Weekly Football Release: 12/02

San Diego State at Hawai'i closes out regular-season.

Football Home HEADLINES Mountain West Conference Reprimands BYU Assistant Football Coach and Student-Athlete BYU's Dennis Pitta Named John Mackey Award Finalist Mountain West Conference Names Football Players of the Week RELATED LINKS • Follow all of the college football action at CollegeSports.com • Email this to a friend

Dec. 2, 2002

Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Colorado State clinched the 2002 Mountain West Conference title, its third and second outright. The Rams will represent the MWC in the 44th AXA Liberty Bowl in Memphis, TN, on December 31st, where they will face Conference USA co-champions TCU.

With the second pick of the MWC, the Sega Sports Las Vegas Bowl chose second-place finisher New Mexico. The 7-6 Lobos will be making their second appearance in the post-season since 1961 and face the No. 5 choice out of the Pac-10 on Christmas Day.

The 8-4 Air Force Falcons will face the fifth choice from the Big East on December 31st in the inaugural Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

DonTrell Moore (New Mexico), Larry Croom (UNLV), Billy Strother (New Mexico) and Dillon Pieffer (UNLV) were named Mountain West Conference Players of the Week following last weekend's action. Moore and Croom share Offensive Player of the Week, Strother takes Defensive honors and Pieffer receives Special Teams recognition. Strother is honored for the second time this season and of his career. Moore, Croom and Pieffer are recognized for the first time.

DonTrell Moore, New Mexico, RB, Freshman - Offensive Player of the Week
Redshirt freshman DonTrell Moore rushed 28 times for 176 yards and tied a school record by scoring five touchdowns in New Mexico's win over Wyoming. Moore scored on runs of 1, 7 and 35 yards, and caught 9- and 12-yard scoring passes from Casey Kelly. Moore set a UNM freshman single-season rushing record with 1,117 yards, which also ranks third all-time at New Mexico. He became the first Lobo in six years to surpass 1,000 yards. With the win, UNM secured its second bowl appearance in 41 years.

Larry Croom, UNLV, RB, Junior - Offensive Player of the Week
Behind the 222-yard effort of Larry Croom, UNLV knocked off its first ranked opponent since 1981 with its season-ending victory over No. 13 Colorado State. Croom averaged 11.1 yards on 20 carries and scored a touchdown. Croom took over in the second half, totaling 146 yards after the break. His performance ranks eighth on the UNLV single-game rushing list.

Billy Strother, New Mexico, LB, Junior - Defensive Player of the Week
With New Mexico needing a win in its final game to become bowl eligible, junior linebacker Billy Strother finished with a career-high 12 tackles in leading UNM to victory. Strother recorded three of the Lobo's record nine sacks in the game for minus 18 yards.

Dillon Pieffer, UNLV, PK, Junior - MWC Special Teams Player of the Week
Dillon Pieffer returned to his home state and scored six points and tied a 14-year-old school record in UNLV's upset of Colorado State. Pieffer converted on three PATs and a 23-yard field goal. He ran his consecutive PAT streak to a school-record tying 45 straight, before having his final attempt blocked. Pieffer entered the game as the only kicker in the MWC to have made every PAT attempt this season.

WEEK FIFTEEN RECAP

Mountain West Conference league play came to a close with a pair of games. DonTrell Moore ran for 176 yards and three touchdowns and caught two passes for scores to lead New Mexico past Wyoming 49-20, making the Lobos bowl-eligible for the second time in 41 years. The loss ended Wyoming coach's Vic Koenning's tenure in Laramie after three seasons. Moore finished the regular season with 1,117 yards rushing, becoming the first UNM back in six years to top the 1,000 mark. He scored on runs of 1, 7 and 35 yards and caught TD passes of 9 and 12 yards from Casey Kelly. The Lobo defense tied a school record by sacking Cowboy quarterback Casey Bramlet nine times. UNM also had three interceptions. Larry Croom ran for 222 yards and a touchdown, and DeJhown Mandley caught a 29-yard touchdown pass with 46 seconds left as UNLV beat Colorado State 36-33. Croom had 146 yards in the second half and scored on a 3-yard run in the first. The Rebels had 390 yards rushing to beat CSU for the first time since 1982, a span of seven games. Colorado State's Cecil Sapp, who has been bothered by turf toe the last two weeks, had 157 yards on 31 carries and with 1,495 yards, broke Steve Bartalo's single-season rushing record set in 1986.

ALL-CONFERENCE

The 2002 Mountain West All-Conference Football Team will be announced Tuesday, December 10. Again this season, the team will be selected by the eight head coaches and a pool of league media members.

PARITY

Of the 28 conference games played in 2002, 16 were decided by eight points or less, with three determined in overtime. To date, 50 of the 112 conference games played in the history of the Mountain West have been decided by eight points or less. In the league's first three years, the home team was 42-42 in conference games, and went 16-12 in '02.

SINGLE-SEASON RECORD BOOK

San Diego State wide out J.R. Tolver will be leaving his name on the MWC single-season record book. Tolver has set a single-season receiving record with 1,502 yards and counting. With 110 receptions he also has established a new single-season mark. His 11 touchdown receptions is also a record. SDSU quarterback Adam Hall ranks second in pass completions with 272 (277 - Kevin Feterik, BYU, 1999) and is tied for the most attempts (452) with Kevin Feterik (BYU, 1999). Aztec receiver Kassim Osgood currently ranks second in receiving yards with 1,426.

NCAA RECORDS

Air Force quarterback Chance Harridge added his name to the NCAA record book with his 22nd rushing touchdown of the season, breaking the mark of 20 set by Navy's Chris McCoy in 1997. The San Diego State receiving tandem of J.R. Tolver and Kassim Osgood combined for two NCAA records. The duo presently have 213 catches this season, one more than the NCAA record for teammates. Nevada's Damond Wilkins and Geoff Noisy (1996) and Tulsa's Howard Twilley and Neal Sweeney (1965) shared the previous record. Tolver and Osgood also have 2,928 yards, eclipsing the record of 2,774 set by Nevada's Trevor Insley and Cleavon Brooks in 1999.

MWC IN THE RANKINGS

Colorado State again is ranked in this week's Top 25. The Rams are ranked for the tenth time this season, checking into both polls at No. 21 in the coaches poll and 24th in the AP. The Mountain West has had three of its teams ranked this season (Air Force, Colorado State and BYU), with a team appearing in 14 of the 16 poll weeks.

HOME SWEET HOME

Its been the tale of two cities for Mountain West teams in non-conference games. MWC teams have gone 11-6 (.647 win percentage) at home, while going 6-16 (.272 win percentage) on the road and 1-1 in neutral site games.

WHEN RANKED

All-time, teams from the Mountain West Conference are 8-10 when ranked in non-conference games. CSU has posted a 4-4 mark, BYU has gone 3-5 and Air Force is 1-1 in non-conference tilts when ranked.

NON-CONFERENCE TILTS

Through three-plus seasons, the Mountain West Conference has posted a 79-73 all-time non-conference record. With one non-conference games remaining on the 2002 schedule, the MWC has gone 18-23 against teams from other leagues thus far.

OVERTIME

There have been four overtime games this season in the Mountain West, with three of them involving New Mexico, including the first conference game to be decided in OT.

MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE WEEKLY RADIO SHOW

For the third consecutive year, the Mountain West Conference will produce and distribute "This Week in the Mountain West," a 30-minute radio show highlighting MWC football. The weekly show will feature interviews with coaches, student-athletes and special guests, with an emphasis on football, while providing timely updates on other sport news from around the MWC.