The Mountain West football media days will again be in Las Vegas, Nev., and take place on July 26-27. Over at ESPN the non-AQ/Big East blogger Andrea Adelson put together a set of five questions I will go ahead and answer here as well as take your responses in the comment section below.
Before we get to the questions here is a list of what athletes will be represented at media days:
Air Force: WR/KR Jonathan Warzeka, DL Zach Payne
Boise State: QB Kellen Moore, S George Iloka
Colorado State: OL Paul Madsen, LB Mychal Sisson
New Mexico: LB Carmen Messina, TE Lucas Reed
San Diego State: QB Ryan Lindley, DL Jerome Long
TCU: WR Josh Boyce, LB Tank Carder
UNLV: TE Anthony Vidal, DB Quinton Pointer
Wyoming: LB Brian Hendricks, DE Josh Biezuns
Now onto the questions that Adleson posed to herself, but with my answers.
1. How will the reconfigured Mountain West fare and what will that mean for BCS inclusion?
It is too early to tell. The league needs to perform well and get Boise State in a BCS game, no offense to TCU but Boise going unbeaten helps the league better then TCU since they are heading to the Big East in 2012. Also, New Mexico, UNLV, Wyoming and Colorado State need to up their win total to give the petition a fighting chance.
2. Along those lines, how will Boise State fare in Year 1?
Boise State will be the favorite above TCU and while the Mountain West is better then the WAC, Boise State should still be able to cruise through most of the league. They will face some challenges from San Diego State, Air Force and TCU, and possibly even losing to one or all of those three teams. The rest of the league is about on par with what they faced in the WAC. There will not be seven pushover games, but instead a steady diet of games that will challenge Boise State to a higher degree.
3. How does TCU feel about being in its final MWC season?
The big deal is that the league moved the Boise State game away from Fort Worth to Boise, and that has upset the TCU faithful. Besides that it is business as usual. Expect TCU to be focused on filing on their goals on winning the Mountain West.
4. Is Air Force really a dark horse to win the league?
I say yes, because they return quarterback Tim Jefferson and running back Asher Clark, plus they return a solid defense. They get TCU early in the season at home, but they have a brutal stretch of games where they play at Navy, at Notre Dame, San Diego State at home the following Thursday and then travel to Boise State.
5. Is San Diego State a threat to win the league?
Again, I'll say yes because they can rival Boise State's quarterback/running back combo with Ryan Lindley and Ronnie Hillman. The Aztecs need a defense which I think they will find with Rocky Long, but most importantly they need to find two new receivers to step up for the departed DeMarco Sampson and Vincent Brown.
Media days will also bring us a ton of interviews as well as the polls for who will win the conference as well as preseason All-Mountain West teams.