Could The Mountain West Conference Be There For The Taking For The UNLV Rebels?

After an intriguing Week 1 of the college football season, it's looking like the Mountain West Conference could suddenly be wide open this year. It could even be there for the taking for the UNLV Rebels. The Rebels are coming off a convincing win over the Sam Houston Bearkats and now sit at 2 - 0, while their biggest competition has looked awful to this point.

The Boise State Broncos were completely dismantled by the South Florida Bulls on Thursday night. USF embarrassed them in a blowout by the score of 34 - 7. The San Jose State Spartans are the other team in the top three favorites to win the Mountain West, along with UNLV and Boise State. The Spartans lost to Central Michigan 16 - 14 this weekend, and didn't look impressive at all in the game. There is a chance that neither team is quite what they were expected to be.

With all due respect to San Jose State, we are going to focus on the Broncos. They were a playoff team last year, and looked like they didn't belong on the field with an unranked USF team. If they take as big of a step back as it looked like they might in their opener, UNLV could reign supreme in the Mountain West's final year as currently constructed. The only concern is, if beating Boise State isn't a big deal, it could cost the Rebels a potential playoff spot. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though. There is still a long way to go. Both coaches spoke about their games in postgame press conferences.

Boise State Broncos Head Coach Spencer Danielson On Their Week 1 Loss

“We just didn’t execute well in the critical moments,” Danielson said. “The critical moments are a third-and-long, we get a sack and we throw the quarterback on the ground. Can’t happen. Those are critical moments that are a lack of discipline. And I can go back and forth to either a penalty, a misalignment, to us not executing, to failing to win a one-on-one. Across the board, there’s critical moments that we just didn’t win. And that’s on me as a coach to look and see why.”

UNLV Rebels Head Coach Dan Mullen On Their Week 1 Win

“Here’s the issue: I’m so pleased, because I think we’re really coming together. We took a huge step from last week and I think that’s a big deal for us. But as we did last week, when we’re good, on both sides of the ball, we’re really good, and then we have some errors. It’s just that focus and attention to detail for four quarters, just focusing on every individual snap.”