Friday, September 29
Big West struggling in final year




In its final year of operation as a football league, the Big West Conference has suffered some of its most embarrassing moments this season.

Going into last Saturday's games, the league was already a dismal 3-13 against non-league competition, with two of the three wins coming against Division I-AA schools.

With three Top 25 teams on last week's schedule, it didn't get any better as the three Big West teams were absolutely manhandled, losing by a combined 144-13 margin to the 5th-, 19th- and 24th-ranked teams in the nation.

No. 5 Kansas State crushed North Texas 55-10, No. 19 TCU routed Arkansas State 52-3, and Georgia whitewashed New Mexico State 37-0. Utah State was beaten handily by unbeaten, but unranked Arizona State, but at least the Aggies showed some offense in a 44-20 loss. Add in the Aggie loss and the margin of defeat was 188-33. Ugh!

Thank goodness for the Idaho schools in the Big West. At least they brought some respect to the conference last week with a pair of impressive non-league victories.

John Walsh
Idaho's John Welsh has thrown for 991 yards and nine TDs.
League favorite Boise State jumped all over Central Michigan early and cruised to a 47-10 road victory. Later in the day, Idaho captured a thrilling, last-minute, come-from-behind 38-34 win over Washington State of the Pac-10, the second year in a row the Vandals had knocked off their rivals from across the border.

For first-year coach Tom Cable it was his first win following losses to Pac-10 powers Washington and Oregon and a close loss to Montana.

"We've got big hearts and we kept fighting and answered the call every time today," he said after the win. "It's incredible how proud I am of them."

The Vandals came from behind four times, the last starting with 3:01 to play after Washington State had gone ahead 34-31. Quarterback John Welsh led the Vandals on a game-winning 10-play drive, which he capped off with a one-yard touchdown run with 40 seconds left.

Now that he has his first win, Cable isn't satisfied.

"It's not a finished product by any means," he said. "We still have too many penalties and too many darn turnovers."

At Mt. Pleasant, Mich., Boise State proved why it is the class of the league with its easy win over Central Michigan of the Mid-American Conference. The Broncos handed the Chippewas their worst home loss ever at Kelly-Shorts Stadium.

"It wasn't too many years back when we couldn't beat anybody on the road," said BSU coach Dirk Koetter. "We'll take this kind of output and win any day. I'm not surprised by what we did today. We can definitely do this and we did."

Quarterback Bart Hendricks led another offensive assault as he accounted for 257 of the Broncos 516 total yards.

This week should be a better one for Big West teams with victories possible in all four games being played.

Idaho and Arkansas State get a pair of I-AA teams at home in Montana State and Richmond, respectively, while Utah State plays at home against a reeling Utah team (0-4), and New Mexico State takes on rival UTEP. Boise State and North Texas take the week off.

Around the Big West

Utah State
Saturday's game against Utah will be the 100th meeting between the two longtime rivals. Utah leads the series, the 13th longest in the nation, 67-28-4. ... Quarterback Jose Fuentes went into the Arizona State game with an unbelievable passing efficiency rating of 306.40, after his second-half performance against Southern Utah. He didn't do nearly as well against ASU, but was decent in his first-ever start, completing 17 of 38 passes for 240 yards and a touchdown. However he also threw three interceptions. ... Emmett White topped the 100-yard mark for the second time this season, finishing with 113 yards on 22 carries against ASU. ... Brad Bohn was named Big West special teams player of the week after making field goals from 38 and 36 yards and both of his PAT tries. He also executed a perfect lob kickoff over the Sun Devils that the Aggies recovered. ... The Aggie coaches have been raving all fall about Chris Stallworth, a nephew of former NFL great John Stallworth. The true freshman led the Aggies with four catches for 61 yards against Arizona State. ... Redshirt freshmen Jorge Tapia and Jared Solosobal made their first-ever starts on the defensive line Saturday night. ... The Aggies are 13th in the nation in net punting and punter Steve Mullins ranks 24th.

New Mexico State
Cornerback Jascon Willis recorded his second interception of the season against Georgia, which was the 11th of his career. ... After playing in front of 80,814 fans at South Carolina earlier in the year, the Aggies played in front of 85,202 at Georgia, the largest crowd ever to see a New Mexico State game. ... The Aggies fumbled five times against Georgia, but didn't lose any of them NMSU ranks sixth in the nation in pass defense, allowing 123.67 per game and are 25th in pass efficiency defense. ... Before being shut out twice this year, the Aggies had gone 37 straight games without being shut out. ... How bad is the Aggies' offense this year? The Aggies rank 101st in the nation in total offense and 114th, second to last, in scoring offense with just 4.33 points per game. ... New Mexico State's biggest rival is New Mexico, but close behind is UTEP, which is just 46 miles from Las Cruces. The Aggies and Miners will meet for the 79th time Saturday.

Idaho
Willie Alderson was named Big West offensive player of the week after rushing for 113 yards on 26 carries. ... Zach Gerstner added 71 yards on nine caries in his best game of the year. ... Of Idaho's five touchdown drives against Washington State, four were longer than 65 and the other covered 57 yards. ... Brad Rice and Wil Beck were the defensive players of the game after getting eight and 10 tackles, respectively. ... Ben Davis booted a 50-yard field goal for the second time this year. He's only attempted two field goals all season. ... The Vandals lost to Montana earlier, but will be favored to beat 0-3 Montana State this week.

Arkansas State
The Indians missed their top offensive threat, receiver/return specialist Robert Kilow, who sat out with a concussion against TCU. Kilow leads the Big West in receptions and receiving yards and also ranks in the top 10 in the country in both categories. ... Coach Joe Hollis said he didn't expect to be 0-4 at this point of the season, but with the Indians' killer schedule, he's not too surprised. "Most everyone would have predicted 0-4 at this point. This football season we have goals and objectives of what we want to accomplish and those goals and objectives are still there," he said. ... Jonathan Adams was one bright spot in Saturday's loss as he rushed for 93 yards on 23 carries and caught a pass for 16 yards. ... Four turnovers, two fumbles and two interceptions, doomed any chances the Indians had of staying close to TCU.

Boise State
Bart Hendricks continues to lead the league in passing yards (252.0 ypg) and total offense (276.0 ypg). ... Eleven different receivers caught passes in the Central Michigan win. ... Linebacker Kareem Williams was named Big West defensive player of the week after getting 10 tackles in the win over Central Michigan. ... Brock Forsey had his usual good game with 74 yards on 17 carries, but David Mikell also picked up 59 yards and two touchdowns. ... With their 47 points last week, the Broncos extended their streak of scoring at least 30 points to 10 games.

North Texas
Ja'Quay Wilburn, who is off to a slow start this year, picked up 87 yards last Saturday to surpass 2,500 yards for his career. Wilburn got most of his yards on a 66-yard scamper in the fourth quarter. ... Jason Ball's 43-yard field goal against Kansas State was the longest of his career. ... UNT only had seven yards of total offense in the first quarter. ... The Mean Green had two of their punts blocked against Kansas State. ... Defensive linemen Luke Conder and Chris McIver made their first starts for North Texas Saturday.







ALSO SEE
Big Ten notebook

Big 12 notebook

Conference USA notebook

MAC notebook

WAC notebook















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