Mountain West Conference: Looking Ahead to 2009

The Mountain West had a great year in 2008. There is no denying this.

A season that had teams from the conference go 6-2 against the PAC-10 is nice.

I just don’t get over excited about the six wins when four of them came against teams with a less than .500 mark.

The season was capped by a couple big bowl wins over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and undefeated Boise State in the Poinsettia Bowl.

The Mountain West has been lobbying for a place at the big table and to become a BCS automatic qualifying conference.

I was on board at first. I think the conference has taken a good first step.

But it was one good year. The conference was only 8-10 in their games with BCS conference teams and 5-6 against the PAC-10 in 2007. I would like to see a few more years like 2008 before they are granted an automatic berth.

I think the bar has been set higher now for the Mountain West. Last seasons 10-5 record against BCS conference teams shows they can play with the BCS teams and was a vast improvement from 2007.

With 14 games on the schedule against BCS conference teams next season, I think that they need to at least match that for the season to considered a success.

The conference is pretty solid top to bottom. Eighth place Wyoming went in to Tennessee and beat them. Tennessee only finished about ninth in the SEC but it shows the Mountain West bottom team can play with an SEC bottom team to go along with Utah beating Alabama at the top.

This isn’t an article about the Mountain West and the BCS though. That has been done to death. I didn’t feel like I could write an article about the Mountain West and the 2009 season without at least touching on the subject though.

For 2009, it appears that the Mountain West is looking to make a mark around the rest of the country, not just in the Pac 10.

Air Force is playing at Minnesota.

BYU is taking on Oklahoma and Florida State.

Colorado State plays their annual game with Colorado.

New Mexico is going to both Texas A&M and Texas Tech.

San Diego State will go to UCLA.

TCU is making the trip to ACC country twice to play Virginia and Clemson.

UNLV will host Oregon State.

Utah will play at Oregon and welcomes Louisville.

Wyoming goes to Texas and then returns home to play Colorado.

While 2008 was PAC 10 heavy, 2009 looks like the Big 12 is the conference of choice.

Six games will be played with what was considered by some the best conference of 2008.

If you didn’t know, the Mountain West was 1-3 in 2008 against the Big 12.

Both the ACC and PAC 10 will have three games each with the Mountain West.

The big three in the conference, Utah, BYU, and TCU, were all able to hold on to their coaches while rumors were flying that any one of them were candidates for a number of job openings.

Air Force was fourth in the conference and extended second year head coach Troy Calhoun’s contract for another five years. Calhoun has amassed a 17-9 record in his two seasons with the Falcons.

Colorado State and UNLV have also retained their coaches.

Colorado State had just gone through a coaching change after 2008 when Steve Fairchild took over for legendary Sonny Lubick. Fairchild took the Rams back to a bowl for the first time in three seasons.

UNLV has seen a rising trend in wins going 5-7 in 2008 after four consecutive two-win seasons. Mike Sanford has been there for three of those two-win season and has now laid the foundation to get UNLV back to a bowl game.

The three teams that brought up the bottom all have new head coaches heading into 2009.

New Mexico tabbed Illinois offensive coordinator, Mike Locksley, to head up their program. Locksley has never been a head coach, but has 17 years of coaching experience as an assistant.

Wyoming has also brought in an offensive coordinator. Dave Christensen from Missouri takes over in Laramie. Christensen has been coaching at the college level since 1989 but has never been head coach.

San Diego State probably had the biggest hire by stealing away Brady Hoke from Ball State. Hoke had been at Ball State for six season and just finished his best season there going 12-0 through the regular season before losing in the MAC championship game to Buffalo.

With an established collection of coaches mixed the new faces, the coaching in the Mountain West looks like it could be a whose who of the next best coaches in America.

If these coaches can guide their teams through, what looks like a tougher non-conference schedule and repeat the success of 2008, then the bid for an automatic BCS berth just got stronger.

If they can’t, the conference may fall back and be referred to as a one hit wonder.