Mountain West Conference Preview and Interview with Jeremy Mauss

Written by Gatorsfirst.com and Jeremy Mauss

With the college football season rapidly approaching, Gatorsfirst.com is presenting a different take on the 2009 season every day for the entire month of August. We call it our "Full Month of College Football Previews."

As part of the project, we are having fellow bloggers and other college football personalities from around the SEC and the rest of the nation give us their take on the current state of college football. This approach will allow us to bring you a much more in-depth look at the 2009 season than we could possibly provide on our own.

The next in this series is the Mountain West Conference season preview, by Jeremy Mauss. Jeremy runs the CFB Awards-nominated MWC Connection blog.

We asked for his take on the conference's outlook for 2009. We also solicited his input on the state of coaching in the MWC, campus game day atmosphere in the league, and the BCS system. You can see his predictions, followed by the interview, below.

Projected Conference Finish

TCU

BYU

Utah

UNLV

Air Force

Colorado State

New Mexico

San Diego State

Wyoming

Top five freshmen/newcomers

James Aiona, DE Utah

Ed Wesley, RB, TCU

David Kruger, DT, Utah

Lee Aguirre, DB, BYU

Aveni Leung-Wai, LB, BYU

Top five breakout players

Omar Clayton, QB, UNLV

Aiona Key, WR, Utah

Joseph Turner, RB, TCU

Donovan Porterie, QB, New Mexico

Rashaun Green, WR, Colorado State

Player superlatives

Player of the Year: Max Hall, QB, BYU

Offensive POTY: Andy Dalton, QB, TCU

Defensive POTY: Jerry Hughes, DE, TCU

Overrated POTY: Ryan Wolfe, WR, UNLV

Underrated POTY: Ryan Lindley, QB, San Diego State

Bowl projections

Las Vegas Bowl: TCU vs. Arizona State

Poinsettia Bowl: Utah vs. Stanford

Armed Forces Bowl: BYU vs. Tulsa

New Mexico Bowl: UNLV vs. Fresno State

Humanitarian Bowl: Air Force vs. Nevada

And now, to get a feel for the MWC, we conducted the following interview:

Gatorsfirst (G1): How did you become a fan of the Mountain West Conference?

Jeremy Mauss (JM): Well, the main reason is because I went to the University of Utah, and it just happened to be at the start of their great run in 2003 in my first year there at Utah. I attended the 2004 Fiesta Bowl, which was an amazing year, and then I was hooked on the league.

Another reason I became a fan of the league is that I am the same faith as BYU and somewhat followed them while growing up in Houston, plus for some reason I enjoy the less publicized league.

Other factors for me loving the MWC is that while attending school at Utah I was on the school's radio station covering the Utes and had the chance to attend press conferences, games, and also had the chance to go to the 2006 Armed Forces Bowl.

All of that pulled me into the whole league and write about the Mountain West. Another reason was that I for some reason was in the vast minority to want all the teams in the league to do well in non-conference games. Whenever I talked about that idea, I was looked at as if I was crazy because I wanted BYU to beat whomever in non-conference games, because some fans want their rival to lose every game.

Then being in the Mountain West, the league is not perceived as a strong league, and with the non-conference as a chance for teams to shine and over the past few years with BCS talk, more fans have taken the approach that they want the league to do well in non-conference games.

(G1): Describe the gameday atmosphere at an MWC game.

(JM): The only teams that I have been to see on their campus are Utah and BYU games. Utah has a good tailgating scene with tons of great food, but it is not as rowdy as others since in Utah most of the state is of the Mormon faith and does not drink. That does not mean the fans are not excited or drink their adult beverages, but it seems that nothing ever gets out of hand and is just an excited bunch of fans.

BYU is different for pregame because there is no tailgating permitted at the stadium parking lot. BYU has a great stadium and have been selling out nearly every seat of their near 70,000-seat stadium each year.

The only problem with BYU fans is that to me it seems that a good number of BYU fans are at the game to be at the game and need the jumbotron or student section to know what is going on.

At the Utah games the fans are a bit different and seem to be into the game more then the BYU fans. The Utah games can be very loud even though Rice-Eccles holds about 45,000 seats, especially the student section, which from personal experience is great.

They stand the entire game (which is not uncommon across the country), but they are into every play and everyone is into the game and very rarely leave early from a blowout win or loss.

The cool thing about being a student is that after the games the team and band come over and sing the school song, and that is a very cool thing. It is not quite the same thing as games at Texas A&M, which I have attended a few, but still a very cool experience for students.

(G1): Talk about the current state of coaching in the MWC. What sort of schemes are popular? How is recruiting?

(JM): This past year there are three new coaches in the league for New Mexico, UNLV, and Wyoming.

The league is taking on more of the spread offense, with the exception of Air Force, who runs an option offense, but even they have moved away from a tight triple option to using more two and three wide receiver sets but still operating a run option.

The other is Colorado State, who runs a more traditional pro-style offense, because they have had good backs to pound the ball. TCU too somewhat runs their offense under center plus three wideout sets in the shotgun. The rest of the league runs three-plus wide receiver sets to run the spread offense.

Even with all of the pass-happy offenses and scoring points, the league should get recognized for the defense the league plays. TCU, Wyoming, and Utah have all had very good defenses, and this year the rest of the league should tighten up their defense with every team having solid defensive players.

Recruiting has been very good for the 2010 class for the Mountain West. BYU has top QB Jake Heaps according to Scout and ranks 13th as of their last update. Part of that is that Heaps is a Mormon athlete where the university is an extension of that. Plus Heaps brought in WR Ross Apo, who de-committed from Texas to go to BYU, plus they have been getting more four-star recruits.

Utah has reaped benefits from the 2004 Fiesta Bowl, their consistency, and the 2008 season has helped them get more early commits and better athletes. TCU does an exceptional job in Texas, because they are not beating out Texas or Oklahoma, but they can compete with Texas A&M and a few times with Texas Tech.

The thing the league does good is to spot talent early, offer early, and then the most important, they can develop these recruits who were overlooked.

(G1): Who are some players from the MWC that you are excited about this season? Why?

(JM): First, I am very high on UNLV QB Omar Clayton, who showed flashes of brilliance last year but missed a few games with injuries. UNLV finally has a quarterback in place who has not come off of major injuries or is a former highly touted transfer, but instead Clayton has run the spread pretty good. Look for him to blow up this year.

Another player is Utah's wide receiver Aiona Key. He came in late last year as a JUCO transfer because of getting his grades to Utah, so last year he saw nearly no time on offense but was a star on special teams.

Besides being a good wideout who has size, he also is a track star who can high jump around seven feet. Key will get the time this year because Utah lost its top three wideouts from last year.

The next player who interests me is BYU wide receiver McKay Jacobson, who is returning from a two-year church mission and has the responsibility of trying to replace former BYU Austin Collie.

Prior to Jacobson leaving he was a star receiver as a true freshman and was a top recruit out of Texas. It will be interesting to see if he can get right back into football shape and be productive.

(G1): Make one point about your conference you think is overlooked on the national level.

(JM): The league is actually good. National "experts" try to poke holes in the bottom of the league, but in reality every single league has a tier system of how good teams are. In the MWC it is BYU, Utah, TCU, and then the past few years Air Force and Colorado State, and then the rest.

They try to say that the bottom feeders are the worst teams in all of FBS, but look at last year, when UNLV beat the middle of the Pac-10 in Arizona State, and the bottom of the Big 12 in Iowa State, and then Wyoming, eighth in the MWC, beat the worst team in the SEC in Tennessee. Tired of that argument when every league has bad teams.

Oh, also the league was the first to have a television deal exclusively with a conference with The Mountain West Sports Network, and it was not The Big Ten who was the first. Yes, the Big Ten Network has better coverage because Fox owns about half of it, but The Mtn. was the first channel dedicated to a particular league.

(G1): What sort of changes, if any, should be made to the BCS system?

(JM): If the BCS has to stay around in its current format, then I would want the MWC to have an auto bid. That would leave three at-large spots for the five bowl games. The top of the league is just as strong as every league except the Big 12 and SEC.

Now the MWC is currently just on the outside of being considered, in my opinion, because they still need another year or two of having teams in the top 10 and multiple in the top 16 to get an auto bid.

Plus, I would like to see the BCS four-year cycle evaluation have more concrete requirements when deciding what leagues are included, and use the polls after the bowl games since those games are supposed to be the most important.

Ideally I would want a 16-team playoff with all 11 conference champs getting in and five at-large berths. That would ultimately start to close the gap between the low-level conferences to the top. Now the champ would most likely still come from the current BCS schools, but that does not mean that the Sun Belt or MAC champ would not win a first round game or pull a George Mason and make a run.

(G1): Are the polls a good idea in the first place? Should they play a role in determining a 'National Champion'?

(JM): Polls are for the fans, especially the preseason polls. Ideally they should start the first weekend in October, but that will never happen because rankings sell recruits, tickets, television ratings, and garner prestige to schools.

They should be a part, but the BCS uses them all to help determine a champion. It is hard to have a committee and select two teams that are not one and two in the combined polls.

Since the polls are going to be used to determine the BCS through the 2014 season, they should bring back strength of schedule formula into the computers. Very ironic that nerds and wires help determine the champion of a physical sport.

(G1): How much should non-BCS teams be included in the BCS and other high payout bowls?

(JM): I think the top 12 is a fair gauge for a non-BCS school to get invited, but they so far have to have been perfect to get into a BCS game. The top 12 is the only guaranteed bid for a non-BCS to make a game, while last year there were three teams, TCU, Utah, and Boise State, who were ranked higher than the ACC and Big East champs, and only Utah got in.

Not only were Boise State and TCU ranked higher then two conference champs, they were also bypassed by two lower-ranked teams for BCS bowls.

Since the BCS is a business, there is no reason not to take bigger schools because they bring the eyeballs. That is what is screwed up about the BCS. As for other high bowl payouts, those need to be negotiated with the leagues to get better bowl money or matchups.

View the original interview here.