Week 0 of the 2026 season is in the books, and we certainly had some interesting results across the board. That fact rings true in the Mountain West as well, where the league went 1-3, featuring two devastating blows to preseason CFP-contending teams. Without further ado, let’s get into the Week 0 slate for the Mountain West Conference.
The Scoop: Please don’t let the final score fool you, San Jose State never had a prayer in this game. Playing in front of hundreds and hundreds of semi-passionate fans, USC was able to do whatever they wanted in the first half, jumping out to a 28-0 lead by halftime and a 35-3 lead entering the fourth quarter. SJSU’s starters finally began to look better against USC’s backups in the fourth quarter, making things look far closer than they actually were.
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Luke Weaver went 21-of-32 for 234 yards and two touchdowns, the vast majority of which came in the aforementioned fourth quarter. Weaver also led the Spartans in rushing yards, going 8-for-42 with a TD on the ground to boot. Perhaps surprisingly, the Spartans held USC’s rushing attack in check for the most part, with a combined 40-for-164 line that wasn’t nearly as impressive as you might expect.
What was more damning for SJSU was how ineffective they were against Jayden Maiava. The USC signal-caller went 25-of-29 for 286 yards and two touchdowns, all within the first three quarters. When Maiava was on the field, the Trojans scored touchdowns on five of their seven drives. Maiava is certainly good, but the lack of resistance he faced from the Spartans is certainly not indicative of success.
The Spartans (0-1, 0-0 MW) will have a little less than a week off before traveling to Ypsilanti, Michigan to face off against the Eastern Michigan Eagles (1-0, 1-0 MAC). Eastern Michigan is coming off of their season-opening win over the Sacramento State Hornets, and will be looking to start a season 2-0 for the first time since 2018. The Spartans, meanwhile, will look to avoid starting their season 0-2 for the second straight year.
The Scoop: Have you ever had a prediction you make blow up in your face catastrophically? Well, that was what happened on Saturday for me, as my predicted upset of the Bison by the Gamecocks turned into a 26-point drubbing by the Bison that never felt close at any point in the second half. What a statement this was by the Bison, they are surely looking like MW contenders right off the bat.
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After being tied 7-7 at the end of the first quarter, NDSU scored 26 unanswered points the rest of the way, holding the Gamecocks’ offense to just 105 total yards after the first frame. Quarterback Nathan Hayes went 14-of-22 for 160 yards, two touchdowns and a pick, but the Bison offense was led by their rushing attack, combining for 209 yards on 44 carries.
NDSU kicker Drew Klien went 4/4 on field goals and 3/3 on extra points, while the Bison defense made up for allowing a touchdown by scoring one of their own on a 48-yard Blake Schiltz fumble recovery that all but put the game away. After the first quarter, the Gamecocks were held to four punts, a turnover on downs, two turnovers and a missed field goal, evidence of the defensive clinic the Bison had just put on.
North Dakota State (1-0, 0-0 MW) will be back in action on Saturday, September 5th, hosting the FCS Fordham Rams at 2:30 p.m. CDT on the new MW+ app. Given how the Bison just performed in their FBS debut, I’d be hard pressed to image the Rams are going to find much success in the Fargodome.
The Scoop: My prediction for this game was that it would be a close game, with Stanford coming out on top at the very end. While it looked like I was very wrong in the middle of the third quarter, Stanford’s decision to punt at the Hawaii 26-yard line while up 23-7 ended up backfiring horrifically. That decision sparked a Warriors 20-0 run that gave Hawaii a 27-23 lead with 4:09 left in the 4th quarter. Hawaii then showed the Cardinal how real teams blow games, first allowing a quick touchdown, then losing the ball on a sack and having Stanford run it all the way back for what would end up being the game-clinching touchdown. Hawaii had more than a few chances to win this game, but instead, their slim CFP hopes may already be dead in the water.
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Hawaii’s run game was stuck in neutral all night long, only gaining 46 yards across 22 carries. That left Micah Alejado to completely carry the offense, resulting in a 30-of-50, 269 yard, 2 TD statline that echoed the days of his coach taking the snaps in Honolulu. Alejado certainly was up to the moment late in this game, leading the Warriors’ offense to 217 of their 322 yards in the fourth quarter alone. Unfortunately, it was also Alejado who coughed up the ball on a QB run on the final drive, allowing Stanford to clinch the game.
Hawaii’s defense did the offense no favors, allowing 483 total yards, four TFLs, and zero sacks of previously ineffective QB Davis Warren, who went 22-of-34 for 310 yards and a TD. The ‘Bows also allowed Cardinal back Micah Ford to look more like a Mack truck, scoring three 2-yard TDs on the night. Honestly, it’s a miracle Hawaii was even in this game at all near the end. I think it’s clear that this offense is going to be excellent, yet mistake-prone this year, while their defense will participate, for sure.
Hawaii (0-1, 0-0 MW) will head back to the islands next week, hosting their rivalry clash with UNLV (0-1, 0-0 MW) on September 5 at 4:00 p.m. HST. UNLV is coming off of a loss to Memphis where they got absolutely nothing going in the second half, so the ‘Bows will certainly be playing a motivated squad.
The Scoop: Finally, we get to the much-anticipated clash of mid-major contenders Memphis and UNLV. The Rebels hopped out to a 14-7 lead at the half, but Memphis’ swarm of a defense terrorised the Rebels’ offensive line throughout the second half, allowing the Tigers to score a massive win on the road. Meanwhile, UNLV has already been all but knocked out of CFP contention as well, meaning that outside of North Dakota State, this week truly could not have gone much worse for the new Mountain West.
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Jackson Arnold went 25-of-37 for 291 yards with two touchdowns, adding 54 yards and a TD on the ground to boot. While all of that sounds fantastic, Arnold only passed for a paltry 88 yards in the second half, showing skittish pocket awareness and rushing throws left and right down the stretch. Part of that was because of the ineffectiveness of the Rebels’ run game, as Jai’den Thomas had just 44 yards rushing on only 12 carries, but the far more prevalent reason was how awful UNLV’s offensive line was against the Tigers’ defensive front.
Memphis feasted on the Rebels in the second half, racking up a whopping 11 tackles for loss and six sacks of Arnold, while forcing UNLV to a putrid 3-of-15 on third down. Things were already bad enough for the Rebels, but the situation became much worse after senior guard Austin Boyd went down with an awkward-looking injury in the fourth quarter. Four of Memphis’ sacks came after that point, and what little composure Arnold had in the second half was eviscerated within the blink of an eye. The Tigers were far from perfect, as their final five drives consisted of two field goals and three punts with a chance to end things quickly, but it really didn’t matter with how lethal their defense was and how poorly the Rebels were playing.
UNLV (0-1, 0-0 MW) will next travel from the Ninth Island to the actual islands, gearing up for a rivalry clash with Hawaii (0-1, 0-0 MW). Hawaii is coming off of a Week 0 loss to Stanford, one where the Warriors rallied late, then underwent their own collapse to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Both prospective CFP contenders have already had their hopes nearly dashed, so the loser of this game will almost certainly be out of the running entirely.
