1 at 6 PM
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The Cougars defense came alive against Nevada last week in another loss. They are 1-3 this year and are not looking too good. Granted, they did play tough at Florida State earlier, but losses to Nevada and Air Force stung. With the defense playing well, the Cougars will look to get more production from their offense, break in a new quarterback, and try and find some play makers. JJ Di Luigi is still the go to back. Look for him to touch the ball often on Friday. Utah State has been disappointing since nearly upsetting Oklahoma. For a team that was picked by many to be bowl eligible, they sure are floundering. QB Diondre Borel has had a let down since week one and looks to get back on track. He is a dual threat and needs to utilize his abilities in order for the Aggies to win. He has thrown for 832 yards this season, but they have a poor rushing attack which leaves him one-dimensional. Playing a little defense wouldn’t hurt either. If BYU’s defense can play like it did in the second half against Nevada, they should win. If they do not and Borel is allowed to go off, Utah State could take it just as easily.
Prediction: Cougars 28, Aggies 21
Saturday, October 2 at noon
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Rumors of the return of the Vandal defense have been greatly exaggerated. After stifling a really terrible UNLV team at home, Idaho gave up 36 points and let Colorado State quarterback Pete Thomas dissect them for 386 yards. Again, the offense has been playing very well with senior Nathan Enderle already having thrown for 1,009 yards and 7 touchdowns. The plague has been playing on the road for the Vandals. They absolutely stink! At home they are fine. Too bad this one is away from the comfy confines of the Kibbie Dome. Western Michigan welcomes Idaho the coolest stadium name in the coolest city name; Waldo Stadium in Kalamazoo! Awesome. The Broncos are not that bad of a team, they have just played some really tough teams during the first few weeks of the season and they come in with a 1-2 record. QB Alex Carder has thrown 8 touchdowns and is a good player. This will be an evenly matched game and should be a good one to watch. Unfortunately, the road woes continue for the Vandals.
Prediction: Broncos 35, Vandals 32
Saturday, October 2 at 6 PM
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The Spartans come off of a complete spanking in Salt Lake City to face another FCS school at home. They were barely able to beat Southern Utah two weeks ago. San Jose State still has a hard time scoring points and they sure can’t stop anybody on defense, but they are the favorite in this match up. The Spartans rank in the very back end on every statistical category in the nation. Not good. It will be a bore, skip it and watch something else. Every time I think of the Aggies I picture them coming into Bronco Stadium last year and playing the game of their lives against 5th ranked Boise State. Will they be able to duplicate that effort against a crappy San Jose State team? My guess is probably not. Like I said, this will be a bad game to watch. UC Davis actually has better statistics then San Jose State, but they also play worse competition. This feels like an upset in the making!
UPSET SPECIAL!
Prediction: Aggies 21, Spartans 18
Saturday, October 2 at 8 PM
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Unfortunately for the Mustangs, Fresno State has a lot of anger to unleash this weekend. Ole’ Miss absolutely destroyed the Bulldogs last week. The worst part was how their defense performed against a struggling Rebel offense. They gave up 55 points. That is a lot to allow a team that could only muster 27 against Tulane. The Fresno State defense will need to fix the tackling issues that allowed Ole’ Miss to run wild. Offensively, they are strong with Ryan Colburn at the helm, averaging almost 36 points a game. On the other side, the Mustangs hail from the FCS and are a strong 3-1. Their offensive stats are not that strong, but they still score 27 points a game. The Cal Poly defense is best in their conference. Still, playing at Fresno will be an impossible task for the Mustangs.
Prediction: Bulldogs 42, Mustangs 17
Saturday, October 2 at 8 PM
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Nevada is ranked for the first time since 1948 and is flying high. Even though they could only muster 3 points against BYU last week, the Wolfpack defense held strong and preserved the victory. Colin Kaepernick is still the master of the pistol offense that averages almost 45 points a game. Defensively, they are only giving up 19. UNLV on the other hand, has not gotten any better since they got killed by Idaho. The Runnin’ Rebels are 1-3, with their only win coming against an even worse New Mexico team. They score an average of 21 points a game while giving up 30. That means they will lose a lot of games. This week will be no exception.
Prediction: Wolfpack 45, Runnin’ Rebels 20
Saturday, October 3 at 9:30 PM
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The Bulldogs bring their terrible offensive unit on the road and make the long flight to the islands. I wonder if these teams understand that letting the other team score more points than them means they will lose? LA Tech is scoring 18 a game and allowing 26. In a nutshell, they suck on offense and are bad on defense. It looks like the Bulldogs will stick with Tarik Hakmi at quarterback, hoping to get more production from their offense. Hawai’i really has no problem offensively, racking up the yardage and dropping a sturdy 37 per game. They are only giving up 29 a game as well. See, a team that understands the concept! Bryant Moniz continues to chuck the ball to anything moving and has the yards to prove it, as well as 3 interceptions. The Bulldogs have to travel a long distance and this game is at home for the Rainbow Warriors, so it should be a pretty impressive victory for them.
Prediction: Rainbow Warriors 41, Bulldogs 24
Saturday, October 2 at 6 PM
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The Broncos will be without suspended nickel backer Winston Venable, for the first 2 quarters of the game (ridiculous, I know. See my previous post). The good news is they get suspended safety Jason Robinson back. Not that it matters against the Aggies. Boise State comes in ranked third in the nation, feeling good, and ready to start the soft part of their schedule. Kellen Moore continues to prove that he may be the best quarterback in the country. Receivers Titus Young and Austin Pettis are catching everything thrown at them and running into the end zone with it afterwards. The Broncos took a blow when DJ re-tore his left ACL and will be out the rest of the season. Good thing they are deep at running back. Doug Martin (Muscle Hamster) will get more carries and we will see a lot more of Jeremy Avery and Matt Kaiserman. The offense scores 40 a game and gives up 20. The only weakness that was seen against Oregon State was the special teams, specifically kicking coverage. Actually, that is New Mexico State’s strong point. So it will be interesting to see what adjustments are made and what is improved for Boise State. The Aggies still can’t get anything going offensively, as quarterback Matt Christian is only completing just over 50% of his passes. Defensively, they rank towards the bottom of all Divison-1 teams. In fact, New Mexico State weekly finds themselves in Mark Schlabach’s bottom ten teams. See it for yourself here. The last three times the Aggies have played the Broncos, they have been outscored 149-7. Their one touchdown came last season in the tail end of the fourth quarter. What I am trying to say is the Aggies do not stand a chance.
Prediction: Broncos 52, Aggies 10
My record so far this season: 14-3
Be sure to come back tomorrow and check out the Weekly Player to Watch. There will be a new twist on it this time around!
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