Associated Press
Colorado State quarterback Garrett Grayson runs in the second half of a 31-24 victory against UNR in Reno on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2014.
Friday, Oct. 31, 2014 | 1 p.m.
The Rebel Room
The One Where Brewer Gets Fired Up
After taking over beat writer duties for a week, Las Vegas Sun sports editor Ray Brewer has some ideas what's wrong with UNLV football. But first sports writer Case Keefer and Taylor Bern extol the greatness of Kenpom.
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A rivalry game for one of college football’s most unique trophies. A road test for the league’s top team. A battle that could decide how the West (Division) was won. This is week 10 in the Mountain West.
Starting with an early Air Force-Army kickoff, Saturday is full of meaningful or intriguing conference games with a couple clunkers (cough, UNLV-New Mexico, cough) thrown in. By the end of the day, there should be some clarity in the West. But the top four teams in the Mountain might shuffle around without actually pulling away from one other.
Here’s a look at this week’s picks. As always, you can find the UNLV game prediction in Saturday’s live blog:
SATURDAY
Air Force (minus-3) at Army
9:30 a.m., CBS
• The Falcons already have a victory against Navy in hand, so defeating Army would net them the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy for the third time in the last five years. I say they get it.
Pick: Air Force — Win
Colorado State (minus-6½) at San Jose State
4 p.m., CBS Sports Network
• Lay the points and don’t think twice.
Pick: Colorado State — Win
San Diego State (plus-3) at UNR
7:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network
• The winner of this game is the likely champ of the West Division. An Aztecs victory would put them in a dominant position at 4-1, while the Wolf Pack, currently at 2-2, are the only other potentially decent team in the division (sorry UNLV, Hawaii and the states of Fresno and San Jose). Could go either way, but I’ll take the points.
Pick: San Diego State — Loss
Wyoming (plus-15) at Fresno State
7:45 p.m., ESPN2
• What is happening here? When I started putting this together Thursday, the number was 13, and then Friday morning, it’s 15. I know Wyoming has been bad — and ravaged by injury — but there are few teams in the country I’d lay those points against with Fresno, and none of them play in this league.
Pick: Wyoming — Win
Utah State (minus-3) at Hawaii
9 p.m., Mountain West Network
• Last week’s 8-point loss to UNR was the first time this season Hawaii didn’t cover against a Division I opponent. It’s about to be two in a row.
Pick: Utah State — Win
Last week: 3-1
Season: 36-26
Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.
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