Wyoming coach Dave Christen-sen can’t pull out any more “Welcome to 7,220 feet, how’s your oxygen?” signs to greet No. 2 Texas on Saturday. The rookie coach with the Big 12 pedigree won’t acknowledge any pressure to hold up the Mountain West bragging rights.
If the Cowboys upset the Longhorns, the MWC will go up 3-1 against the Big 12 with two games to go (Wyoming at Colorado and New Mexico at Texas Tech). A year ago, the MWC battered the Pac-10 6-2 while losing to the Big 12 1-3.
“We can’t approach this any different than any game. Who out there gives us a chance to win the game other than the guys in our own room?” Christensen said Tuesday on the MWC conference call. “Crazier things have happened.”
Like just over the weekend when BYU beat No. 3 Oklahoma, which lost Sam Bradford in the second quarter, and the game 14-13. The Cougars jumped to No. 9 in The Associated Press poll Tuesday, and the Sooners dropped to No. 13.
MWC commissioner Craig Thompson talked up a storm in the offseason about the conference champion gaining automatic access to one of the lucrative BCS bowls.
“That’s the message we’ve been trying to deliver for the last seven or eight months,” Thompson said. “We’re performing at a very high level. We’re having some success against automatic qualifying conferences. You can’t make this up. You can’t talk your way into a BCS automatic qualifying position. You have to earn it.”
The MWC’s bottom line for the weekend was going in with three teams in the top 25 and coming out with three in the top 20. The MWC has had success before, but this time the league is taking the first step in back-to-back seasons.
Looking ahead, there aren’t many nonleague top-25 opportunities left besides Oregon State at UNLV and the Texas-Wyoming clash. It didn’t help that two of the high-profile nonconference opponents — Oregon (hosting Utah Sept. 19) and Florida State (at BYU Sept. 19) lost their openers.
Meanwhile, BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall likes Christensen’s “just another game” approach.
“Just because the opportunity was large, stage was large, the exposure was large, it didn’t mean we had to really be anyone different than who we had been and intend to be in the future,” Mendenhall said.
He also said the conference’s coaching level and demands of planning for diverse attacks have raised the bar.
“There might be some people who disagree with that but the results are showing week in, week out with the things you defend and attack in this league,” Mendenhall said. “You are having to do more scheme-wise with a lesser athlete here or there. It really stretches your coaching. That gives us an advantage because sometimes I think staffs rely on sheer athleticism and haven’t gone quite as far as really stretching the scheme.”
Natalie Meisler: 303-954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com
