2025 MW Football Weekly Release - Week 12

WEEK 12 ACTION
Eleven Mountain West teams are in action in Week 12, with five of the six games appearing on national television, including a quadruple-header on CBSSN. Air Force gets things going on CBSSN at noon ET when it visits Connecticut. San José State at Nevada follows at 12:30 p.m. PT, then Utah State visits UNLV for a 4 p.m. PT kick. Closing out the day’s CBSSN slate are Boise State and San Diego State in a battle for first place in the league at 7:30 p.m. PT from San Diego. At 1 p.m. MT, New Mexico hosts Colorado State on the Mountain West Network and Altitude and Wyoming heads to Fresno State for a 7:30 p.m. PT game on FS1.

MW CHAMPIONSHIP RACE
With three weeks left in the regular season, nine MW teams are still alive for a spot in the MW Football Championship Game and the host is still to be determined. The top nine squads are currently separated by just two games in the MW standings.

BOWL ELIGIBILITY
Half of the Mountain West (Boise State, Fresno State, Hawai‘i, New Mexico, San Diego State and UNLV) is bowl eligible. The Big 12 (.563), SEC (.563), Big Ten (.556) and the MW (.500) have the highest percentages of their teams eligible. … Utah State would become bowl eligible with a win at UNLV on Saturday. The Aggies are vying for their fourth bowl bid in the last five seasons. … Boise State is bowl eligible for the 28th consecutive season, the second-longest active streak in the FBS. … Fresno State is bowl eligible for the fifth straight season. … Hawai‘i is bowl eligible for the first time since 2019. … New Mexico is bowl eligible for the first time since 2016. … San Diego State is bowl eligible for the 14th time in 16 seasons. … UNLV is bowl eligible for the third straight season.

FBS LEADERS
San José State leads the FBS in passing offense (332.6), Walker Eget leads in passing yards per game (326.8) and total passing yards (2,941) and Danny Scudero leads with 125.1 receiving yards per game and 1,126 total receiving yards. … Air Force leads the nation with 18.33 passing yards per completion. … Wyoming’s Aneesh Vyas shares the FBS lead with two blocked kicks. … Hawai‘i’s Micah Alejado averages an FBS-best 27.63 completions per game. … Hawai‘i’s Kansei Matsuzawa and Utah State’s Tanner Rinker are among five qualified kickers still perfect on field goals this season, while Matsuzawa leads the FBS with 22 field goals made, 2.20 field goals per game and 99 total points scored. … Fresno State’s Jahzon Jacks leads the FBS with four fumbles recovered. … Colorado State’s Jace Bellah leads the FBS with 0.57 interceptions per game, while teammate Owen Long leads in total tackles (110) and tackles per game (12.2) and Nevada’s Dylan Labarbera leads in tackles for loss per game with 1.72.

MIDSEASON ALL-AMERICANS
Five MW players earned spots on The Associated Press Midseason All-America football teams, including a pair of first-team selections. Hawai‘i senior kicker Kansei Matsuzawa and San Diego State senior defensive back Chris Johnson earned first-team nods. San José State sophomore wide receiver Danny Scudero, Colorado State sophomore linebacker Owen Long and UNLV senior defensive back Aamaris Brown were named to the second team. The MW’s two first-team selections are as many as the other non-autonomous conferences combined, while the Conference’s five total selections surpassed the combined total of its peer leagues.

AZTECS’ STIFLING DEFENSE
San Diego State is fifth in the FBS in scoring defense at 13.1 points allowed per game and is sixth nationally in total defense with 261.8 yards allowed per game. … The Aztecs are the only FBS squad with a trio of shutouts this season. This marks the first time in SDSU’s Division I history (since 1969) with three shutouts in a single season. … SDSU has allowed seven or fewer points in five different games this season, tied for the most in the FBS (Ohio State). That is the most such games by a Mountain West team in a single campaign since the Aztecs themselves had five in 2016.

UNLV’S MAGIC NUMBERS
UNLV has scored at least 20 points in each of its last 31 regular-season games (excluding MW championship games), marking the second-longest active such streak in the FBS, behind only Memphis (45 straight). The Rebels are 25-6 over that stretch. … UNLV is one of just two teams in the FBS (North Texas) to score at least 30 points in every game this season. The Rebels are the first Mountain West team to do that since Fresno State scored 30+ in the first 11 games of its 2013 conference title season.

TURNING ON THE JETS
Of the 110 FBS players with at least 100 rushing attempts this season, UNLV’s Jai’Den Thomas is the leader with 7.6 yards per carry. That’s on pace to be the highest by an MW player with 100+ carries since SDSU’s Rashaad Penny in 2017 (7.8). Thomas’ three games this season with 100+ rushing yards and fewer than 15 carries are tied for the most in the FBS (Ohio State’s Bo Jackson, Louisville’s Isaac Brown).

LOBOS’ DYNAMIC DUO
Against UNLV in Week 10, New Mexico had one player throw for at least 340 passing yards and three passing touchdowns (Jack Layne) and another player throw a touchdown and have 90 rushing yards (James Laubstein). Only one other FBS duo has done that in a game over the last 30 seasons: Fresno State’s Derek Carr and Robbie Rouse on Nov. 24, 2012.

SZARKA ON A ROLL
Air Force quarterback Liam Szarka is one of only two FBS players to throw for at least 1,000 yards and rush for at least 900 this season, along with Navy’s Blake Horvath. Szarka is one of only seven players in Mountain West history to accomplish that feat and only the second in the last 10 years (New Mexico’s Devon Dampier last season).

CENTURY-MARK RUSHING STREAK
The longest active streak for games with at least 100 rushing yards by an FBS team belongs to Air Force, which has done so in 94 consecutive games.

INTERCEPTIONS GALORE
Since the beginning of 2022, UNLV’s defense is first for first in the FBS with Notre Dame with 61 interceptions. … The MW has three different players with multiple pick-sixes this season (Boise State’s A’Marion McCoy, San Diego State’s Chris Johnson and UNLV’s Aamaris Brown), while all other FBS conferences have combined for five such players. The only other season the MW had at least three players with two or more interception returns for touchdowns was 2017 (also three).

BIG FIRST HALF
Utah State had a 41-0 lead at the end of the first half of its 51-14 win over Nevada in Week 11. That is tied for the fifth-largest halftime margin of a MW game in conference history and the largest since Oct. 27, 2018, when Utah State had a 47-point lead over New Mexico.

THE TOKYO TOE
Hawai‘i kicker Kansei Matsuzawa is currently 22-for-22 on field-goal attempts this year, setting program and MW records for consecutive made field goals to start a season and setting Hawai‘i’s single-season record for made field goals. He has hit 23 in a row dating back to last season, a program record for consecutive makes and the second-longest streak in MW history. He currently has the longest active streak in the FBS.

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 MW 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 have played 16 autonomous conference opponents in 2025, including three of the four CFP semifinalists from last season (Nevada at Penn State, San José State at Texas, and Boise State at Notre Dame). … 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).