2025 MW Football Weekly Release - Week 8

WEEK 8 ACTION
Ten Mountain West teams are in action in Week 8, highlighted by UNLV visiting Boise State on Saturday on FS1 in a rematch of the last two MW Football Championship games. Utah State hosts San José State on Friday on CBSSN, which will also broadcast Wyoming at Air Force on Saturday. Colorado State welcomes Hawai‘i on Saturday on Spectrum Sports and the MW App and New Mexico hosts Nevada in the Saturday nightcap on FS1.

BOWL ELIGIBILITY
UNLV moved to 6-0 with its 51-48 win over Air Force in Week 7, becoming the first MW team this season to become bowl eligible. The Rebels have now qualified for a bowl in three straight seasons. … Hawai‘i (5-2) visits Colorado State on Saturday with a chance to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2021, while either Fresno State (5-2) or San Diego State (5-1) will become bowl eligible in Week 9 when they square off after both being idle in Week 8.

AZTECS’ STIFLING DEFENSE
San Diego State is tied for sixth in the FBS in scoring defense at 12.2 points allowed per game and is 10th nationally in total defense with 259.7 yards allowed per game. The Aztecs have held three opponents to three points or fewer this season, with a pair of shutouts.

UNLV’S MAGIC NUMBERS
UNLV is the third Mountain West team all-time to start a season 6-0 while scoring at least 30 points in each victory. The other two are Fresno State (2013) and Boise State (2011). … UNLV has scored at least 20 points in each of its last 28 regular-season games (excluding MW championship games), marking the second-longest active such streak in the FBS, behind only Memphis (42 straight). The Rebels are 24-4 over that stretch.

ROAD REBS
UNLV has nine road wins since the beginning of last season, the most by any FBS team. BYU is second with eight … The Rebels have also won six straight road games against non-MW teams, the longest such win streak by any Mountain West team in conference history.

HOME (BLUE) FIELD ADVANTAGE
Over the last 26 seasons, Boise State is 144-15 (.906) at home. The 15 losses are tied with Oklahoma for the fewest over that time among teams that have been in the FBS every season since 2000. The Broncos have won 15 straight games at Albertsons Stadium, tied with Alabama for the longest active streak in the FBS.

MW SCORING IN BUNCHES
MW teams averaged 35.2 points per game in Week 7, most among all FBS conferences (excluding independents). That is the conference’s highest scoring average in any week this season. Helping that average considerable was a wild UNLV-Air Force contest, which ended in a 51-48 Rebel victory.

SCUDERO’S MONSTER HALF
San José State’s Danny Scudero became the third FBS player in the last decade to record at least four touchdown catches and 150 receiving yards in the first half of a game. The other two were LSU’s Justin Jefferson (Dec. 28, 2019) and Alabama’s DeVonta Smith (Sept. 28, 2019). … Scudero’s four TD catches matched the MW record for touchdown receptions in a game. … The sophomore wide receiver leads the FBS with 845 receiving yards, 140.8 receiving yards per game and eight receiving touchdowns.

AF RUSHING PROWESS
Air Force had three different players record at least 45 rushing yards and multiple rushing touchdowns in Week 7 at UNLV. The only other MW team to have that many such players in a single game was the Falcons, themselves, on Nov. 17, 2007. … Air Force rushed for 428 yards and six TDs against the Rebels.

INTERCEPTIONS GALORE
Since the beginning of 2022, UNLV’s defense has an FBS-best 58 interceptions. Texas and Notre Dame have the next-highest total with 56 each, with Fresno State and San José State tied for fourth at 53.

NOT HURTING THEMSELVES
Boise State and San Diego State are two of seven FBS teams this season yet to allow points off turnovers. The Mountain West is the only FBS conference to have multiple such teams in 2025.

PLASCENCIA MATCHES MW MARK
San Diego State kicker Gabe Plascencia is 10-for-10 on field goals this season and has hit 22 straight dating back to last season, which is the longest active streak in the FBS, the longest streak in program history and tied for the longest streak in MW history with Air Force’s Luke Strebel, who hit 22 straight from 2015-16.

THE TOKYO TOE
Hawai‘i kicker Kansei Matsuzawa’s seven straight games with multiple field-goal attempts and zero misses makes for the longest such streak in Mountain West history. The only FBS player to have a matching streak within a single season over the last 30 seasons was Tulane’s Cairo Santos in 2012 (seven straight). … Matsuzawa is currently 19-for-19 on field-goal attempts this year, setting program and MW records for consecutive made field goals to start a season. He has hit 20 in a row dating back to last season, matching the program record for consecutive makes and two back of the MW mark held by Plascencia and Strebel. He is tied for the third-longest active streak in the FBS.

QBs WERE DEALING IN WEEK 7
The Mountain West had four different players throw for at least 300 yards in Week 7, the most such players by any FBS conference for the week. Wyoming’s Kaden Anderson had a season-high 304 yards, Fresno State’s E.J. Warner threw for 350, UNLV’s Anthony Colandrea went for 361 and Hawai‘i’s Micah Alejado threw for 413.

MW AGAINST THE A4 AT HOME
MW teams went 3-1 against A4 opponents at home this season. Hawai‘i earned the MW’s first A4 win of the 2025 season with its 23-20 win over Stanford in Week 0. UNLV made it 2-0 with a 30-23 win over UCLA in Week 2. San Diego State picked up a third MW home win over an A4 when it throttled California 34-0 in Week 4.

MW AGAINST THE A4, PART II
New Mexico outscored UCLA, 21-0, in the fourth quarter of its 35-10 win in Week 3. The 21 points were the most scored by a Mountain West team in the fourth quarter of a win against an ACC/Big Ten/Big 12/SEC opponent since BYU scored 21 at Virginia in a 38-35 overtime win on Sept. 2, 2000. … San Diego State’s 34-0 victory over Cal in Week 4 was the second-largest shutout win ever by a MW team against an autonomous conference school. The only larger such win was BYU’s 59-0 win versus UCLA in 2008.

MW AGAINST THE A4, PART III
MW teams has played 16 autonomous conference opponents in 2025, including three of the four CFP semifinalists from last season (Nevada at Penn State on Aug. 30, San José State at Texas on Sept. 6 and Boise State at Notre Dame on Oct. 4). … Since 2018, the MW has the best winning percentage over Autonomous 5 teams (30.0) among its peer conferences. MW teams have collected 45 wins over such teams in that span, also the most among its peer conferences (the American is second with 39).

CENTURY-MARK STREAKS
The two longest active streaks for games with at least 100 rushing yards by an FBS team are both by Mountain West teams. Air Force has done so in 91 consecutive games and Boise State is on a 44-game run.

CONSISTENT RECEIVING CORPS
Both Hawai‘i and Utah State have had at least one player with five or more receptions in 23 consecutive games, dating back to November 2023. That’s the longest active streak in the FBS.

FBS LEADERS
Wyoming shares the FBS lead with four blocked kicks, including two by Aneesh Vyas, who shares the individual lead. … Air Force leads the nation with 20.74 passing yards per completion. … Hawai‘i’s Kansei Matsuzawa, New Mexico’s Luke Drzewiecki and San Diego State’s Gabe Plascencia are among 11 kickers still perfect on field goals this season with Matsuzawa leading the FBS with 19 field goals made and 2.71 per game. … San José State’s Danny Scudero leads the FBS with 140.8 receiving yards per game and 845 total receiving yards. … Colorado State’s Owen Long leads in tackles per game with 14.2 and Nevada’s Dylan Labarbera leads in tackles for loss per game with 2.33. … CSU’s Lemondre Joe leads in passes defended with 1.83 per game. … San Diego State (20-for-20) is one of six FBS programs still perfect in the red zone and one of eight without a fumble lost. … UNLV is one of 11 FBS programs without a loss.