Michael Smith / Associated Press
Wyoming quarterback Cameron Coffman, right, throws a pass over Nevada defender Lenny Jones during the third quarter of Saturday’s game.
Friday, Oct. 30, 2015 | 12:30 p.m.
The Rebel Room
Halloween Madness
Las Vegas Sports Editor Ray Brewer describes his trip down to Runnin' Rebel Madness and sports writers Case Keefer and Taylor Bern chime in with their thoughts on dunking phenom Derrick Jones Jr.'s role this season and how UNLV football will respond after the bye week at home for a Halloween date with Boise State.
More Coverage
This is the time great teams make a championship push. That’s true on the field and it’s true in the newspaper picks column game, a race I’m currently losing to Chris Murray of the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Murray and I are using slightly different odds, so an earlier win for him was a push for me, and entering this week, I trail by 1.5 games. There is no stated challenge between us, and I’ve always viewed it as a competition against a number — I want to hit 60 percent — but since there’s another writer out there doing basically the same thing, this is a made-up challenge that I don’t intend to lose.
We’re going to shake off the last two weeks and finish strong, both in pursuit of that number and to take down that writer up north:
Note: UNLV picks will appear in the live blog on the day of the game.
FRIDAY
Wyoming (plus-26.5) at Utah State
7:15 p.m., ESPN2
• Wyoming (1-7, 1-3) has covered in four straight games, and for the year, the Cowboys are 4-0 ATS when they’re getting at least 23.5 points. I’m done spitting into the trend, even though senior quarterback Cameron Coffman (pictured above) isn't expected to play against Utah State (4-3, 3-1).
Pick: Wyoming — Loss
SATURDAY
San Diego State (minus-3.5) at Colorado State
12:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network
• Colorado State (3-4, 1-2) actually has very similar numbers to San Diego State (5-3, 4-0), with a couple of notable exceptions. The first is that the Aztecs’ offense gets it done on the ground while the Rams have one of the conference’s best passing attacks, but the more important is that Colorado State has one of the country’s worst turnover margins (-1.43) while SDSU has one of its best (1). I like the team that protects the ball to go get a fifth-straight win against CSU.
Pick: San Diego State — Win
Weekly Mountain West Picks
Air Force (minus-6.5) at Hawaii
7:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network
• The Falcons (4-3, 3-1) haven’t played at Hawaii (2-6, 0-4) since 2001, so there are no recent examples to gauge how they might handle the trip. I think Air Force will handle this league’s bottom feeders, so I’m going with their side despite the general desire to back the Rainbow Warriors at home.
Pick: Air Force — Win
Last week: 2-3
Season: 30-25-1
2014 record: 49-37
Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.
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