Football coaches often say if you have two quarterbacks, it means you don’t have any.
The same could apply to running backs in the Mountain West Conference this season. Committees have replaced feature backs and the sum is not greater than the parts.
Except for 2000, the MWC has produced at least one running back among the nation’s top 15 rushers. There were three in the top nine in 2001.
The MWC’s leading rusher this season is Air Force halfback Chad Hall, ranked only 41st nationally at 81.3 yards per game. The league’s two best power rushers are Brigham Young’s Curtis Brown and Fui Vakapuna, but the Cougars (5-2, 3-0) are only 50th nationally in rushing.
No other MWC team can decide on a feature back, or injuries have prevented a decision.
It’s not like quarterbacks are tearing up the league, except for BYU senior John Beck, the leading candidate for MWC offensive player of the year.
BYU and Air Force are the only conference teams putting up traditional numbers on offense. The Cougars rank seventh nationally in total offense (450.6 yards per game) and fifth in passing (303.4) and the Falcons (3-3, 3-1) rank third in rushing (279.7). They meet Saturday.
“I’m not sure we have the quality of tailbacks in this league. It may not be as strong a position as it has in the past,” said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. Pointing to the knee injury of Colorado State’s Kyle Bell and the graduation of New Mexico star DonTrell Moore, Whittingham said, “It could be a case of people more committed to throwing the ball and the tailback not quite as dynamic as in the past.”
CSU coach Sonny Lubick said he thinks all the defenses in the league are improved.
Rough time for reunion
Two years ago, the unbridled celebration at Utah’s Rice- Eccles Stadium over the Utes’ perfect season rivaled the atmosphere at Salt Lake City’s opening and closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Saturday, two of the principals in Utah’s 12-0 season, Whittingham and Nevada-Las Vegas coach Mike Sanford, a former Utes offensive coordinator, are more likely to compare sob stories than reminisce about the good old days when Utah (4-4, 2-2) hosts the Rebels (1-6, 0-3).
“UNLV has had its struggles, as have we,” Whittingham, a former Utes defensive coordinator who was promoted to the top job when Urban Meyer left to coach Florida, said Tuesday.
“I’m more concerned with trying to right the ship that I’m traveling on right now,” Sanford said.
The Utes, picked by some to win the league title, have been both outstanding in a 20-7 victory over defending champion Texas Christian and inept in losses to Boise State, Wyoming and New Mexico.
UNLV has been consistently bad, except for a slight pulse when it took New Mexico into overtime before losing 39-36.
Going bowling
BYU looks like the MWC’s only lock for a bowl game entering November and is the only remaining unbeaten team in league play. The Cougars still have back-to-back trips to Air Force and Colorado State. There’s also the matter of playing archrival Utah, which has owned the series for four years.
While six wins in a 12-game season creates bowl eligibility, MWC commissioner Craig Thompson said of this year’s league scenario, “Seven (wins) is a good mark to shoot for.”
All four MWC bowl sites are tied to member schools, but the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego and the Las Vegas Bowl obviously won’t be taking their struggling home teams.
New Mexico (4-4, 2-2) and TCU (4-2, 0-2) are very much in the running for bowl games in their cities.
Thompson is confident of filling the league’s four bowl slots and will soon begin his annual contacts with bowl games outside MWC contractual arrangements that might not fill slots.
Footnotes
Thompson’s weekly MWC television network update is getting shorter each week. “There’s a lot of dialogue, as usual,” the commissioner said without forecasting a breakthrough with Cox cable or the satellite distributors for The Mtn. availability. … BYU is assured its first home winning season since 2001 and is averaging 2,238 more fans a game than last year at home.
Staff writer Natalie Meisler can be reached at 303-954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com.
