by This past week, I wrote about Fresno State being arguably the best Group of Five team out there in my underrated teams blog.
Well, I take that back.
Craig Bohl’s Wyoming Cowboys flexed their muscle and continued its home-field supremacy with a 24-19 win over the reigning Mountain West champs on Saturday night. Wyoming scored all of its points in the opening half and rode its defense in the final 30 minutes to earn its first win over a ranked opponent since 2016 (SDSU) and snap Fresno State’s 14-game winning streak dating back to last season.
The Cowboys are now 5-1 on the year and have the strongest resume out of any G5 team out there. Wyoming not only beat the undefeated Bulldogs, but Texas Tech and App State as well. Let’s not forget that they were tied with Texas in the fourth quarter too.
Now, to say that they are the clear-cut top dog of the Group of Five would be a stretch. After all, it’s only Week 6. This is a good football team who knows how to control clock and play physical defense. But there are still a few other G5 teams that control their own destiny and should not be slept on.
Look no further than the reigning Cotton Bowl champs Tulane who play a 4-1 Memphis team this Friday night in what could very well be an AAC title game preview.
Even though Sun Belt favorite and undefeated James Madison is ineligible for postseason action, C-USA darling Liberty is one of just three G5 teams with a flawless 5-0 mark up to this point. The Flames have looked explosive offensively under new head coach Jamey Chadwell and currently rank 11th in the country in total offense.
Then that leaves 5-0 Air Force. In what will be a massive mid-season Mountain West showdown, the Falcons welcome Wyoming to Colorado Springs this Saturday night. While Air Force’s strength of schedule is substantially weaker than Wyoming’s, they boast the top-ranked rushing offense in the country (329.8 YPG) behind that triple-option attack and are currently a whopping 10.5-point favorite.
That should raise some eyebrows for Cowboy fans.
Maybe this whole blog is just one big jinx effect of mine and Wyoming gets beat on the road this weekend like Fresno State did this past Saturday, which is very much possible. Yet, for now it’s difficult to keep the Cowboys out of the Mountain West title and NY6 bid conversation. It’s always cool seeing a team you don’t know much about, other than the fact that Josh Allen went there, emerge on the national level.
Regardless, this should be an electric Group of Five race. It really begins to crack open when Wyoming takes on its military academy rival under the lights on Saturday night.