2020 Mountain West Conference football season

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2020 Mountain West Conference football season
LeagueNCAA Division I FBS
SportFootball
DurationOctober 24-December 19
Number of teams12
TV partner(s)CBS Sports Family (CBS, CBSSN, CBS All Access), Fox Sports Family (Fox, FS1, FS2), Stadium, ATTSN
2021 NFL Draft
Top draft pickCB Darren Hall, San Diego State
Picked byAtlanta Falcons, 108th overall
Regular season
Season championsSan Jose State
  Runners-upBoise State
Championship Game
ChampionsSan Jose State
Seasons
← 2019
2021 →
2020 Mountain West Conference football standings
Conf Overall
Team   W   L     W   L  
No. 24 San Jose State y$   7 – 0     7 – 1  
Boise State y   5 – 0     5 – 2  
Nevada   6 – 2     7 – 2  
San Diego State   4 – 2     4 – 4  
Hawaii   4 – 4     5 – 4  
Fresno State   3 – 3     3 – 3  
Air Force   2 – 2     3 – 3  
Wyoming   2 – 4     2 – 4  
New Mexico   2 – 5     2 – 5  
Colorado State   1 – 3     1 – 3  
Utah State   1 – 5     1 – 5  
UNLV   0 – 6     0 – 6  
Championship: San Jose State 34, Boise State 20
  • $ – Conference champion
  • y – Championship game participant
  • Note: Due to COVID-19, the Mountain West suspended the season, but later decided to begin play on October 24.[1]
Rankings from AP Poll

The 2020 Mountain West Conference football season, part of that year's NCAA Division I FBS football season, is the 22nd season of college football for the Mountain West Conference (MW). Since 2012, 12 teams have competed in the MW football conference.

On August 10, 2020, the conference suspended all fall sports competitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]

The season was scheduled to begin on September 3, 2020 and end on November 28, 2020. The Mountain West football Conference Championship Game was to be played on December 5, 2020. The entire schedule was released on February 27, 2020.[3]

On September 24, 2020, the conference resumed Football,[4] and is working on resuming other fall sports competitions.[5] The Conference's amended regular-season schedule will begin on Saturday, Oct. 24, with the intent to play eight games. The MW Football Championship Game is slated for Saturday, Dec. 19. The new Mountain West schedule was released October 1.[6]

Previous season[edit]

Main article: 2019 Mountain West Conference football season

In 2019 Boise State won the Mountain Division with perfect a 8–0 Conference record conference record while Hawaii won the West Division with a 5–3 Conference record. Boise State defeated Hawaii 31–10 in the 2019 Mountain West Conference Football Championship Game which was held At Albertson's Stadium in Boise, Idaho

Preseason[edit]

Potential COVID-19 disruption[edit]

On May 12, 2020, California State University system chancellor Timothy White announced that all of its 23 campuses would hold essentially all classes in the 2020 fall term online. This in turn raised serious questions whether its member campuses—three of which (Fresno State, San Diego State, and San Jose State) are MW members—would be able to field teams in fall sports, including football, in light of statements by NCAA president Mark Emmert made on that organization's Twitter account on May 8:[7]

All of the [conference] commissioners and every [school] president that I've talked to is in clear agreement: If you don't have students on campus, you don't have student-athletes on campus. That doesn't mean [the school] has to be up and running in the full normal model, but you have to treat the health and well-being of the athletes at least as much as the regular students. ... If a school doesn't reopen, then they're not going to be playing sports. It's really that simple.

No decision on football at any of the CSU institutions has been made. However, on the same day that the CSU chancellor made his remarks, the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA), an NCAA Division II non-football league whose members are all CSU campuses, publicly announced that it had canceled its 2020 fall sports season.[7][a]

Mountain West Media[edit]

The Mountain West Media days will be held at the Cosmopolitan July 28 and 29.

Preseason Poll[edit]

The Preseason Poll will be released in August 2020.

Rankings[edit]

Main article: 2020 NCAA Division I FBS football rankings
  Pre Wk
2		 Wk
3		 Wk
4		 Wk
5		 Wk
6		 Wk
7		 Wk
8		 Wk
9		 Wk
10		 Wk
11		 Wk
12		 Wk
13		 Wk
14		 Wk
15		 Wk
16		 Final
Air Force AP RV RV RV RV RV
C RV RV RV RV RV
CFP Not released
Boise State AP RV 25 21 RV RV RV RV RV RV
C RV RV RV RV RV 23 RV RV RV RV RV RV RV
CFP Not released
Colorado State AP
C
CFP Not released
Fresno State AP
C
CFP Not released
Hawaii AP
C
CFP Not released
Nevada AP RV RV RV RV
C RV RV RV RV RV RV RV RV
CFP Not released
New Mexico AP
C
CFP Not released
San Diego State AP RV RV
C RV
CFP Not released
San Jose State AP RV RV RV RV 25 19
C RV RV RV RV RV 25 20
CFP Not released 24 22
UNLV AP
C
CFP Not released
Utah State AP
C
CFP Not released
Wyoming AP
C
CFP Not released
Legend
    Improvement in ranking
  Drop in ranking
  Not ranked previous week
  No change in ranking from previous week
RV Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll
т Tied with team above or below also with this symbol

Coaches[edit]

Coaching changes[edit]

There were six coaching changes for Mountain West football programs for the 2020 season. New Mexico head coach Bob Davie resigned on November 25 and was replaced by Arizona State defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales on December 17. Later that same day UNLV head coach Tony Sanchez also resigned and he was replaced by Oregon offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo On December 11. Colorado State's Mike Bobo resigned on December 4 and was replaced by former Boston College head coach Steve Addazio. Fresno State head coach Jeff Tedford resigned on December 5 and was replaced on December 17 by Indiana offensive coordinator and former Fresno State assistant Kalen DeBoer. On January 8, San Diego State head coach Rocky Long announced his retirement from coaching and was replaced that same day by Aztecs defensive line coach and former head coach Brady Hoke. The final coaching change took place on January 14, when Hawaii head coach Nick Rolovich resigned to accept the head coaching position at Washington State and was replaced by ex-Arizona State head coach Todd Graham On January 21.

Head coaches[edit]

Team Head coach Years At School Overall record Record at school MW record
Air Force Troy Calhoun 14 98–69 98–69 59–45
Boise State Bryan Harsin 7 69–22 61–15 40–8
Colorado State Steve Addazio 1 57–55 0–0 0–0
Fresno State Kalen DeBoer 1 0–0 0–0 0–0
Hawaii Todd Graham 1 95–61 0–0 0–0
Nevada Jay Norvell 4 15–21 15–21 12–12
New Mexico Danny Gonzales 1 0–0 0–0 0–0
San Diego State Brady Hoke 3 78–72 13–13 7–9
San Jose State Brent Brennan 4 8–29 8–29 4–21
UNLV Marcus Arroyo 1 0–0 0–0 0–0
Utah State Gary Andersen 6 63–67 38–31 41–25
Wyoming Craig Bohl 7 140–72 36–39 23–25

Schedule[edit]

The season began on October 3, 2020 and will end on December 19, 2020.

Regular season[edit]

Index to colors and formatting
Mountain West Member won
Mountain West Member lost
Mountain West teams in bold

Week One[edit]

Date Time Visiting team Home team Site TV Result Attendance
October 3 4:00 p.m. Navy Air Force Falcon Stadium • Colorado Springs, CO (Commander-in-Chief's Trophy) CBSSN W 40–7   5,000
#Rankings from AP Poll released prior to game. All times are in Mountain Time.

Week Two[edit]

Date Time Visiting team Home team Site TV Result Attendance
October 24 5:00 p.m. Utah State Boise State Albertsons Stadium • Boise, ID FS1  BSU 42–13   0
October 24 5:00 p.m. Wyoming Nevada Mackay Stadium • Revo, NV CBSSN  NEV 37–34 OT  250
October 24 5:30 p.m. Hawaii Fresno State Bulldog Stadium • Fresno, CA (rivalry) KSEE/Spectrum OC16  HAW 34–19   0
October 24 7:00 p.m. New Mexico Colorado State Canvas Stadium • Fort Collins, CO FS2  cancelled   n/a
October 24 8:30 p.m. UNLV San Diego State Dignity Health Sports Park • Carson, CA CBSSN  SDSU 34–6   0
October 24 8:30 p.m. Air Force San Jose State CEFCU Stadium • San Jose, CA FS1  SJSU 17–6   0
#Rankings from AP Poll released prior to game. All times are in Mountain Time.

Week Three[edit]

Date Time Visiting team Home team Site TV Result Attendance
October 29 8:00 p.m. Colorado State Fresno State Bulldog Stadium • Fresno, CA CBSSN  FRES 38–17   0
October 30 7:45 p.m. Hawaii Wyoming War Memorial Stadium • Laramie, WY FS1  WYO 31–7   6,232
October 31 4:00 p.m. No. 25 Boise State Air Force Falcon Stadium • Colorado Springs, CO CBSSN  BSU 49–30   500
October 31 5:00 p.m. New Mexico San Jose State CEFCU Stadium • San Jose, CA FS1  SJSU 38–21   0
October 31 7:30 p.m. San Diego State Utah State Maverik Stadium • Logan, UT CBSSN  SDSU 38–7   5,116
October 31 8:30 p.m. Nevada UNLV Allegiant Stadium • Las Vegas, NV (Fremont Cannon) FS1  NEV 37–19   2,000
#Rankings from AP Poll released prior to game. All times are in Mountain Time.

Week Four[edit]

Date Time Visiting team Home team Site TV Result Attendance
November 5 5:00 p.m. Utah State Nevada Mackay Stadium • Reno, NV FS1  NEV 34–9   250
November 5 7:00 p.m. Wyoming Colorado State Canvas Stadium • Fort Collins, CO (Border War) CBSSN  CSU 34–24   0
November 6 7:00 p.m. San Jose State San Diego State Dignity Health Sports Park • Carson, CA CBSSN  SJSU 28–17   0
November 6 7:45 p.m. No. 9 BYU No. 21 Boise State Albertsons Stadium • Boise, ID FS1 L 17–51   1,100
November 7 9:30 a.m. Air Force Army Mitchie Stadium • West Point, NY (Commander-in-Chief's Trophy) CBS  postponed   n/a
November 7 1:30 p.m. Fresno State UNLV Allegiant Stadium • Las Vegas, NV CBSSN  FRES 40–27   2,000
November 7 9:00 p.m. New Mexico Hawaii Aloha Stadium • Honolulu, HI Spectrum OC16  HAW 39–33   0
#Rankings from AP Poll released prior to game. All times are in Mountain Time.

Week Five[edit]

Date Time Visiting team Home team Site TV Result Attendance
November 12 6:00 p.m. Colorado State Boise State Albertsons Stadium • Boise, ID FS1  BSU 52–21   1,100
November 14 12:30 p.m. Fresno State Utah State Maverik Stadium • Logan, UT FS2  FRES 35–16   0
November 14 2:00 p.m. Hawaii San Diego State Dignity Health Sports Park • Carson, CA Spectrum OC16  SDSU 34–10   0
November 14 4:30 p.m. Nevada New Mexico Sam Boyd Stadium • Whitney, NV FS2  NEV 27–20   250
November 14 8:00 p.m. Air Force Wyoming War Memorial Stadium • Laramie, WY CBSSN  cancelled   n/a
November 14 8:30 p.m. UNLV San Jose State CEFCU Stadium • San Jose, CA FS2  SJSU 34–17   0
#Rankings from AP Poll released prior to game. All times are in Mountain Time.

Week Six[edit]

Date Time Visiting team Home team Site TV Result Attendance
November 19 7:00 p.m. Utah State Wyoming War Memorial Stadium • Laramie, WY (Bridger's Battle) CBSSN  cancelled   n/a
November 20 7:30 p.m. New Mexico Air Force Falcon Stadium • Colorado Springs, CO FS1  AF 28–0   100
November 21 1:30 p.m. San Diego State Nevada Mackay Stadium • Reno, NV CBS  NEV 26–21   50
November 21 3:30 p.m. UNLV Colorado State Canvas Stadium • Fort Collins, CO FS2  cancelled   n/a
November 21 5:00 p.m. San Jose State Fresno State Bulldog Stadium • Fresno, CA (Valley Trophy) CBSSN  cancelled   n/a
November 21 9:00 p.m. Boise State Hawaii Aloha Stadium • Honolulu, HI CBSSN  BSU 40–32   0
#Rankings from AP Poll released prior to game. All times are in Mountain Time.

Week Seven[edit]

Date Time Visiting team Home team Site TV Result Attendance
November 26 12:00 p.m. Colorado State Air Force Falcon Stadium • Colorado Springs, CO (Ram-Falcon Trophy) CBSSN  cancelled   n/a
November 26 5:00 p.m. New Mexico Utah State Maverik Stadium • Logan, UT FS1  USU 41–27   198
November 27 2:00 p.m. Wyoming UNLV Allegiant Stadium • Las Vegas, NV FS1  WYO 45–14   0
November 27 7:00 p.m. San Diego State Fresno State Bulldog Stadium • Fresno, CA (Battle for the Oil Can) FS1  cancelled   n/a
November 28 2:00 p.m. San Jose State Boise State Albertsons Stadium • Boise, ID FOX  cancelled   n/a
November 28 3:37 p.m. San Diego State Colorado Folsom Field • Boulder, CO PAC-12 L 10–20   0
November 28 9:00 p.m. Nevada Hawaii Aloha Stadium • Honolulu, HI Spectrum OC16  HAW 24–21   0
#Rankings from AP Poll released prior to game. All times are in Mountain Time.

Week Eight[edit]

Date Time Visiting team Home team Site TV Result Attendance
December 3 7:30 p.m. Air Force Utah State Maverik Stadium • Logan, UT CBSSN  AF 35–7   3,025
December 4 7:30 p.m. Boise State UNLV Allegiant Stadium • Las Vegas, NV CBSSN  cancelled   n/a
December 5 4:00 p.m. San Jose State Hawaii Aloha Stadium • Honolulu, HI Spectrum OC16  SJSU 35–24   0
December 5 5:00 p.m. Colorado State San Diego State Dignity Health Sports Park • Carson, CA CBSSN  SDSU 29–17   0
December 5 8:30 p.m. Fresno State Nevada Mackay Stadium • Reno, NV FS1  NEV 37–26   0
December 5 8:30 p.m. Wyoming New Mexico Sam Boyd Stadium • Whitney, NV CBSSN  UNM 17–16   0
#Rankings from AP Poll released prior to game. All times are in Mountain Time.

Week Nine[edit]

Date Time Visiting team Home team Site TV Result Attendance
December 11 8:00 p.m. Nevada San Jose State Sam Boyd Stadium • Whitney, NV CBSSN  SJSU 30–20   0
December 12 4:00 p.m. Boise State Wyoming War Memorial Stadium • Laramie, WY CBSSN  BSU 17–9   2,978
December 12 7:30 p.m. Utah State Colorado State Canvas Stadium • Fort Collins, CO CBSSN  cancelled   n/a
December 12 8:00 p.m. San Diego State No. 14 BYU LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT ESPN2 L 14–28   1,099
December 12 8:30 p.m. Fresno State New Mexico Sam Boyd Stadium • Whitney, NV FS1  UNM 49–39   0
December 12 9:00 p.m. UNLV Hawaii Aloha Stadium • Honolulu, HI Spectrum OC16  HAW 38–21   0
#Rankings from AP Poll released prior to game. All times are in Mountain Time.

Week Ten[edit]

Date Time Visiting team Home team Site TV Result Attendance
December 19 1:00 p.m. Air Force Army Michie Stadium • West Point, NY (Commander-in-Chief's Trophy) CBSSN L 7–10    
#Rankings from AP Poll released prior to game. All times are in Mountain Time.

Championship Game[edit]

See also: 2020 Mountain West Conference Football Championship Game
Date Time Visiting team Home team Site TV Result Attendance
December 19 2:15 p.m. Boise State No. 25 San Jose State Sam Boyd Stadium • Whitney, NV FOX  SJSU 34–20   0
#Rankings from AP Poll released prior to game. All times are in Mountain Time.

Canceled regular season games[edit]

The following non-conference games were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic:

Aug. 29

Sep. 3

  • Washington State at Utah State

Sept. 5

Sept. 12

Sept. 19

Sep. 26

Oct. 2

  • Utah State at BYU

Oct. 3

  • UMass at New Mexico

Oct. 10

Oct. 17

  • New Mexico State at Fresno State

Nov. 14

  • UConn at San Jose State

Postseason[edit]

Bowl Games[edit]

See also: 2020–21 NCAA football bowl games
Legend
  Mountain West win
  Mountain West loss
Bowl game Date Site Television Time (MST) Mountain West team Opponent Score Attendance
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl December 22 Albertsons Stadium • Boise, ID ESPN 1:30 p.m. Nevada Tulane W 38–27 0
New Mexico Bowl December 24 Toyota Stadium • Frisco, TX ESPN 1:30 p.m. Hawaii Houston W 28–14 2,060
Arizona Bowl December 31 Arizona Stadium • Tucson, AZ CBS 12:00 p.m. San Jose State Ball State L 13–34 0

Rankings are from AP rankings. All times Mountain Time Zone. Mountain West teams shown in bold.

Awards and honors[edit]

Player of the week Honors[edit]

Week Offensive Defensive Special Teams
Player Team Position Player Team Position Player Team Position
Week 1 (October 26) Carson Strong Nevada QB Caden McDonald San Diego State LB John Hoyland Wyoming K
Week 2 (November 2) Nick Starkel San Jose State QB Charles Hicks Wyoming LB Avery Williams Boise State KR
Week 3 (November 9) Ronnie Rivers Fresno State RB Tre Jenkins San Jose State S Brandon Talton Nevada K
Week 4 (November 16) Jalen Cropper Fresno State WR Cade Hall San Jose State DL Avery Williams Boise State KR
Week 5 (November 23) Brad Roberts Air Force FB Dom Peterson Nevada DT Julian Diaz Nevada P
Week 6 (November 30) Andrew Peasley Utah State QB Nick Heninger Utah State LB Connor Coles Utah State K
Week 7 (December 7) Carson Strong Nevada QB Brandon Shook New Mexico LB Jordan Byrd San Diego State KR
Week 8 (December 14) Isaiah Chavez New Mexico QB Darius Muasau Hawaii LB Shamar Garrett San Jose State KR

Mountain West Individual Awards[edit]

The following individuals received postseason honors as voted by the Mountain West Conference football coaches at the end of the season

Award Player School
Offensive Player of the Year Carson Strong, QB Nevada
Defensive Player of the Year Cade Hall Jr., DL San Jose State
Special Teams Player of the Year Avery Williams, Ret. Boise State
Freshman of the Year Kyle Williams, WR UNLV
Coach of the Year Brent Brennan San Jose State

All-conference teams[edit]

Ref:[9]

All-Americans[edit]

For the complete All-America selections, see 2020 College Football All-America Team.

The 2020 College Football All-America Teams are composed of the following College Football All-American first teams chosen by the following selector organizations: Associated Press (AP), Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), Walter Camp Foundation (WCFF), The Sporting News (TSN), Sports Illustrated (SI), USA Today (USAT) ESPN, CBS Sports (CBS), FOX Sports (FOX) College Football News (CFN), Bleacher Report (BR), Scout.com, Phil Steele (PS), SB Nation (SB), Athlon Sports, Pro Football Focus (PFF) and Yahoo! Sports (Yahoo!).

Currently, the NCAA compiles consensus all-America teams in the sports of Division I-FBS football and Division I men's basketball using a point system computed from All-America teams named by coaches associations or media sources. The system consists of three points for a first-team honor, two points for second-team honor, and one point for third-team honor. Honorable mention and fourth team or lower recognitions are not accorded any points. Football consensus teams are compiled by position and the player accumulating the most points at each position is named first team consensus all-American. Currently, the NCAA recognizes All-Americans selected by the AP, AFCA, FWAA, TSN, and the WCFF to determine Consensus and Unanimous All-Americans. Any player named to the First Team by all five of the NCAA-recognized selectors is deemed a Unanimous All-American.

Position Player School Selector Unanimous Consensus
First Team All-Americans
DL Cade Hall San Jose State TSN
AP/RS Avery Williams Boise State AFCA, FWAA, TSN, USAT *
Position Player School Selector Unanimous Consensus
Second Team All-Americans
DL Cade Hall San Jose State USAT
RS Avery Williams Boise State CBS
Position Player School Selector Unanimous Consensus
Third Team All-Americans
AP Avery Williams Boise State AP

Home game attendance[edit]

TBA

NFL Draft[edit]

The following list includes all Mountain West players who were drafted in the 2021 NFL Draft.

Player Position School Draft
Round 		Round
Pick 		Overall
Pick 		Team
Darren Hall CB San Diego State 4 3 108 Atlanta Falcons
John Bates TE Boise State 4 19 124 Washington Football Team
Avery Williams CB Boise State 5 39 183 Atlanta Falcons

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ^ While the cited story states that the CCAA has 13 schools, only 12 will be members in the 2020–21 school year. The only CCAA member in 2019–20 that was not a CSU campus, UC San Diego, joins the Division I Big West Conference on July 1, 2020.[8]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "WE'RE BACK". twitter.com/MountainWest. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  2. ^ "Mountain West Postpones 2020 Fall Sports". TheMW.com. August 10, 2020. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  3. ^ "Mountain West Conference Announces 2020 Football Schedule". TheMW.com. February 27, 2020. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  4. ^ "2020 Mountain West Football Season to Begin on October 24". theMW.com. Mountain West Conference. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
  5. ^ "Commissioner Thompson Statement on Fall Sports". theMW.com. Mountain West Conference. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
  6. ^ "Mountain West Announces 2020 Football Schedule". theMW.com. Mountain West.
  7. ^ a b Bonagura, Kyle (May 12, 2020). "California State University system to stay online, leaving fall sports up in air". ESPN.com. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  8. ^ "CSU Bakersfield, UC San Diego to Join Big West Conference" (Press release). Big West Conference. November 27, 2017. Retrieved December 11, 2017.
  9. ^ "Mountain West Announces 2020 Football All-Conference Teams and Individual Honors". themw.com. Mountain West Conference. December 15, 2020. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
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