Mountain West Media Days starts this week. Here’s one talking point for each football team

Talkin’ season is here.

Mountain West Media Days (July 16-17) starts this week in Las Vegas, with all 12 of the league’s head coaches and two players from each school available to discuss just about anything related to the season ahead.

With that in mind, here are talking points for each team in the league:

Air Force

Talking point: Can the Falcons bounce back into contention?

You would be forgiven for checking out on Air Force a little over halfway through last season: After a 29-10 run from 2021-23, the Falcons returned just six starters overall and crashed back to earth hard with a 1-7 start in 2024. The defense was probably a little better than the record, but the offense was uncharacteristically lousy. And the season, for all intents and purposes, was over.

Or was it? The Falcons closed 4-0, notching wins over Fresno State, Oregon State, Nevada and San Diego State on their way to a far more respectable 5-7 record. The defense grew increasingly more timely, even pitching a shutout against the Beavers. The offense found its footing, putting up rushing numbers befitting a service academy.

And if the season was, in fact, over, there seemed to be plenty of momentum for the next.

“I don’t know if we’ve ever had a team that made as much progress and improvement as this one,” head coach Troy Calhoun said after a season-ending win over the Aztecs in November.

Now with significantly more experience on both sides of the ball, it seems a given that Air Force will be back to its usual, reliable self this season — but how high is its ceiling? There’s plenty to like (outside of Boise State, the Falcons’ offensive line might be the best in the league), but the schedule is positively brutal.

Will that hold them back from contention? Or do the Falcons have enough to challenge for a conference title?

Boise State

Talking point: Will they get back to the College Football Playoff?

Perhaps the most obvious talking point of any team? Led by Heisman runner-up Ashton Jeanty, Boise State posted a 12-1 record last season and made the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff. The Broncos did lose to semifinalist Penn State, but after a few seasons that didn’t live up to expectations, the program found itself back at the top of the Group of Five.

They don’t look like they’re going anywhere, especially with quarterback Maddux Madsen and star defensive end Jayden Virgin-Morgan returning. It won’t be easy, but the Broncos have one of the clearest paths of any G5 team to make it to the playoff — will they be able to go back-to-back?

Colorado State

Talking point: What will the offense look like?

After losing All-Mountain West receiver Tory Horton to a season-ending injury, normally pass-happy Colorado State made a bold pivot last season: No longer would they be out-toughed throwing the ball all over the yard. The Rams would instead focus on fundamentals, limit turnovers and play complementary football — all after two seasons of branding themselves as “Fort Air Raid.”

“We’re not really worried about style points, to be honest with you,” head coach Jay Norvell said in October. “We want to do the things we have to do to win. That’s what we’re finding out how to do.”

Find out they did. After a 2-2 start, Colorado State won five in a row to finish 8-5 and snap a six-year bowl drought. It wasn’t always pretty, sure. But results are results, and Norvell finally got the right ones in his third season with the program.

The question now: with quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi returning, will the Rams lean back into the passing game over last year’s more balanced style? Or is the latter here to stay?

Fresno State

Talking point: What will the start of the Entz era look like for the Bulldogs?

When you think about Fresno State football, you might imagine an up-tempo offense torching an opponent’s secondary. That’s at least how it’s been in recent years, especially with offensive gurus such as Jeff Tedford and Kalen DeBoer running the show.

That might be changing.

“Fresno is the Midwest,” first-year head coach Matt Entz told the Fresno Bee earlier this month. “I joke, but we call it Midwest, California.”

Now, the Bulldogs are expected to lean more on a traditional power run game and deaden the pace. Entz — a coach with a strong defensive background — is no stranger to success after winning two FCS titles at North Dakota State. And Fresno State has always prided itself on fielding teams with a blue-collar feel.

But change is always difficult — what other shifts could be in store for the Bulldogs as they enter the Entz era?

Hawaii

Talking point: Can the Rainbow Warriors contend for more than a bowl?

The hard times might be over for head coach Timmy Chang. After leading Hawaii to back-to-back five-win seasons, this year looks to be the best yet for the former Rainbow Warriors quarterback: Hawaii has a talented young quarterback in Micah Alejado, an experienced offensive line and a receiver corps that might be among the best in the league.

With that in mind, a bowl is expected — in fact, it’d be an abject disappointment if they didn’t make the postseason. But how much more can be expected of this team, and what will it take for them to vault into contention for a league title?

Nevada

Talking point: Will greater continuity vault the Wolf Pack to a bowl?

Nevada is set to return only 35% of its offensive and defensive production from last year. But that hasn’t phased Jeff Choate — if anything, Nevada’s second-year head coach thinks there’s greater continuity on the roster purely from a standards perspective.

“Continuity is a really big part of success in college football, and when you've had three head coaches in four years, it makes it hard to bring that continuity,” Choate said in February. “ … There's a clear understanding of the expectations. I think there's a much stronger leadership group than we had a year ago. A big part of that is they understand what we want from them."

Will that clarity help Nevada better last year’s 3-10 mark — possibly to the tune of six wins? Or is another long year in store for the Wolf Pack?

New Mexico

Talking point: Will a roster heavy on FCS transfers be enough?

To Jason Eck, year one at New Mexico will be all about improvement — the type you measure in wins and losses.

“Getting better is going to a bowl game,” New Mexico’s first-year head coach said in December. “So, I mean, that’s our goal. All our sights (are on), ‘We need to be in a bowl game next year.’”

If the Lobos do, in fact, flirt with a bowl, it will be on the strength of a transfer class comparable to an FCS All-Star team. After Eck was hired in December, the longtime FCS coach brought in a bevy of players from the Big Sky, including Montana State transfer running back Scottre Humphrey and Idaho transfer Keyshawn James-Newby — two of the best players at the FCS level.

Will players like them be enough to help turn UNM’s fortunes against one of the toughest schedules in the league?

San Diego State

Talking point: Can AztecFAST get off the ground?

When San Diego State hired Sean Lewis, the hope was that the former Kent State coach would bring the Aztecs back to prominence with an offense that’s generally considered among the best in the sport.

Last season, the branding was there – AztecFAST is how Lewis labeled his system — but the production really wasn’t: SDSU averaged just 21.3 points per game, the third-worst mark in the league. But even after losing starting quarterback Danny O’Neil to Wisconsin, there’s a sense the offense could take a jump in Lewis’ second season. What will it take for that to happen?

And if the offense does get going, can SDSU expect to play for something more than a bowl?

San Jose State

Talking point: Could this be the Spartans’ year?

In a year where it felt as if it was Boise State, UNLV and the rest of the league, San Jose State emerged as perhaps the conference’s best story outside of the league’s top two.

After losing former head coach Brent Brennan, SJSU hired longtime Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo, who installed an up-tempo “spread-and-shred” offense to finish a surprising 7-6 last season. That’s with a bowl loss to South Florida that went five overtimes, denying the Spartans a shot at eight wins — what would’ve been the most for the program since 2012.

This season, it might be a disappointment if they don’t reach that mark. All-Mountain West receiver Nick Nash is gone, but Walker Eget (2,504 yards, 13 TDs, 10 INTs) is back and poised to be among the most productive quarterbacks in the league. The Spartans also return maybe the best linebacker duo in the conference in Jordan Pollard and Taniela Latu.

Most importantly: SJSU has perhaps the easiest schedule in the league, missing Boise State, UNLV and Colorado State. If there was ever a season to make a run to the title game, this is it.

UNLV

Talking point: Will a new team and new coach continue a historic run?

Somebody, at some point, was going to figure out how to field consistently good teams at UNLV, in the FBS era. Barry Odom deserves a major hat tip for being the first to do so, posting an outstanding 19-8 record over two seasons with the program before leaving for Purdue.

Now it’s former Florida and Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen’s show — emphasis on show. The Rebels have made plenty of noise in the transfer portal and on the recruiting trail, notably signing quarterbacks Anthony Colandrea and Alex Orji from Virginia and Michigan, respectively.

But if the talent is there, the experience really isn’t — UNLV returns just 32% of last year’s production. Will that be enough to live up to the hype? Or are the Rebels due for a disappointing start to the Mullen era?

Utah State

Talking point: Are the Aggies retooling or rebuilding?

Since the Aggies joined the Mountain West in 2013, year one at Utah State has been a surprisingly attractive venture for head coaches: Matt Wells led the Aggies to a 9-5 record and division title as a first-time head coach in 2013, while Blake Anderson finished 11-3 and won the league outright in 2021. Even Gary Andersen’s first season back in 2019 resulted in a bowl berth, although an awfully messy 2020 season might’ve erased that accomplishment.

Whether year one goes as well for Bronco Mendenhall remains to be seen. Hired away from UNM after just one season, the former BYU and Virginia coach returns just 31% of last season’s offensive and defensive production — 9% less than what he was working with after joining the Lobos. The cupboard wasn’t left totally bare (dual-threat quarterback Bryson Barnes, safety Ike Larsen and tight end Broc Lane are all back) but it’s hard to see this season as anything other than the start of a rebuild …

… but then again, maybe not? After all, that was the case for the Lobos last year and Mendenhall had them on the cusp of their first bowl appearance since 2016. If the Aggies find themselves in the postseason, this season could easily be one of the most impressive of Mendenhall’s career.

Wyoming

Talking point: Will the Cowboys return to the postseason?

Speaking of year ones: Jay Sawvel could not have had a worse start to his head coaching career. Replacing Wyoming legend Craig Bohl, Sawvel opened 0-4 before the program lagged to 1-7. There were some bright spots (Wyoming played Boise State to a 17-13 loss in between beating UNM and Washington State) but 3-9 is 3-9. Nobody — particularly Sawvel — was all too pleased.

The good news: The Cowboys appear to be in a better spot entering this season. Quarterback Kaden Anderson is effectively the unquestioned starter, tight end John Michael Gyllenborg is one of the most intriguing offensive players in the conference and a defense that lost a lot this offseason might be back to playing the type of football that made Bohl teams so hard to beat.

The bad news: The early turn in the schedule is brutal — vs. Utah, at Colorado, vs. UNLV, vs. SJSU and at Air Force is not for the faint of heart, after all.

If not? It puts that much more pressure on a gettable, but still tricky, back half of the schedule.