Mountaintop View 8-28-23. Aztecs win, Spartans, outclassed, Rainbow Warriors fall short, Conference Realignment, Coaching Rankings.

It’s Monday, and we are back at it. We are fresh off Week 0 games and have a full slate of games coming this weekend! Through it all, the content keeps going. Check out our original coverage and what we can find from the World Wide Web below.

College Football Coaching Tiers.

The Athletic does head coach tier rankings to start every season based on a coach’s full body of work. This year, on the MW side of things, Troy Calhoun is the top coach in the conference, coming in at Tier 3. Craig Bohl and Jeff Tedford are in Tier 4, and you’ll find three more in both Tier 5 and Tier 6. The last three coaches, Timmy Chang, Danny Gonzales, and Ken Wilson are in Tier 8, saved for those who either had rough initial seasons or are on the hot seat.

Mountain West makes pitch to Oregon State & Washington State.

In the latest conference realignment news, both the Mountain West and American conference commissioners made their presentations to Oregon State and Washington State in hopes of landing the two schools who have been left out of conference realignment thus far. Gloria Nevarez made an in-person pitch to Washington State last Thursday and plans to do the same with Oregon State soon. Mike Aresco will do the same virtually. The schools will be taking a massive pay cut, and while the American can offer a few million more per year, is it worth the added travel costs? That seems unlikely. However, the latest report is they don’t expect to make a decision until after Labor Day as they try to determine what conference revenues remain, and probably holding out hope that Stanford and Cal don’t go to the ACC and the PAC can still be rebuilt.

Aztecs hang on in season opener.

It wasn’t pretty, but San Diego State beings the season with a victory. After all the offseason talk about an offense that would be more of a force, that didn’t exactly happen. They did find the endzone twice through the air, but overall struggled to move the ball. The defense was good, but was added by Ohio’s starting QB getting hurt early on. If this was any indication, they should be skilled at creating turnovers.

Spartans hang for a bit, but outclassed by Trojans.

For a half, it appeared that SJSU was going to give USC quite a game. Ultimately, the talent won out, but the Spartans can take away a lot of positives from this contest. Chevan Cordeiro was up to the task, throwing for 3 touchdowns and just under 200 passing yards. QB turned WR Nick Nash looked the part, catching all of the TD passes and putting up 86 yards. And transfer RB Quali Conley had no issue moving up a level, going over 100 yards on the ground on just 6 carries. The offense should have no issue this season, but the defense surrendered 56 points to the Trojans.

Rainbow Warriors gave it all they had and came up just short.

Last season, Hawaii opened the year with a humiliating 62-10 loss to Vanderbilt. This year, they battled back and forth to the very end, ultimately falling 35-28. Quarterback Brayden Schager, looked much improved, throwing for 351 yards and three touchdowns in the defeat. And the rest of the offense was able to move the ball, allowing the return of the run-and-shoot to be successful through one game. This looks like a different and much improved Hawaii team.

On the horizon:

• Later today: A new MWC Recruiting Roundup with the latest news, offers, and commitments. Plus, recruiting observations.
• Later today: 2023 Power Rankings Week 0
• Coming Tuesday: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Week 0
• Coming Tuesday: Hike’s Peak Podcast Episode 11: Week 0
• Coming Tuesday: Reacts Survey: Week 1
• Coming Wednesday: Peak Perspective: 5 reasons Fresno State will repeat as conference champions and 5 reasons they won’t.
• Coming Wednesday: 2023 Bowl Projections Week 0
• Coming Wednesday: Mountain West and National Polls: Week 0