After our latest win against BYU in Provo, it's becoming increasingly clear that we are staring at the face of an incredibly special season. The best part is that we're not winning with gimmicks - we're just going out there, playing solid football, and winning games. If this continues, there's an excellent chance that our Thanksgiving break game against Boise State has the chance to be extremely special.
What this means for you, my dear readers, is that, if you don't already have a ticket for the game, you better go get one. We here at FCA already have season tickets, so we're good to go.
As an added bonus, we're now ranked #25 in both polls. I'd also like to take this moment to note that, not only is Ault and his coaching staff doing an excellent job, not only is Dan Hinxman at the RGJ doing an excellent job, Ryan Radtke is still doing an outstanding job as the Wolf Pack's radio man. The only way I could be happier is if Don Marchand conveniently disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
I don't miss Marchand's radio presence. Do any of you? Didn't think so.
On that note, let's discuss the WAC...
Boise State won against Oregon State, though they didn't beat the spread. Sadly, at least for Boise fans, the Broncos needed to blow out the Beavers to gather the "style points" that they need in order to leapfrog either Alabama or Ohio State. The good news? Their margin of victory over Oregon State was greater than TCU's earlier this year. The bad news? It might not matter - TCU still has a highly ranked Utah team on their schedule, while we're the last credible opponent that remains on Boise State's schedule. This means TCU has a greater-than-zero chance of leapfrogging Boise State in both the non-BCS invite question and the national championship discussion. Of course, the latter depends on how Oregon does for the rest of the season.
Nevada won against BYU on the road and finally became ranked for the first time since the Truman administration. The bad news, such as it is, is that we're only ranked 25th, which seems a little low after blowing out Cal on national television and beating a solid BYU team on the road. The good news? Don't be surprised if we earn some sympathy points between now and Thanksgiving as voters try to talk themselves into Boise State, provided both we and Boise State do what we're both supposed to do between now and then. If we're the last hope voters have of telling themselves the Boise State is worthy of a national championship run, we'll be rewarded accordingly.
Good news, everyone! Fresno State has no run defense! Ole Miss drove that point home by pasting over 400 rushing yards on the hapless Bulldogs. That's excellent news for us, especially since we're playing Fresno on the road this year.
Utate State and Idaho have both crashed back down to Earth. Utah State and its copious injury count was heinously exploited by a surprisingly decent San Diego State team; meanwhile, Idaho became Colorado State's first victory of the season. The good news for the Vandals is that it was an incredibly close game, with Enderle throwing as strongly as always. The bad news is that it was Colorado State's first victory since beating us last year.
Louisiana Tech lost a close game against C-USA's Southern Miss in Ruston. It wasn't an offensive shoot-out by any stretch of the imagination, though Southern Miss' excellent run defense forced Louisiana Tech to develop something resembling a passing attack. The blue Bulldogs are young, so it's difficult to read the narrative behind this game - they might be improving, or this might just be a temporary glitch in an otherwise unremarkable Tech season.
San Jose State and New Mexico State are still terrible. San Jose State has one advantage, however - unlike New Mexico State, it's not located in New Mexico, which is rapidly devolving into a college football environmental catastrophe. Don't believe me? NMSU's rival lost to UNLV to the tune of 45-10.
Hawaii, meanwhile, played a much-needed tune-up game against Charleston Southern. I'm sure the hapless Buccaneers enjoyed the all expenses paid vacation to Hawaii, even if they had to get lit up like a pinball machine for a couple of hours. Here's an interesting statistic to ponder, though - Charleston Southern had a +10:16 time of possession advantage over Hawaii.
That's it for now. Here's hoping we perform as well against UNLV as we've become accustomed to over the past couple of years. Realistically, there's no reason we shouldn't be able to beat them by over 50, though our record in Las Vegas isn't particularly stellar. Meanwhile, enjoy the fact that the WAC is going out with a bang, instead of the sad whimper the Big West ended on.
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