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7/21 Roundtable - 5 Thoughts On The M-West
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BYU RB Harvey Unga
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CollegeFootballNews.com
Posted Jul 21, 2009
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7/21 Roundtable - Five thoughts on the upcoming Mountain West season. It's the Tuesday topic in the CFN Daily Roundtable Discussion.
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CFN Daily Roundtables
 July
21
5 Thoughts on the Mountain West.
Over the next several weeks, as part of the CFN 2009 Preview, we'll
examine some of the key questions going into the year with a
daily discussion of the big topics.
Pete
Fiutak,
CFN
Yes, I'm part of
the problem. You can check me out at
twitter.com/CFN_Fiu and find
out future roundtable topics and other random musings.
Q: 5 Thoughts on the Mountain West.
A: Great leagues aren't great
because of what's on the top; it's what happens in the middle and on the
bottom. The SEC doesn't get the love it does because of Florida or LSU;
it gets the credit because there are so many dangerous, solid teams
across the board that can rise up and provide challenges. The same goes
for the Big 12 over the last few years, especially in the South, and
soon, the ACC is going to start getting more credit for being loaded
with good teams.
Now it's time for the Mountain West to start
getting better on the bottom. Just because one great Utah team came up
with a whale of a season and a great bowl performance over a mopey
Alabama squad, that doesn't automatically mean the league deserves more
consideration than it's already being given. After all, while Mountain
West fans and powers-that-be might point to the Sugar Bowl as a reason
why the league should be a part of the BCS, others will throw in a tape
of BYU against Arizona in the Las Vegas Bowl and Air Force's second half
against Cal and argue the other way.
There's no question that
Utah, BYU, and TCU are good enough to hang around with the big boys, but
if the Mountain West is going to make another big step forward, Colorado
State needs to keep improving (which it appears to be doing) under Steve
Fairchild, the lights have to finally go on at San Diego State and UNLV,
and New Mexico and Wyoming have to go back to being pesky and full of
potential, like they appeared to be a few years ago.
Of course,
every conference has a Duke or a Mississippi State or a Washington State
(at least from last year) who brings everyone down, but the Mountain
West needs to have more challengers to the Big Three, and it needs to
keep coming up with nice wins like it got throughout last year against
the Pac 10. Of course, the problem then becomes trying to get a star
team into the BCS if there are more landmines to sidestep, Utah wouldn't
have been going to the Sugar last year if it had slipped anywhere along
the way, but the hope is that everyone will be able to properly analyze
the improved conference and give the credit where it's due.
The
litmus test will be Air Force. No offense to a good program that
obviously has a nice formula that works, but with its recruiting
limitations and its lack of overall talent because of those barriers,
the team can't be a major factor in conference play. If Air Force is the
No. 4 team, like it was last year, then the bottom five has issues. A
great season from the Falcons will show how mediocre the talent level is
in the rest of the Mountain West, but that doesn't mean they won't still
be competitive and a tough out each and every week. Now it's up to UNLVs
and San Diego States of the league to be as competitive. And it's up to
the BCS voters to keep giving the Mountain West champion a shot at the
big boys.
Richard
Cirminiello,
CFN
Q: 5 Thoughts on the Mountain West.
A: Could Brady Hoke be the single most important man in the Mountain West?
Utah, BYU, and TCU are here to stay. In the league’s battle for more
national respect and a possible automatic BCS bowl bid, however, it
would help to have another program making headlines and occasionally
stiff-arming a name-brand opponent. Say, one located in a major market,
such as Southern California?
San Diego State has long been an
untapped commodity in college football. I never could quite figure out
why this program has been so bad for so long. Heck, in a system that now
hands out invitations for a 6-6 record, the Aztecs have bowled just
three times in the last four decades and not once since 1998. Why? It’s
one of the more ideal locations in the country for recruiting and
overall quality of life, and academics are not going to put up hurdles
in the courting of marginal student-athletes or junior-college
transfers. There are a bunch of schools, such as Cincinnati, TCU, and
South Florida, doing just fine on leftovers. And there’s no reason why
San Diego State can’t follow that same model.
There are tons of
talented kids from California that get ignored by USC and UCLA, and wind
up populating rosters of teams in the WAC, Mountain West, and the
Pacific Northwest. More of those kids need to consider the Mesa a viable
option, which is where Hoke enters the equation. He knows something
about doing more with less, having guided Ball State out of the depths
of irrelevance to last year’s 12-win season and first-ever appearance in
the Top 25.
To be sure, it’s going to take time, but if Hoke can
turn Ball State into a winner, there’s no reason why he can’t get the
job done at San Diego State. And if the Aztecs ever become the type of
program that Pac-10 teams are leery of scheduling, it’ll be an important
win for the rest of the Mountain West.
Matthew
Zemek, CFN
Q: 5 Thoughts on the Mountain West.
A: When TCU—powerful but mistake-prone; souped-up yet frail—eventually outlasted Boise State in a terrific Poinsettia Bowl last December, the weight of the world (or at least Fort Worth) had to fall off the shoulders of the Purple pack from Texas. In one cathartic 17-16 triumph, a program that has often excelled but rarely grabbed the big prizes finally ended a season in style. The bucking of Boise—another high-profile school from a non-power conference—allowed coach Gary Patterson to bask in the glow of a big-league win that considerably enhanced the Horned Frogs’ portfolio. A stunning, late loss to Utah—in a game with far more implications than anyone could have known at the time—was the only stumble separating TCU from an 11-win regular season and a certain bid in a BCS bowl, perhaps the very same Sugar Bowl used by Utah in its emphatic upset of Alabama. TCU is still waiting for that man-making motivational moment, but when the Frogs found a finishing kick against the WAC champions on a pre-Christmas night in San Diego, they just might have allowed the program to acquire that small but crucial measure of added confidence which makes all the difference between a league champion and a strong runner-up.
BYU gets to host both TCU and Utah this season, but with their 2008 education lodged firmly between their receptive ears, the Horned Frogs stand to be the team most likely to stand atop the Mountain (West) this season. It’s not a question of talent or ability; a team of TCU toughs must exhibit the mental strength that has—for alternating periods of time—proven to be elusive in recent seasons. Patterson’s pupils should be able to apply painful lessons from the past. If they do, they should find themselves in a BCS battle come January of 2010.
Jon Miller,
Publisher, HawkeyeNation.com
Q: 5 Thoughts on the Mountain West.
A: I am not one of those folks that thinks the Mountain West
deserves an automatic bid into the BCS. They don't produce what
I deem to be a BCS bowl worthy team each year the way the SEC,
Big Ten and Big 12 have done in recent years. Wait a second, am
I talking about the Mountain West, or the Big East? The
Mountain West was a better league than the Big East was last
year, and you know what, it might be again this year. Last
year, BYU, Utah and TCU were better than any three teams the Big
East could muster. So Mr. Hatch, I can feel ya a little bit
here...maybe your argument should be that 'If we can't get in,
then a Big East team shouldn't get in.' Take up the jealous
sibling argument and you might have something here. I think the
Big Three in the Mountain West have a shot of winning 10 games
again this year. Colorado State returns a ton on the offensive
line, too and they might beat Colorado in a very underrated
season opening rivalry game. Most college football fans are
fine watching Utah, TCU and BYU play each other on a Thursday
night, but we really don't want you crashing the BCS
party...sort of like the way Pitt crashed the party several
years go as a nine-win team from the Big East. Then again that
was a half step below the nine-win Illini going to the Rose
Bowl. OK, I had better stop before I talk myself into believing
the Mountain West deserves a bid.
Hunter Ansley,
Publisher,
DraftZoo.com
Q: 5 Thoughts on the Mountain West.
A: They’re almost there.
Okay, they’re pretty much there already.
The Mountain West is playing football at a BCS
conference level, and above that level when you compare them
to the ACC and the Big East. Utah is
fresh off of their second BCS bowl win after dismantling Alabama in New
Orleans. You can talk all
you want about the Tide’s absent All-America Andre Smith, but the fact
remains that the Utes beat an SEC team that had national title
aspirations until they lost to the eventual national champs.
Utah already broke the barrier with a previous Fiesta Bowl win
over Pitt.
Now it’s up to the other guys to crash in and
disrupt the imperfect order that is the Bowl Championship Series.
This could be the year.
TCU gets back the best pass rusher in the country
in Jerry Hughes, and even though he’s one of only four starters
returning, this defense is always one of the top stop units in the
country. Just ask the
high-flying Boise State offense which was held to 16 points in their
loss to the Horned Frogs.
And BYU still has the Max Hall window open even after losing national
receiving leader Austin Collie.
One of these two teams will have to step up this season to really
add some oomph to the conference’s argument that they belong.
It’s not that Utah couldn’t be back in the BCS in
2010 though. The Utes have
another strong defense and might ride that to another MWC title, which
is coming closer and closer to being an automatic bid.
But for the sake of the Mountain West, someone else needs to
prove on the field that they’re as good as the Alabamas and Pittsburghs
of the college football world.
Right now, it’s easy for anti-playoff dollar-hoarding BCS
apologists to excuse the MWC from the big boys’ table by claiming that
“it’s just one team that’s any good.”
Having BYU or TCU stomp out a signature win would go along way
towards cementing this league’s status as elite.
Even if they
don’t make it to the BCS, each team should have a chance to make a
statement in the regular season.
The Horned Frogs play two of their first three games on the road
at ACC “decents” Clemson and Virginia, while BYU starts things off in
Norman against Oklahoma before hosting Florida State in week three.
Winning two of those four won’t be easy on its own, but if they
can somehow go a combined 3-1, it will do more than most people think
for the MWC’s national reputation.
The time is right for this conference to make a major move.
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