2007 Mountain West Lookbacks/Recaps

Jan 31

2007 Mountain West Lookbacks/Recaps

Taking a look back at every Mountain West team’s 2007 season.

Air Force
Recap: Pegged as an also-ran in the Mountain West before the season began, Air Force soared past expectations in 2007, winning six of its final seven games to finish in second place and earn a date with Cal in the Armed Forces Bowl. First-year head coach Troy Calhoun was the architect of the revival at the academy, shrewdly increasing the role of playmaker Chad Hall, and getting sound contributions from a veteran defense. Even after blowing a big lead to the Bears on New Year’s Eve, the Falcons can look back on last year as a truly remarkable season that began with very modest goals.

Offensive Player of the Year: WR Chad Hall

Defensive Player of the Year: LB Drew Fowler

Biggest Surprise: Beating Utah and TCU, a couple of Mountain West heavyweights, within a five-day span in September. Early in the year, no one knew just how good these Falcons would become, so beating the Utes and Frogs forced the rest of the league to reevaluate its idea of a pecking order.

Biggest Disappointment: Losing to Cal in the Armed Forces Bowl. Midway through the second quarter, the Falcons were up by three touchdowns and in total control until QB Shaun Carney was lost with a knee injury and the Bear offense tore through Air Force en route to a 42-36 comeback victory.

Looking Ahead: All of the momentum and goodwill that the Falcons amassed in 2007 will be useful in 2008. Much of the senior leadership from last year’s nine-win team, including Carney and five other all-conference performers, needs to replaced if Air Force is to return to the postseason.

BYU
Recap: Although Hawaii played in the Sugar Bowl, an argument can be made that BYU was the premier non-BCS program of 2007. The Cougars got off the mat after starting 1-2 to win 10 consecutive games, cop another outright Mountain West title, and get revenge on UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl for one of those two September losses. Winners of 16 straight conference games under Bronco Mendenhall, BYU is enjoying its best stretch of prosperity since the late 1980s.

Offensive Player of the Year: QB Max Hall

Defensive Player of the Year: DE Jan Jorgensen

Biggest Surprise: RB Harvey Unga. Just a redshirt freshman, Unga hasn’t wasted any time becoming one of the most valuable Cougar players. A physical, 1,000-yard rusher in his debut season, he gave BYU a presence in short yardage, while finishing third on the team with 44 receptions for 655 yards and four scores.

Biggest Disappointment: The BYU defense had just a single lapse all year, and it cost the program a game to Tulsa and possibly a BCS bowl invitation. A few weeks before the Cougars would gel, Hurricane QB Paul Smith went ballistic on them, throwing for a career-high 454 yards and five touchdown passes in a wild 55-47 victory.

Looking Ahead: The Cougars will wrap up 2007 in the Top 25 and begin 2008 with most of their league-best offense intact, meaning they’ll be the trendy choice out of the mid-majors to play in a BCS bowl game. A January game is the next step for a program that’s quietly been terrific the past two seasons, winning 22 games and a pair of Las Vegas Bowls versus Pac-10 opponents.

Colorado State
Recap: Four straight forgettable seasons was the tipping point for the Ram administration, which severed ties with long-time head coach Sonny Lubick at the end of the regular season. Colorado State entered the 2007 season on a seven-game losing streak that reached 13 before it was snapped in the third week of October. The Rams showed some fight late in the season, winning three of their final six games, yet it wasn’t enough to overcome a slow start or a defense that ranked next-to-last in the Mountain West in just about every statistical category.

Offensive Player of the Year: RB Gartrell Johnson

Defensive Player of the Year: LB Jeff Horinek

Biggest Surprise: After more than a calendar year without a win, any victory was going to qualify as a surprise. For the Rams, that day came on Oct. 20, a blustery day that saw Johnson rush for 162 yards and two scores, and the team blow past UNLV, 48-23.

Biggest Disappointment: Colorado State lost its first five games by an average of only seven, but it was the opener against rival Colorado that set the tone for the season. The Rams squandered an 11-point lead in the second half, bowing to the Buffs in overtime on a Kevin Eberhart field goal.

Looking Ahead: The task of replacing the legendary Lubick and rebuilding the Rams belongs to Steve Fairchild, who most recently was the Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator and served alongside Lubick from 1993-2000. Led by Johnson, Kyle Bell, and four starting linemen, he’ll inherit the pieces of a sold running game.

New Mexico
Recap: Sparked by a senior-drenched lineup, New Mexico won nine games for the first time in a decade and a bowl game for the first time since 1961, suffocating Nevada in the New Mexico Bowl. Typical of a Rocky Long-coached team, the catalyst for the Lobos’ success was an experienced defense that yielded just 319 yards and 19 points a game. Had the sporadic offense not disappeared in four losses, averaging just 10 points in those games, New Mexico might have challenged for a Mountain West championship.

Offensive Player of the Year: RB Rodney Ferguson

Defensive Player of the Year: DE Tyler Donaldson

Biggest Surprise: The Lobos had lost nine in-a-row to Pac-10 opponents, six under Long, before upsetting Arizona on Sept. 15 in Tucson. Despite giving up a ton of yards through the air, the New Mexico aerial connections of Donovan Porterie to Marcus Smith and Travis Brown were up to the challenge, hooking up 21 times in a two-point, springboard victory for the school.

Biggest Disappointment: Seemingly peaking as October became November, the sizzling Lobos got annihilated by TCU, 37-0, in their worst game of the season. Nothing went right for New Mexico, which allowed 421 balanced yards to a bad Frog offense, while managing just 119 yards and six first downs when it had the ball.

Looking Ahead: The majority of last year’s top performers, including six all-league first teamers, are out of eligibility, so Long could be rebuilding in 2008. He’ll do so around Ferguson, Porterie, and a secondary that boasts capable corners DeAndre Wright and Glover Quin.

San Diego State
Recap: While the Aztecs took baby steps in 2007, Chuck Long’s second season on the Mesa, they remain a long way from being competitive in the Mountain West. Sure, the program was mathematically alive for a postseason game in November, but digging a little deeper reveals that San Diego State went 0-5 versus the league’s bowl teams, losing by an average of 17 points. While the offense had some bite with Kevin O’Connell under center, the defense was the program’s undoing, finishing last in the league in total defense and points allowed.

Offensive Player of the Year: QB Kevin O’Connell

Defensive Player of the Year: LB Russell Allen

Biggest Surprise: At a time when 5-2 Wyoming was still a player in the conference race, San Diego State upset the Cowboys, 27-24, to improve its own postseason profile. The Aztecs overcame a 21-point deficit, winning on an O’Connell to Vincent Brown scoring strike with a little over a minute left in the game.

Biggest Disappointment: The final three games. At 3-2 in the conference, and coming off back-to-back wins over Wyoming and UNLV, the Aztecs started feeling as if they were finally turning the corner. Season-ending losses to Air Force, TCU, and BYU by an average score of 49-28, however, put the program right back in the lane to mediocrity.

Looking Ahead: Without O’Connell, top receiver Brett Swain, and most of the line, the offense is going to regress in 2008. That means the maligned defense must somehow pick up the slack if San Diego State has any chance of reaching .500 for the first time since 2003.

TCU
Recap: Considered by many to be “this year’s Boise State” from a non-BCS conference, very little went as scripted for the Horned Frogs, which surprisingly finished in the middle of the league pack. TCU proved unworthy of national attention after losing to Texas and Air Force in September, but did rebound to finish 8-5, including a 20-13 Texas Bowl victory over Houston. Big chunks of the disappointing season were spent without RB Aaron Brown and DE Tommy Blake, the preseason Mountain West Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year, respectively.

Offensive Player of the Year: C Blake Schlueter

Defensive Player of the Year: DE Chase Ortiz

Biggest Surprise: With an extra week to prepare, TCU absolutely smoked New Mexico on Nov. 3, ending the surging Lobos’ three-game winning streak. Finally playing like the team that was ranked in August, the Horned Frogs suffocated the potent New Mexico offense in a fork-in-the-road 37-0 statement win.

Biggest Disappointment: As if collapsing in the second half to Texas wasn’t painful enough on Sept. 8, TCU remained in a funk five days later, losing in overtime to Air Force and officially ending any dreams of playing in a January bowl game.

Looking Ahead: Outside Fort Worth, the expectations won’t be the same for TCU in 2008, but head coach Gary Patterson will still be pointing toward a Mountain West crown and a major bowl game. Even without Ortiz and Blake on the line, the defense will be predictably stingy, and the offense will benefit from a more seasoned Andy Dalton, who started at quarterback as a freshman. Keeping Brown healthy for an entire season will be a major priority next fall.

UNLV
Recap: While it wasn’t evident in the program’s 2-10 record, the Rebels made some strides in Mike Sanford’s third season in Las Vegas, nearly upsetting Wisconsin in Week 2 and rarely being overmatched in the trenches. Still, an eight-game losing streak to close out the year and a third straight two-win season is no way to ensure job security for a coach that was supposed to elevate this team to the top half of the Mountain West. While UNLV mined a gem from the JUCO ranks in RB Frank Summers, the rest of the offense struggled with a lack experience, especially behind center.

Offensive Player of the Year: RB Frank Summers

Defensive Player of the Year: LB Beau Bell

Biggest Surprise: Sanford picked up his first signature win with the Rebels on Sept. 22, handing former employer Utah its first shutout in 14 years. UNLV got 190 yards and three touchdowns from Summers, reaching .500 this late in the season for the first time since 2003.

Biggest Disappointment: In the year of the improbable, UNLV nearly delivered a whopper of an upset on Sept. 8, taking No. 5 Wisconsin to the wire before relinquishing the lead with two minutes remaining. Even as four-touchdown underdogs, the Rebels wanted nothing to do with moral victories after failing to close this game out.

Looking Ahead: All of Sanford’s hard work, aggressive recruiting, and commitment to youth should culminate in a breakthrough season for UNLV in 2008. If not, the coach and his staff will likely be out of work this time next year.

Utah
Recap: The Utes started slowly and finished on a tear in a season that was highlighted by some very strange results from the program. Impacted by a spate of crippling injuries, Utah opened 1-3, including a head-scratching loss to UNLV, but regrouped to go 8-1, capped by a narrow three-point escape of Navy in the Poinsettia Bowl. RB Darrell Mack evolved into a life-saver for the offense, rushing for 1,204 yards and scoring 15 touchdowns after starter Matt Asiata broke his leg in the opener.

Offensive Player of the Year: RB Darrell Mack

Defensive Player of the Year: S Steve Tate

Biggest Surprise: Just a week after losing to Air Force, the last thing anyone expected was a Utah win over No. 11 UCLA, let alone a rout. The Utes had five takeaways and three touchdowns from Mack, scoring the last 37 points in an improbable 44-6 ambush of the Bruins.

Biggest Disappointment: The Utes came tantalizingly close to closing the season on a nine-game winning streak, while snapping rival BYU’s string of 14 straight Mountain West victories. They fell short, however, on after the Cougars traveled the length of the field in the final minute for the game-winning touchdown.

Looking Ahead: The Utes head into the offseason as upbeat as they’ve been since Urban Meyer left for Gainesville. The program returns eight starters on offense, 10 counting Asiata and shelved WR Brent Casteel. Versatile QB Brian Johnson could be in store for a monster season after playing most of 2007 with a separated shoulder.

Wyoming
Recap: Through five games, the once-beaten Cowboys had the look of a potential Mountain West sleeper, having knocked off Virginia and TCU, and playing Boise State tough on the road. Over the final seven games, however, the bottom fell out on the program, which lost six games, squandering a chance to bowl for just the second time in the last decade. While there was no single culprit for Wyoming’s demise, the offense sure didn’t make matters better, finishing last in the league in total offense, and getting minimal support from the offensive line and QB Karsten Sween.

Offensive Player of the Year: RB Devin Moore

Defensive Player of the Year: CB Julius Stinson

Biggest Surprise: While it didn’t look so shocking at the time, beating Virginia, 23-3, in the opener got more impressive as the season progressed. In every facet of the game, the Cowboys ambushed the Cavaliers, a team that would go on to win nine games and earn a berth in the Gator Bowl.

Biggest Disappointment: On the heels of their big upset of TCU, the Cowboys flopped at home to New Mexico, losing 20-3 in nasty weather to set off their second half slide. Wyoming managed just 48 yards rushing on 30 carries, handling the elements worse than its opponent from balmy Albuquerque.

Looking Ahead: While 2007 was a major disappointment for Wyoming, there’s enough returning talent on both sides of the ball for the program to make a quick rebound. To help get the lagging offense over the hump, head coach Joe Glenn replaced offensive coordinator Bill Cockhill with Florida A&M’s Bob Cole, a disciple of the spread-option attack.

Source: 2007 Mountain West Lookbacks/Recaps

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