Mountain West Wire

Jeremy and Matt are back to preview the 2022 UNLV football season. Head coach Marcus Arroyo is heading into his third year on the job and looking to improve off of his two-win season. The Rebels have two new coordinators, a quarterback battle, they need to replace their best running back ever and lost two key defenders this past year. UNLV has some hope if they can be healthy under center plus they have the potential to have a pretty good receiving group surrounding Kyle Williams. The offensive line is full of transfers but the overall biggest concern is the defense and if they can be better than one of the worst 15 units in all of college football. They were close last year in games with six losses by one score. Get a few of those back and this team should be able to double its two wins from last year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt are back to preview the upcoming Boise State football season. The Broncos had a down year in 2021 with a 7-5 record. This 2022 season, the Broncos look to bounce back and compete for a division and conference title. The big questions are if the offensive line can be cohesive, running back health and who will step up at wide receiver to replace those who moved on. Also, this Broncos staff had a lot of turnover and that is something to watch as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt are back to recap Mountain West football media days. Not a ton of news happened with very few announcements. Commissioner Craig Thompson had a few interesting nuggets about a fee if teams leave the Mountain West. He feels confident about the conference staying together and also mentioned that there are schools that have reached out to the Mountain West. Also, the two discuss the weirdness that is the Mountain West voting process for the preseason awards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt are back to preview the 2022 Nevada Wolf Pack season. This year for the Wolf Pack will be an interesting one with a new head coach in Ken Wilson and their former head coach Jay Norvell leaving for a job within the conference. There were a lot of transfers so there will be a bunch of new faces on this Wolf Pack team. That includes a new quarterback, a brand new wide receiver room, and an offensive line. This will be a long year but there is hope with a solid running back and secondary group. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt are back to preview the 2022 San Diego State football season. The Aztecs are back from a 12-2 West Division championship team and looking to win the title this year. They do have some replacements to fill with a new quarterback, new running back, a pair of NFL offensive linemen, and a handful of defenders to step in. Based on history and recruiting, the Aztecs should be fine and odds are not really losing a step. It may take a moment for them to gather their footing with Virginia Tech QB transfer Braxton Burmeister taking over, a new-ish offensive line and Chace Bell being RB1. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt have an emergency podcast to discuss how the massive news about USC and UCLA packing up their bags and going to the Big Ten for the 2024 season. This clearly makes the Pac-12 lesser of a league with the biggest brand of USC leaving town and a big market team in UCLA. The Mountain West has options and it might be best to just stand pat and not be extremely aggressive. If the conference is going to add teams, it likely would come from Pac-12 and/or Big 12 leftovers. Those two leagues are likely to be fighting it out for survival, so the Mountain West could see what is left over, or perhaps just not make a move. This also has a shift in college football with super league coming together sooner than later as this is a big money grab for UCLA and USC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt are back to preview the 2022 Fresno State football team that has a chance to be a conference contender and possibly more. The offense is elite with arguably the best QB/WR combo in the league and a capable to really good running back group. The defense is a solid group as well and even elite in the back seven. There are going to be some high expectations for the second tour of Jeff Tedford. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt are back to preview the 2022 Colorado State football season. The Rams have the chance to be the most interesting team in the Mountain West with a new head coach in Jay Norvell who comes over from Nevada. The Norvell hire was a shrewd but an amazing move from the higher ups at the Rams. A lot of players followed Norvell from Nevada, especially on the offensive side of the ball. The Rams do need a quarterback, running back, and strengthening the offensive line. There is talent there but a few question marks with transfers. Defensively, they bring in the DC Freddie Banks from Montana State and led a defense that was one of the best at that level. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt are back to preview the 2022 Utah State football season as Blake Anderson enters his second year in Logan. Repeating as champions will be difficul but not out of the question for the Aggies. They return one of the best quarterbacks in Logan Bonner, there is a healthy Calvin Tyler at running back and a deep offensive line, but finding a new star receiver is the biggest offensive question. The defense losses some talent but it is a deep unit and despite losing about half of their starters it should be a solid unit, and the one potential weak link is the secondary that replaces three starters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt are back to preview the 2022 Air Force football season. The key players are back on offense with FB Brad Roberts and QB Haaziq Daniels to lead an offense that should be quite good. The Falcons do need to find another running back and a wide receiver and/or tight end to be that deep threat. The defense has some holes to replace but it has been an above-average unit over the past few years withing the league and that side of the ball has had some good years which likely will continue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt are back to preview the 2022 Hawaii football season. They make way-too-early record projections, go over the transfers, the new coaching staff, and what expectations should be. They break down the offense and defense to see who will be up next for Hawaii. This team has a chance to be pesky and score some points with the expected pass-happy attack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt discuss the position rankings that Matt put together and we discuss what he discovered going through and ranking not just the top players from each team but going through the depth. The rankings are not a power ranking but an overall look at the depth. Plus, they get into name, image, and likeness and how it is the big story among college sports and the impact it has in the Mountain West. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt are back to preview the 2022 Wyoming football season in our first of 12 weekly previews for the upcoming college football season. The Cowboys will be an interesting team as they lost many players to the transfer portal and a handful to Power 5 programs, but they also received interest and commits through the portal to offset what they lost. The quarterback is a big issue as they lost their first- and second-signal caller to the portal. The defense also took a hit by losing multiple players to graduation and the NFL Draft. The one big question always remains and that is can Wyoming have a passing game just a little bit better to go alongside a traditionally very good defense. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt are back with a belated NFL Draft recap show (blame Jeremy for being slow this week) and how the Mountain West players fit into their new NFL homes. Who was drafted and not drafted. We go over the surprise picks and what free agent pick ups could find their way onto a 53-man roster once the season begins this fall. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt are back to go over what Mountain West players will get drafted and what players we want to see get a shot in the NFL. There are likely to be five to eight players drafted and it will be a shock if a player hears their name called from the first round. We go through some team fits and what amazing college athletes who were really good might not get a shot due to their lack of NFL size. The NFL Draft gets going on Thursday evening. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt are back for a fun annual tradition where the two pick a game a week and travel to the best game of the Mountain West season for that week. We try to visit and see at least every team on the schedule and head to some interesting places with fun matchups. What would be your wishlist each week? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt are back for part two of setting expectations for Mountain West football. The last episode was the Mountain Division this week it is what fans should expect as a good season from the West Division. San Jose State was a particularly tough team to peg down since they have had one good season about once a decade but also in the past few years, they have risen up from being a sure-fire win to at the very least an average team. San Diego State is finally seeing its potential as a team where a reasonable expectation is to compete for a division title. Hawaii has a history but a new staff and lack of transfers macks it murky. Nevada is in a similar boat with loss of transfers and losing a really good coach. Then there is Fresno State which is hoping to recapture the magic Jeff Tedford did in his first stint. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt are back after a little break to charge up for spring and summer football talk. This week we discuss what are the expectations that each fan base should be OK with. We start with the Mountain Division and run down what each program should be able to accomplish year in and year, plus a small look at a decades worth of what a peak can be for some of these schools. We go through: Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, New Mexico, Utah State, and Wyoming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy is joined by Larry Muniz to do a quick recap at the Mountain West tournament which was awesome with basically every game being a close contest. They then do an initial and quick look ahead to the NCAA Tournament that features four Mountain West teams in the field. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremy and Matt are back and they include our Nevada writer Brandon Blake to go over Marchxness.com this year. The songs that were chosen for this year were cover songs and the trio go over their bracket to discuss their own criteria about what they liked and didn't like. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices