Karl Benson is laughing his okole off right now.
OK, maybe not. He’s a very gracious man. But if the Sun Belt commissioner indulged in a bit of schadenfreude after a weekend of hell for the Mountain West, who could blame him?
When he was commissioner of the WAC, the MWC continually blindsided Benson, swiping schools from his conference three times.
Eventually, he was left with a shell of a conference. By 2013 the WAC wasn’t playing football anymore and Benson had left for the Sun Belt.
Now, the Sun Belt normally isn’t any better than the Mountain West in football, usually worse. But not this past weekend; the Sun Belt teams won six games and lost five. The Mountain West was 1-11 — which is even more horrific when you consider the only victory, by Air Force, came at the expense of fellow conference member San Jose State.
Even that was a disaster of sorts; the Falcons head to a game at No. 4 Michigan State this Saturday without their starting quarterback, Nate Romine, out for probably the season with a knee injury.
In other Mountain mishaps:
» Boise State blew a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter at BYU and lost 35-24. Fledgling quarterback Ryan Finley threw three interceptions, and come Sunday morning the Broncos had lost their spot as the Mountain West’s only team in the Top 25.
» Wyoming fell 49-28 to visiting Eastern Michigan — a program so bad it has had just one winning season in the 19 years since changing its nickname to Eagles. All-time, EMU’s winning percentage of .454 ranks 107th out of 120 FBS schools.
» Fresno State lost at Ole Miss. There’s little shame in that, considering the Rebels were ranked 15th in the nation. But there was plenty to be red-faced about in the score: 73-21.
Take away Colorado State going down 23-20 in OT to Minnesota, and the other 10 MWC teams that lost did so by an average of 25.6 points.
» Five of the defeats were against ranked teams, headlined by Hawaii falling 38-0 at No. 1 Ohio State. UH suffered its second shutout since the winless 1998 season (the other was in 2012 to BYU). But the Rainbows defense performed so well that some fans were only half-joking when they asked if it could play offense, too.
While the D couldn’t have scored fewer points than the offense produced, it’s good to remember quarterback Max Wittek and company won’t have to take on the Buckeyes’ smothering defense every week.
But, while losing at Ohio State was expected, the attack not being farther along wasn’t. After Wittek’s 7-for-24 passing with two interceptions and numerous drops, this team still must find its offensive identity.
In the summer, offensive coordinator Don Bailey stated a lofty goal of 75 total touchdowns and 42 points per game; UH is further behind its schedule than is the rail project.
To meet it, Hawaii must average 6.54 TDs the rest of the way, assuming there’s a bowl game. There won’t be one if the offense doesn’t get it together soon … no matter how good the defense and how bad the Mountain West.
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.
