I am going to stand at the bottom of the standings and work my way up. The Mountain West Conference has no "tie-breaker" policy used to decide teams ending with the same in-conference record. However, when publishing their year-end standings, they always put the team with the better overall record first. If they had the same overall record too, they took the winner in the head-to-head matchup. I will do the same. Without further ado:
Number 9: UNLV 4-8 (1-7)
It's tough to imagine a team coming off 3 consecutive 2-win seasons could be disappointed with a 4-win season, but it might be so. They have a lot of young talent on the defense and the offense should be VASTLY improved, of course, it was so bad they'd have to be improved.
The loss of Beau Bell is huge as he was Mr. Everything for them at middle linebacker. The defense should come around as the season progresses. Look for their hot-shot MLB recruit Colin Shumate to see some time by season's end.
Frank "the Tank" should be able to run a bit, especially over some of the smaller D-lines in the conference. Since the arrival of Sanford's high-powered spread option offense, he has yet to find consistent play from a quarterback. If, and that's a big IF, Dixon or Clayton can emerge as a playmaker, they may actually score 25+ points a game and get a 5th win.
Good wins: Iowa State and Nevada!
Bad losses: SDSU, Utah (because it will be as big a blowout as you've seen in a while-the Utes have heard about that 27-0 beat-down a little too long to not do something about it)
Potential momentum-changer game: CSU could get them rolling the right way...
Number 8: SDSU 4-8 (1-7)
The loss of O'Connell looms large, especially with the loss of two of the big targets at wide-out. That's true any time you lose an NFL-caliber quarterback, especially a QB who led your team in rushing as well as passing. Attiyah Henderson showed some promise last year at RB early in the year, but his small frame wasn't ready to handle a big load. If that changes this year, he could make some highlight-reel type runs.
The defense should be stronger against the pass, as they return two shut-down corners, well at times they were shut-down corners. Run defense is going to be their big question mark. Chuck Long is known for his toughness, if he can teach his backers and especially his D-line to get nasty in the trenches, that could go a long way to sustained success.
The offense is going to be bad. There really isn't much more to say about it. The nice part is that they have 3 gimmes to get things figured out. But after that things get pretty tough with games against TCU, Air Force (bad rush defense comes in to play here!), and New Mexico.
[Side Note: Dan Uggla just made two errors in the 10th inning of the All-Star game, that's pathetic...don't vote for him next year, he just cost the Cubs home-field advantage]
I think they'll break out of the gates early (3-1), and falter as the season winds down (0-7 before winning against UNLV the last game of the year). That is what usually happens with young teams in college football, and there will be a lot of freshman and sophomores seeing time this year for the Aztecs.
Good wins: Lacking...UNLV?
Bad losses: none really, Air Force and Wyoming might be considered bad losses. I don't think they'll lose to anyone they shouldn't (their schedule has cupcakes and superior opponents).
Potential momentum-changers: @TCU. That would be a big win, and a big step in the right direction for this program, full of talent, never bringing it all together. However, TCU will be coming off a tough loss against Oklahoma and will want to take out their frustration on the next opponent.
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