2023 College Football Predictions: Mountain West
Photo by Mike Kaplan from Released
I can’t think of a clever intro here.
Oh wait, hang on.
Mountain West? More like Mountain BEST!
Ah.
It wasn’t worth it.
Let’s just talk football.
1. Boise State Broncos
Boise State’s offensive struggles can be excused by starting a freshman in Taylor Green.
The more he plays, the better the Broncos will be.
Don’t be surprised when they’re top spot again this year.
2. Air Force Falcons
There’s two crucial things about Air Force.
They play excellent defense.
The option offense is time consuming and hard to stop, no matter who it is.
With so many other changes to the conference, that defensive stability should lead to huge things for Air Force.
3. San Jose State Spartans
I told you.
The Mountain West has a lot of changes.
And San Jose State last year had 3 one score losses.
If that corrects course this year, and they’re moving towards a 10 win season.
4. Fresno State Bulldogs
Losing Jake Haener is going to hurt, and hurt a lot.
Fresno State will still be fine, but the Bulldogs will have to take a step back before they take a step forward.
5. Wyoming Cowboys
Defense reigns at Wyoming, where offense is a little bit difficult to find.
But to be honest, that’s really the entire conference.
And when the whole offense seems to struggle offensively, having one of the better defenses in the conference will be crucial.
6. San Diego State Aztecs
The offense is dull. The defense is fine. The Aztecs spent more time this offseason tucking their tail between their legs coming back to the Mountain West after not getting a PAC-12 deal done (which might have been a blessing in disguise) than talking about actual football.
They’ll be fine, but they won’t be great.
7. Utah State Aggies
Blake Anderson’s first year at Utah State was actually pretty good!
They finished below .500, but it takes time to turn things around.
And I think they’re going to hang around .500 once again this year.
8. UNLV Rebels
UNLV lost their coach Marcus Arroyo after a terrible back half of the season found the Rebels missing a bowl game, and now they need to start another rebuild going forward.
It’s going to take time.
9. Nevada Wolfpack
Nevada lost their coach, most of their players, and went 2-10.
Seems kind of weird I don’t have them finishing lower, right?
10. Colorado State Rams
That’s because they lost their coach and most players to Colorado State, and the Rams were still putrid last season.
If a coach and the players he is used to can’t win more than 3 games, I’m not going to have many high expectations going forward.
11. Hawaii Rainbow Warriors
Considering the absolute horrible culture and turmoil Hawaii had to deal with last year, coach Timmy Chang going 3-10 year one is not terrible!
In fact, they played some of the better teams in their conference very close last year!
But that turmoil is going to take a long time to fix completely, and now Hawaii has significantly more problems in the world than football going on right now, so don’t expect a ton from the Warriors.
Here’s hoping they just stay safe going forward.
12. New Mexico Lobos
Boy, this team is bad.
Real bad.
Mountain West Championship Game: Boise State vs Air Force
Air Force’s option offense will keep this thing closer than those expect, as the option often does, but they can’t compete with this Boise State team.
Boise State wins the Mountain West Championship
