Cowboy Chatter: National Signing Day Edition

Here a few articles floating around about Wyoming and their recruits.

• Nehemie Kankolango and Skyler Hinton both enrolled early at UW after finishing their graduation requirements. Here is their story of adjusting to college life.
• Story about QB Sam Stratton and Signing Day schedule at UW.
• WR Drew Martinez signed his LOI at 8a.m. this morning.
• DE Sonny Puletasi could be a steal for the Cowboys.
• BYU could have it's best recruiting class ever.
• CSU has put together a very solid class.
• The Lobos grabbed a four star DT that had previously commited to Tennessee.

Around the Mountain West

News from around the Mountain West Conference.

As seen on Mountain West Connection.

Air Force: The Academy was chosen as one of the top 100 "best values" among colleges by the Princeton Review.

BYU: Jonathon Taverani got his groove back for the Cougs.

Colorado State: TE Coach Mark Lubick has added recruiting coordinator to his duties.

New Mexico: New Mexico has struggled lately but look to get on track tonight when they host Utah.

UNLV: The Rebels have a new indoor natorium. Previously they had to practice outdoors during the winter.

Utah: The Utes hope to break their 7 game losing streak at The Pit.

TCU: Clint Gresham will play in a collegiate all star game as well attend the NFL combine.

San Diego State: A lawsuit against the Aztecs Athletic Department has been reopened.

Wyoming and Mountain West get some love from ESPN

Graham Watson is the Non AQ College football blogger for ESPN. The Mountain West gets a couple nice mentions and so does Dave Christensen in her latest update.

Interesting fact: Dave Christensen and Bowling Green's Dave Clawson were the only first time head coaches to finish with winning records this season. Niiiiiiiice!

Men's Hoops Standings: 1/12/09

Mountain West Conference Standings

	Conf	All
Colorado St.	2-0	11-5
BYU (18)	1-0	16-1
Utah	1-0	8-7
UNLV	1-1	13-3
San Diego St.	1-1	12-4
Wyoming	1-1	8-8
TCU	1-1	8-8
New Mexico	0-2	14-3
Air Force	0-2	8-7

Deep Thoughts: CSU leads the conference at 2-0 but lets see how they do against BYU, UNLV and New Mexico in the next week. BYU has only a single loss but can they keep it up without their leading Jimmer Fredette who is out with mono.

Very interested to see how Wyoming does against TCU on the road tonight. If the Pokes put together a solid effort for 40 minutes they can be really dangerous down the stretch. We've seen what they can do for one half on multiple occasions.

Mountain West Roundup

As seen on Mountain West Connection. News from across the Mountain West.

Air Force: The underclassmen have picked up lots of playing time for the Falcons this season. Which is a negative now but could pay off in the future.

BYU: The Cougars came up big in their win over UNLV last night.

Colorado State: The Rams played a great game in their victory over Wyoming last night.

New Mexico: Darington Hobson has had a long and difficult road before arriving in New Mexico. He's made a impact in his first year as a Lobo.

TCU: Fiesta Bowl drew a 8.2 rating and 13 share - 5th best among the non BCS games that Fox has aired.

UNLV: The Rebels lose two verbal commitments as they follow former Rebel Assistant Todd Berry to Louisiana-Monroe. That leaves the Rebels with only one verbal recruit for the 2010 season to date.

Utah: The Utes made money from their second BCS appearance last year but not all programs are as lucky.

San Diego State: Viejas Arena is proving to be quite a home court advantage for the Aztecs.

Dream season for ACS

Great article from Bob Hammond at the Laramie Boomerang. Austyn Carta-Samuels is back home for the holidays and got to hang out with his family and high school teammates. His prep RB at Bellarmine Prep Usua Amanan is at Stanford now but they two made quite the duo in their Senior years.

The entire season was a dream for ACS as he went on to be named Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year and then earned Most Outstanding Offensive Player in the New Mexico Bowl.

Read the full article here.

News from around the Mountain West

As seen on Mountain West Connection.

Air Force: It could be a mixture of snow/rain for the Armed Forces Bowl on Thursday and the Falcons have no problem with that.

BYU: The Cougars are looking for some new Tight Ends after losing Dennis Pitta and Andrew George. There are several candidates that could all be a big help next year.

Colorado State: The Rams continue to struggle on the road as evidenced by last nights loss to Frenso State.

New Mexico: The Lobos host the Texas Tech Raiders tonight at the Pit and there lots of similarities between each team.

San Diego State: The Aztecs are fine tuning their game with conference play just around the corner.

TCU: Tyler Luttrel made the move from WR to Safety and it has payed off big time for the Horned Frogs. The team has now arrived in Phoenix to prepare for the Fiesta Bowl.

UNLV: RB Bradley Randle has done some charity work over the holidays and hopes to continue these efforts in Las Vegas. Coach Bobby Hauck is impressed.

Utah: The Beehive State and the Utes have become leaders in the fight against the BCS.

Independence Bowl thoughts

Original Independence Bowl Logo

You may have not watched the Independence Bowl this year but you probably will next year. BTW, Georgia won 44-20 over Texas A&M. This bowl has typically pitted teams from the SEC and Big 12 that spot unimpressive records. Georgia was 7-5 and Texas A&M was 6-6 coming into the game.

Starting next year the Independence Bowl will feature Mountain West #3 vs ACC #7. This means that the Humanitarian Bowl is no longer affiliated with the Mountain West. Right now the 2010 bowl lineup for the Mountain West looks like this:

Las Vegas Bowl - Versus PAC 10
Poinsettia Bowl - Versus PAC 10
Independence Bowl - Versus ACC
Armed Forces Bowl - Versus C-USA
New Mexico Bowl - Versus WAC*

*The Mountain West renewed their agreement with the New Mexico Bowl through 2013 but no extension has been made with the WAC yet. Hopefully they will look elsewhere.

The Independence Bowl sold out this year and the stadium really was packed. Usually ESPN only shows certain segments of the crowd to make it look larger but not the case here. They showed wide panoramic views of the stadium and every seat was filled.

The City of Shreveport really supports the Independence Bowl and it is a major event in the city. Locals always come out to the game and since 2001 they've never had less than 41,000 in attendance. In the last 20 years the lowest attendance was 31, 337 in a 1992 matchup that included Oregon and Wake Forest. This year each team was required to buy 12,000 tickets each. 25,000 tickets were sold locally. The Aggies sold all their tickets while Georgia had sold 5,500 as of December 19th.

Today's game game started at 5pm EST which is 3pm MST. Hopefully they can move the time back a couple hours let the MWC fans watch the game. They probably played it early today so that it didn't compete with Monday Night Football. Today was December 28th but the Independence Bowl has been played anywhere from December 27th to New Years Eve. All of those dates are weekdays next year expect December 31st which is a Friday. Having a game this far from most Mountain West schools could make it hard for fans to travel that far for a weekday game. Obviously TCU fans could easily make it to Shreveport but they hope to play in another BCS game next year.

Playing a team from the ACC would be a nice change of pace for the Mountain West and the ACC has a lot of teams on the upswing. Florida State finished 6-6 this year for the #7 spot but the conference has a lot of depth. Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Miami, Clemson, Boston College and North Carolina are all quality programs that get a lot of national coverage. A #3 vs #3 match up would be ideal but it should be a good game and grab some headlines for both teams.

MWC: Basketball Standings: 12/28

Here is a look at the Mountain West basketball standings as of today. Non conference schedule is winding down and the MWC should be very entertaining this year. BYU, UNLV, New Mexico, and San Diego State have done a great job this season and have a shot at making the NCAA tourney.

Wyoming will battle CSU, Air Force, TCU and Utah for the "best of the rest" title. The Utes are 5-7 this year but feature a 7-3 shotblocker named David Foster that is averaging over 4 blocks a game.

Afam Muojeke is currently tied for second in the Mountain West with 17.1 points a game and is tops in turnovers at 4.4


Mountain West Conference Standings

	Conf	All
BYU	0-0	12-1
New Mexico (13)	0-0	12-1
UNLV	0-0	12-2
San Diego St.	0-0	9-3
Colorado St.	0-0	8-4
Air Force	0-0	6-4
Wyoming	0-0	6-6
TCU	0-0	6-6
Utah	0-0	5-7

Thanks FLOMAX!

Notice all the smooth flowing water? Not a coincidence.

ESPN is running a prerecorded "Bowl update" that is sponsored by FLOMAX. The update is shown during every bowl game and is basically just one big promotion for the Mountain West. It starts off with Wyoming knocking off Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl followed by BYU crushing Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl. Finally they show Utah coming back and knocking off Cal in the Poinsettia Bowl. No other games are highlighted at all.

So FLOMAX and it's manufacturer Boehringer-Ingelheim are paying big bucks to let the world know how dominate the Mountain West has been during the the bowl season. Thanks to all this free publicity the Mountain West has grown in popularity by 42% in the coveted "Men with Prostate problems" demographic.

Mountain West announces Individual Awards and Honors

Austyn Carta-Samuels named Mountain West Freshman of the Year. TCU sweeps the rest of the individual awards. ACS was named Player of the Week and certainly deserves this honor.

2009 Stats - Austyn Carta-Samuels

1,752 passing yards 7 touchdowns

295 rushing yards 3 touchdowns

30 recieving yards 1 touchdown

5-4 record as a starter.

Full release from the Mountain West Conference.

Conference Highlights

Highlights from the Mountain West games this past weekend. Pretty thrilling week with the rivalry games.

Week 12: Players of the Week

Congrats to Chris Prosinksi on earning Defensive Player of the Week.

Excerpt from the full release.

CHRIS PROSINSKI, WYOMING
Junior, Defensive Back, Buffalo, Wyo./Buffalo HS
Junior defensive back Chris Prosinski registered 10 tackles (including nine solo), a tackle for loss and forced a fumble in Wyoming's 17-16 win at Colorado State to secure a bowl berth for the Cowboys. The biggest play of the day for the Buffalo, Wyo., native came in the fourth quarter when Colorado State had a third and goal on the Wyoming four-yard line. He tackled CSU's Dion Morton for a two-yard loss that forced the Rams to kick a field goal that kept the Cowboys within two points at 14-16. Wyoming kicked a 33-yard field goal on its next possession (1:27 remaining in the game) to capture the win.

Mountain West Matchups

Here are the other matchups in the Mountain West this weekend.

Air Force at #19 BYU
1:30PM MST
TV: CBS College

This is my matchup of the week in the Mountain West. Air Force boasts a stellar defense and BYU has a potent offense. The Falcons nearly knocked off TCU and forced Utah in overtime earlier this season. I say that BYU shows it weakness on defense and Air Force comes out of Provo with a win.

San Diego State at #23 Utah
2:00PM MST
TV: Versus

San Diego State was one quarter away from winning their fifth game of the season before the Cowboys went on a tear. Now they must defeat Utah and UNLV on the road if they want to earn a bowl bid. Utah is looking to redeem themselves after getting by TCU last week. I'd love for the Aztecs to get the win but it probably won't happen.

Colorado State at New Mexico
4:00PM MST
TV: The Mtn

Not much reason to watch this one unless you like watching bad teams. New Mexico is winless but have been showing signs of life in recent games. CSU is coming off a bye week and hasn't won in two months. Hopefully the Rams won't win and get hot just in time for the Border War.

Carta-Samuels and Watts named POW

Freshmen Austyn Carta-Samuels and Ian Watts of the Wyoming Cowboys earned Player of the Week honors for their performances against San Diego State.

This is the third such honor for Carta-Samuels and second for Watts this year.

Full release from the MWC.

Mountain West Standings

----------Conf--All
TCU (4) 5-0 9-0
Utah (16) 5-0 8-1
BYU (22) 4-1 7-2
Air Force 4-2 6-4
SDSU 2-3 4-5
Wyoming 2-3 4-5
UNLV 2-4 4-6
New Mexico 0-5 0-9
CSU 0-6 3-7

Mountain West Action

Preview of what is happening around the Mountain West this weekend.

Army at Air Force
1:30pm MST

ESPN College Game Day is coming to Colorado Springs for a Veterans Day themed Military game. The Falcons need just one more win to become bowl eligibile but the Black Knights aren't the pushovers they used to be. Except a rough and tough game with Air Force pulling it out at the end.

#6 TCU at San Diego State
2:00 pm MST

The Aztecs have been playing some of their best football this season during the last couple weeks. Unfortunately they are hosting the Horned Frogs and even their best won't be good enough to stop the TCU juggernaut this year.

New Mexico at #17 Utah
4:00pm MST

After a couple of close games the past two weeks the Utes can finally let loose and blowout a team in style. Coach Whittingham hasn't announced who will start at QB for Utah yet but they could probably use their punter at QB this week and still trounce the punchless Lobos.

Colorado State at UNLV
8:00pm MST

One of these two teams will earn their fourth victory and and still keep their slim bowl berth hopes alive. While the loser will be able to start planning their offseason a little earlier. The Rams have lost five in a row and really need a victory to help out the fans in the sheep country.

MWC Matchups this weekend

Wyoming @ #19 Utah
6:00pm MST
TV: The Mtn

This our pick for game of the week in the Mountain West. There is no love lost between these squads but Coach Christensen has the Cowboys in a new era. Hopefully that results in a different outcome.



Air Force @ Colorado State
2:00pm MST
TV: The Mtn


Can the Rams actually win another game this year? Air Force can move within one game of bowl eligibility if they take down CSU.

UNLV @ #8 TCU
2:00pm MST
TV: Versus

TCU should roll at home. This could get ugly for the Rebels.

New Mexico @ San Diego State
5:30pm MST
TV: CBS College

What will San Diego State do after their amazing come back last week? Will the Lobos learn how to win?


BYU

The Cougars have the week off to lick their wounds after being embarrassed by TCU last Saturday.

Hendricks named Mid Season All American

Brian Hendricks was one of six Mountain West players announced as a Midseason All-American today. He has truly been impressive in his first season as a starter for the Cowboys. He has great vision and is always around the ball.


Here is a quote from the MWC press release:

"Hendricks, a sophomore, ranks second in the league and third nationally with an average of 11.57 tackles per game in 2009. The Burlington, Colo., native has registered four games with double-figure tackles in 2009, including a league single-game high of 23 stops against Air Force on Oct. 17."


Let's hope Brian can keep up his stellar season and earn some more accolades after the season. This will be a nice boost for recruiting since Hendricks is so young and others players will want to be on the field with him for the next two years.

Cross Country Championships this weekend

The Mountain West Cross Country Championships take place in Provo, UT this weekend hosted by BYU.

Men: 8k course starts at 10a.m.

Women: 6k course starts at 11a.m.

Both races will have the BYU Cougars and New Mexico Lobos contending for the title. BYU's Mens team has won 10 out of the last 11 titles. The Cougars are currently ranked #7 in the nation. The Lobos are ranked #19 in the nation and have Jacob Kirwa and Rory Fraser the only returning top 10 finishers from 2008.

In the women's race #20 New Mexico will look to defend their title against #21 BYU. The Cougars are led by Senior Angela Wagner the 2008 MWC Cross Country Female Athlete of the Year.

Good luck to the Cowboy and Cowgirl teams competing this weekend.

Full release from the MWC.