Reacting to the 2023 ‪@mountainwest‬ Football Schedule

Intro the college football season got a little closer today when the Mountain West Conference released its 2023 football schedule in this video today I'm going to be going through and reacting some of the highlights from the schedule some of the things that jump off the boards really initial thoughts reactions to this 2023 schedule for the Mountain West number one pops right off the bat is that when you look at teams that can go out and compete for a new year six teams that can set themselves up not just by going through and being undefeated or having one or two losses potentially but also having quality wins that combine with that record the only team here that truly has a chance to set themselves off to shine and again this is not a record prediction I haven't done that yet I'll be doing that later this season or this off season talking about what I think each of these teams are going to do this season overall so this is not a record prediction video but the only team that has a chance of coming through has a is a top contender in the conference has a chance of going through and winning all their conference games and also has a non-conference schedule that if they win through is going to reflect well with that schedule is Boise State you look at boys state they have Washington ucf's there's two power five teams right off about remember UCF jumping up to join the Big 12 this next season so that's two power five teams that they have there right off the bat and then they're gonna be playing Memphis which has traditionally been a great team there out of America on third conference and then of course Mount West Lake across the board there so one SCS opponent but three two power five teams and one team from a high caliber uh group of five conference and especially one that the Mountain West might end up competing with here at the end of the year when you're having to rank those Conference champions at the end Memphis always a team that seems to be in it not so much last year but always team that seems to be in it you look at the rest of these teams so you say it's so hard to say what this conference is going to do because they were so bad last year it was really a down year for the conference we had some teams that stood out Air Force Fresno State and Boise State really kind of shone through however you had a lot of teams going with less than eight wins across the board and so it's really hard to say who's going to be those top dogs that stand out but Fresno State you know that's a team that you think is going to be a top Contender won the conference last year and I'm not saying that they can't go undefeated you look at this record they definitely can but the issue is it is an extremely easy record they're kind of taking a break over the last few years of playing the USC's and Ohio States and organs they're taking a little bit of a break and they're going to be playing Purdue who you know have a little bit has had a little bit of a better couple of last seasons you know last year actually representing the Big Ten championship game but they only won eight games it's really down here for that side of the conference so again not a Powerhouse there for the power five and then Arizona state who's replacing their head coach they have an Eastern Washington FCS school and a Mac team here so Fresno State they go through they go undefeated they go undefeated and come up against an undefeated American Athletic Conference Team they're probably not going to square up well you know you look at the Fresno State team here that even if they go through this schedule if they have one or two losses they're not going to be ranked very high in the top 25. Boise State they beat those top two those two teams to start off the bat they are jumping into the top 20 right away and they have a chance to climb up towards maybe even making a playoff statement this year and again you have to go and defeat it to even be able to make that kind of statement and I'm not saying Boise State's going to do that but Fresno State doesn't even have a shot at that the highest ranking the federal state can achieve with this record going undefeated is not going to be the same as what police state can do going undefeated it just doesn't shine quite as well so their best teams aren't playing great teams San Diego State is playing UCLA and Oregon State but they haven't been a team that's been contending recently didn't really have a very good last year very good year last year if you look at teams that might be able to challenge Boise State as far as being teams that could go through and be a new year six Contender so I guess challenge the wrong words I'm not saying challenge in within the conference but I'm saying be a team that could stand out San Diego State might be able to do that if they were able to go undefeated with U.S with uh UCLA and Oregon State on that record but again when you look at those top three teams being probably Air Force Fresno State and Boise State right now with nobody else really establishing themselves last year to be another Contender that could go through with 10 or more wins of those three the only team that really stands out that looks like they could go through and have a strong resume is Boise State now again you've got to win the games but that's a good sign right there for boys state looking at a team that could be a top Contender number two here is the power five is coming to play the Mountain West has eight power five teams coming to play now again the issue is here that a lot of the weaker teams are playing the best power five teams UNLV is playing Michigan um Wyoming is playing Texas you know Hawaii is playing Oregon so the Nevada is playing USC New Mexico is playing Texas A M those Premier power five wins which would be awesome to get on the board where if you put them in a Fresno State or Air Force or Boise State category maybe the mountainways would have a chance to go out and get them unfortunately their weakest teams are pairing up against the best power five that's typically what you see year in and year out it is always easy for Hawaii to grab Premier power five teams and Boise State Fresno State are often struggling to get good power five teams to come and play them because they know that they could lose and they don't want Power 5 Teams to risk that so that is the unfortunate reality here is that the best Mountain West teams are playing nobodies for the most part besides boys date and the worst Mountain West teams are playing the best teams and don't have a chance of winning so while you do have a lot of power five teams coming to play I mean we'll just list them out the back here as an exercise you've got UCF coming to Playboy state Washington state will be playing at Colorado State Stanford is going to be playing at Hawaii Kansas is going to be playing at Nevada um UCLA is going to be playing at San Diego State Oregon state is going to be playing at San Jose Vanderbilt is going to be playing at UNLV and Texas Tech is going to be playing at Wyoming I believe I covered everybody there but you have some great matchups here for the conference unfortunately even though they're at home they're at home for a lot of these teams that aren't necessarily uh probably gonna be able to go out and get that win but it's great to see the power five coming and playing in the Mountain West stadiums and being having a chance for the Mountain West to really bring that in I mean that's a really big opportunity the fact that these teams are being willing to come in and play and there's probably some kind of one and three deal where they're going to Mountain West is going to travel to go play at their stadiums but eight power five programs at home for the Mountain West is a big win here for the conference now the issue again is going to be the fact that Allah all these teams like I said you know Stanford playing at Hawaii Stanford's not going to win uh Hawaii's not going to win that one Oregon State at San Jose State you know maybe they could pull that off Wyoming Texas Tech at Wyoming no Wyoming's not going to win that game especially what's going on with the program right now so unfortunately I don't know how many of these are going to translate into wins I think this is going to be another bit of a Down year for the conference overall as far as their non-conference record goes unfortunately um but there are some opportunities for power five wins here and if they can get them at home get some upsets it'll be a big deal here for the conference third thing that jumps off the board here is that air force is once again taking itself out of contention for the rankings Air Force fans get upset year after year that they go and they have a 10 or 11 wins that don't get ranked well air force does it to themselves look at this horrible schedule you know right off the bat FCS team then they play Sam Houston which luckily for Air Force is jumping up to the FBS so that will count as an FBS win they're jumping up to join Conference USA this year I don't maybe Air Force is upset by that I think maybe they go man they tricked us we thought it was gonna be another FCS team and now they're gonna be FBS I don't know what Air Force's scheduling options here is what they're looking for but it's the wrong mindset this isn't the Air Force teams of some more I wouldn't say recent past because recent past Air Force has been really good so maybe you go back you know six or seven years but this is not the Air Force teams of some late years that was struggling just to get bull eligible this is the Air Force team that is trying to present itself as a top 25 candidate as a team that can can compete for the Mountain West championship games this is a team that could potentially look at competing for some newer six spots I mean you go through you play Army and Navy I mean those are going to be some nice games that you can potentially win there and then you go through the rest of the conference schedule Air Force has done really really well here the last few years under Calhoun but their schedule is holding them back and once again Air Forces put themselves on the back foot I mean you have an Air Force Team here that's probably going to have to go 11 and 1 if they want a chance of even getting into the top The cfp Talk 25 maybe they could make the AP Top 25 doesn't have really high standards but to get the cfp top 25 you're gonna have to be either undefeated or 11-1 with a lot of blowouts along the way to have a chance of getting into the top 25 and it's just so disappointing to see this year after year with the way that Air Force schedules sure Army and Navy you know you can't you gotta schedule those teams and those aren't bad teams that have on the schedule but you've because you know that you're having two group of five teams there you got to schedule yourself a power five or you've got to go on schedule a better group of five or if you want to have a chance to put yourself forward as a top contender in the conference want to be respected nationally you have to go out and schedule tougher teams than this it's just it's disappointing to see a team as good as Air Force scheduling as badly as they do um four here and kind of building off that last point is an is an FCS fast it's not just Air Force every single Mountain West team is playing an FCS team and you you just hate to see it because this is not what the conference needs right now to stand out this is not a conference that's being looked at nationally as the best group of five this is a conference that is starting to slide into potentially the third slot overall when it comes to a group of five teams if you want your group of five Champion your conference Champion to have a chance at competing for the near six but more importantly next year uh the year in 2024 competing for the playoffs you have to have a conference that's seen as the best group of five conference that is what is the challenges facing Gloria Navarro's right now the situation uh that has been left here by Craig Thompson is that the Mountain West is on the decline it's on the decline nationally it's not competing well the East Coast bias the Sun Belt which has done a great job in conference expansion and being realignment being able to bring in some teams America Athletic Conference seems to be on the rebuild as well you know Sunbelt right now looks like they might be taking that spot soon in the media's eyes at least as that top group of five East Coast Bias conference America Athletic Conference because the East Coast fires because of their great propaganda that they have is going to remain as a top conference as well and the mount West is looking like they might slide into third place how do you fight that well you schedule East Coast teams so that you can get yourself in front of East Coast viewers so you can fight that East Coast bias so you can get yourself in front of the media and actually have a chance to be looked at as a contender as a conference but you also go out and you schedule tough teams and you schedule teams that okay maybe they're not going to be unbeatable like you don't want to have Alabama on every schedule but you want to be able to have group of five or FPS teams on the schedule that you can compete against the other conferences that you can rank up against an FCS team in this college football playoff committee's eyes is like a bye week you might as well not even played it I'm you know boys state is not you know blameless here they also have FCS school I love what Jeremiah is doing Boyd's day I am so I am advocating that I'm I'm so vocal in my support of him on all my social media platforms but the two things that I really disagree with him on is the fact that he thinks we should play in FCS school every year I really disagree with that and also the fact that we he wants to schedule west coast teams primarily that's something we'll talk about here in a second but FCS schools across the board and every single map this is an SEC you can't afford to have cupcake games you can't afford to have break games you need to have FBS opponents across the board and having so many FCS teams in a conference schedule like this and it's not like this is the first year it's happened I mean this is a rarity it's just that it pops out when you look at this and it's very very disappointing um so again the second thing and just leading off of what I was talking about just then with some of the things I disagree with is sticking to the West Coast you have two AAC teams you're playing uh Memphis and then uh I forget who the second team is that we're playing out of the AAC but you have two AAC teams here that the mount West is playing and then you have three Sunbelt teams if I've done my math right there JMU App State and Texas state are the three Sunbelt teams that the Mountain West is going to be playing and that's it that's the only three that's only five games that you're gonna play group of five versus group of five that anybody with a chance at throwing a vote at you really cares about and the rest are Mac teams Conference USA is not a great look again for the conference to be playing up against the two weakest conferences in college football Mac and Conference USA are not worth scheduling they are so weak it does nothing for you you need to be playing those two conferences that you're going to be looked at when you present your champion at the end of the year you know who you're going to be competing with you're not going to be competing with Conference USA and the Mac you're going to be competing with the Sun Belt and the American Athletic Conference those are the two team conferences that are going to be rising themselves to the top layer of the group of five that you're gonna have to be competing with that are going to be getting unfair rankings pre-season rankings in the top 25 American Athletic Conference has been in the past with some about has a chance of catching up to that there soon unfair preseason rankings unfair media attention more eyes looking at those teams because of when they play and the market that they end up playing in you're going to end up seeing those conferences be getting the majority of the looks and the mount West Conference because they don't have any comparisons head-to-head comparisons they're just comparing themselves against the West Coast teams that they played are going to drop themselves in the ranking again it's not SDS teams and what predominantly West Coast teams especially at the group of five level power five the fact that it's a power five team makes up for it a little bit I would prefer from round West teams to play East Coast Power five teams um but you know just for more eyes more viewership but the fact that you're playing group of five West Coast and FCS predominantly across the schedule really really weakens it as a whole last thing that really kind of pops out here right at the top last thing that pops out off the top here is that there's gonna be some very tough road opens here for a bunch of these Mountain West teams starting off with Boise State the first four you know four out of their five first games here are gonna be really really tough this is a gauntlet to come into especially with a new offensive coordinator that you've got and a freshman quarterback well not freshman quarterback anymore but a young offensive system you're playing Washington UCF San Diego State and Memphis and then right there in the middle you've got North Dakota that you're going to be going up against so you know that's easy game right there the FCS team but four out of those five two power five a tough conference game right off the bat and then Memphis that is a gauntlet but they're not the only team in the conference here they're jumping over to San Diego State they have some tough games after their first initial two games which should be pretty easy they then play UCLA Oregon State Boise State and Air Force four games that are probably the toughest on their entire schedule all in a row back to back to back it really works out there and boys takes favor there actually to have that because San Diego State is Challenges going to have to be coming off of a battle back-to-back battles against UCLA and Oregon State and then roll in and have to play Boise State Boise State actually rolling into San it was safe to play but then having to take boy State on and then the next week go face Air Force I mean that is a record right there where San Diego State could end up oh and four again this is not a record prediction but that is a tough Gauntlet they have to go through San Jose State five out of their first six games are pretty tough USC Oregon State Toledo team Mac team but a team that played pretty well there out of their conference last year went to their conference Championship game went and won their bowl game so that could be a team that's could challenge as well that Air Force and Boise State that is not an easy run uh Utah State they have Iowa Air Force JMU and Yukon right in the middle of all that they have Idaho state that shouldn't be much of a challenge UConn a team that is on the rise JMU a team that is coming their second year in the FBS and had a great season last year was A True Media darling there for the Sun Belt of course opening of Iowa and then poor poor poor Wyoming Texas Tech Portland State so before we say not so much a challenge but Texas Tech and then Texas and then App State all three of those teams App State team that wouldn't beat Texas A M last year all three of those teams could are going to just absolutely Crush Wyoming I really hope that they can come through at least one win in the three of those but when you got to play two Texas Big 12 teams and then a team from the Sun Belt that beat a Texas team last year out of the power five that is a tough tough Gauntlet this is his conference schedule that it's not as exciting as it could be the power five teams coming to visit that's awesome that is a highlight there are also some low points a lot of FCS teams across the board not a lot of opportunities for the top dogs in the conference to shine and also not a lot of opportunities to stack up against those East Coast teams it's a it's a schedule though that the Mountain West needs to run through they need to have a good season this year they didn't show up well last year things are shifting around conference realignment is happening at the the Outlook is not the same as it was a few years ago the Mountain West cannot stand strong and say confidently we are the best group of five conference they didn't prove that last year I still believe that they are especially with how things to shake it up with conference realignment but they have got to prove that this season with a much better non-conference record overall than they did last season and they've got to get some power five wins some of these teams that are going to be playing these Premier teams have got to pull off an upset that's going to be opportunities when you're playing Oregon State at home at your home stadium Texas Tech at your home stadium you know there's going to be a Washington state at your home stadium even though you're not the best team in the Mountain West one of the top teams in the Mountain West you have a chance to pull off an upset here and the Mountain West needs that this is a big Prove It season for the Mountain West because again all of this for 2023 for everyone in the group of five this is a setup for 2024. this is a practice year this is a build your resume here for the playoffs playoffs coming in in 2024 the highest ranked group of five Champions no longer going to the nearest Six they're going to the playoffs that is what this season is about it is building for the playoffs and the Mountain West needs a strong season to be able to give their Champion a chance in 2024 to build off to have some teams some in the preseason top 25s or coming off of you 10 win Seasons multiple teams in the bowl games you need to be able to look back when you're starting 2024 you need to look back on 2023 and say that was a strong season for the Mountain West and anybody who came through that and then has a good 2024 deserves to be the champion that they're going to look back and say Mountain West put themselves in a spot to be the top group of five now in 2024 their Champion can go and represent in the playoffs that's what this year is about every group of five Team every group of five conference is competing for that the Mountain West is in the battle for their existence potentially this season it's going to be an exciting time I can't wait until the first kickoff happens uh it's gonna be a blast let's hope that it's a good year for Mountain West thanks so much for watching make sure you subscribe let me know what your thoughts are on this schedule especially from your team's perspective what you thought of my takes this year on this car with my takes on this conference schedule here for the Mountain West like I said thanks so much for watching make sure you subscribe and as always go big blue