College Football 2024 Preview: Mountain West
Photo from The Fresno Bee
Let’s start this preview giving a quick shout out to the Mountain West and their ability to adjust on the fly and create a scheduling agreement with Washington State and Oregon State after the two schools were abandoned by the PAC 12 schools.
Maybe Wazzu and Oregon State will end up in the Mountain West in the future, and that’d be pretty fun, but it’s nice that they were able to accommodate quickly and give those athletes a full season.
And now, it’s time to discuss those who are in the conference, and therefore have a chance to win.
Tier 1: Championship Contenders
Boise State Broncos
Last year was a down year for Boise State.
The Broncos struggled, fired head coach Andy Avalos, and then went on to win the Mountain West Championship anyway.
Boise State has the most championships in in the Mountain West, and they’ve only been a member since 2011.
This team will always contend for the title. No matter what.
Fresno State Bulldogs
Fresno State was going to be in this tier, but then Jeff Tedford announced he was stepping down and retiring due to health issues.
That gave me pause, but then reporters stated that this was not at all a surprise inside of Fresno State, and they were aware this was a strong possibility.
That made me feel a bit better.
It doesn’t mean interim coach Tim Skipper will work out and get the Bulldogs a title, but the fact that Fresno has been planning for this possibility, while retaining a good overall roster, means that they are definitely in contention.
Tier 2: Dark Horses
UNLV Rebels
UNLV was a program that was dead in the water, and then Barry Odom showed up and they somehow won 9 games and made the conference championship.
Which is a remarkable turnaround.
But quarterback Jayden Maiava is now at USC, and it’ll be up to Odom to see if last year was the exception, or the expectation going forward.
But hey, even a bowl game is good progress considering what they were before Odom.
Tier 3: Bowl Game Bound
Wyoming Cowboys
Wyoming won 9 games last year and came very close to making the conference title game, but just barely missed out.
In an ideal world, the Cowboys build off of that and contend once again.
But unfortunately, head coach Craig Bohl, who was the most successful coach Wyoming has had in a long time, decided it was time to retire.
In steps first year head coach Jay Sawvel, who was Wyoming’s defensive coordinator so he knows the program, but being a good coordinator does not necessarily equal good head coach.
Regardless, Wyoming has enough talent here to win six.
Air Force Falcons
Air Force was 8-0 last year before completely falling apart in the back half of the season.
They lost pretty much all of that talent into this season, and they’re also a service academy. So it’s naturally harder.
But head coach Troy Calhoun has gotten the Falcons to a bowl game in 13 of his 17 seasons.
Why expect anything less this year?
Tier 4: Bowl Game Possible
San Diego State Aztecs
Sean Lewis takes over at San Diego State after a, let’s say “unconventional” year as Colorado’s offensive coordinator.
There is proof of concept with Lewis as a head coach however, doing a great job with Kent State which is a tough job.
It’s a huge amount of talent turnover, and there’s loads of question marks in San Diego.
A bowl may be asking too much from Sean Lewis in year one.
But it’s not impossible!
Colorado State Rams
This is year number 3 for Jay Norvell at Colorado State, and this was a job that needed a lot of turnover from when he got there.
They have slowly but surely gotten better, and this may just be the year it all comes together.
It may also be the year that they miss out again and we start to ask questions about Norvell.
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors
Timmy Chang might be my favorite coach in college football.
He took over a hard job that was in the midst of an absolute disaster left by previous coach Todd Graham, and won 5 games last season!
They’ve continued to improve in his two seasons there, so it’s very possible Hawaii improves again and finds their way to 6 wins.
Tier 5: I’d Be Baffled
Utah State Aggies
Utah State had a ton of roster turnover, and now has an interim head coach after Blake Anderson was fired for cause (we still don’t know what for).
I don’t like messy offseasons.
Especially when they’re this close to the start of the year.
San Jose State
Brent Brennan had a ton of success at San Jose State, but now Brennan has gone to Arizona, and SJSU brings in former Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo.
Niumatalolo did a fine job at Navy before it sort of fell apart at the end, but there’s reason to be excited for his SJSU tenure going forward.
But year one will be a struggle.
Nevada Wolfpack
Nevada for the past two years have been an absolute disaster.
Even in the portal era, it’s going to take more than one offseason for first year head coach Jeff Choate to fix this mess.
New Mexico Lobos
Bronco Mendenhall is back after his brief hiatus from college football after leaving Virginia a few years ago.
Mendenhall did a great job there, and we’ll see about the future of New Mexico.
But the Lobos haven’t had a winning season since 2015.
Mendenhall is a good coach.
He’s not a miracle worker.
Conference Championship Prediction
Boise State’s competition for the title this year is a talented Fresno State team, but with an interim coach, and a well coached UNLV team that is going through lots of roster turnover.
I’ll take the favorites.
Boise State Wins the Mountain West Championship
