Week 11 Mountain West football roundup

Hawaii hands San Diego State first MWC loss

Hawaii Rainbow Warriors quarterback Micah Alejado. | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

San Diego State headed to Hawaii on a six-game winning streak while sitting alone at the top of the Mountain West standings. 

Behind three first-half touchdown passes from star quarterback Micah Alejado, the Rainbow Warriors (7-3, 4-2) jumped all over the Aztecs (7-2, 4-1) en route to a 38-6 blowout win on a rainy night in Honolulu. 

San Diego State entered the game with the nation’s No. 2 scoring defense at 10 points allowed per game. 

“The rain is a blessing, especially in our culture,” Hawaii head coach Timmy Chang said after the win. “Giving back to the land. But we haven’t had rain like this in a while. So those are good things. You just gotta handle them. 

“Football’s one of those sports that only thing it stops for is lightning, so you gotta handle anything that’s thrown your way. I was proud of our guys in just handling their business.”

With remaining games against UNLV (7-2, 3-2) and Wyoming (4-3, 2-5), the Rainbow Warriors are still in the picture for a MWC championship game birth. 

San Diego State and Boise State (6-3, 4-1) will face off on Saturday at Snapdragon Stadium. The Broncos had a bye over the weekend. 

UNLV ended a two-game skid with a dominant 42-10 road victory over reeling Colorado State (2-7, 1-4). Quarterback Anthony Colandrea threw a pair of touchdowns and ran for two scores. 

“The big thing I’m really proud of what they did is they kept their confidence,” Rebels head coach Dan Mullen said. “Because there’s a lot of people out there, a lot of noise to not be a confident defense. Statistically, it wasn’t very good. But I think the guys inside could see where some of the issues were that we could correct, and we were able to do that.”

UNLV’s defense played its best game of 2025 at Colorado State, surrendering a season-low 10 points. The Rams did not score in the second half. 

“You have to just keep going,” Colandrea said of the defense. “It’s football. We’re going to have bad games. They’re going to have bad games. Things happen like that. And they played awesome tonight. Ten points? That’s big time.”

Air Force (3-6, 2-4) rode a three-touchdown effort from quarterback Liam Szarka to a 26-16 road victory over San Jose State (3-6, 2-3). The Spartans once again out-gained their opponent but were undone by three turnovers. 

Utah State (5-4, 3-2) rolled to a 51-14 rout over last-place Nevada (1-8, 0-5).