2007 Mountain West Conference preview

This season, the TCU Horned Frogs intend to remember the Mountain West Conference schedule. The Frogs were so focused on establishing themselves in their home state last season that they apparently were too satisfied with a victory over Texas Tech. They responded with losses to BYU and Utah, effectively knocking the defending champions out of the MWC race after two games. So even though the Frogs won their last eight games, including six league contests, they settled for second place.

TCU faces a similar scenario this year, visiting Texas on Sept. 8. Coach Gary Patterson’s team is sure to have learned from last September’s experience and should avoid a letdown, regardless of what happens in Austin. And unlike the past two seasons, potential big games with Utah and BYU are spaced throughout the schedule, on Thursday nights in October and November that could decide the championship.

Predicted Order of Finish
1.	TCU
2.	BYU
3.	Utah
4.	New Mexico
5.	Wyoming
6.	Colorado State
7.	Air Force
8.	San Diego State
9.	UNLV

The Frogs’ defense, featuring linemen Tommy Blake and Chase Ortiz and linebacker Jason Phillips, is loaded again. That gives TCU an edge over BYU, which went unbeaten in the league in 2006 but must replace three offensive stars: quarterback John Beck, running back Curtis Brown and tight end Jonny Harline. The Cougars, though, should feature the league’s top offensive line, a unit that welcomes back four starters.

Utah’s situation is unusual. The Utes have the league’s best quarterback, even though he did not play last season. Brian Johnson redshirted following knee surgery that ended his season in 2005, when he ranked fourth in the country in total offense. If Johnson returns to form — and there is no reason to suggest that he won’t — Utah should be able to put plenty of points on the board this fall.

After those top three, the standings will be jumbled, as always. New Mexico and Wyoming have ambitions of contending for the title, after being bowl-eligible last season.

Colorado State should improve with the return from injury of running back Kyle Bell, and Air Force will be intriguing to watch with a revamped offense, with coach Fisher DeBerry having retired after 23 seasons of directing a wishbone scheme. Troy Calhoun, formerly the Houston Texans’ offensive coordinator, will bring a more modern spread offense to the Academy.

San Diego State and UNLV hope to make progress in the second and third seasons, respectively, for coaches Chuck Long and Mike Sanford.

Mountain West Notebook

Cougars take all-time lead
With a dramatic 33–31 victory over Utah via a touchdown pass on the last play of the game, BYU overtook the Utes for the best record in the eight years of Mountain West play. The Cougars are 38–20 in conference games, followed by Utah (37–21), Colorado State (35–23), New Mexico (33–25), Air Force (26–32), San Diego State (24–34), Wyoming (17–41) and UNLV (16–42).

TCU actually has the best winning percentage, having gone 14–2 in two seasons as a conference member.

Three-for-three
Coaches in every conference, including the Mountain West, always insist that no team will go through league play unbeaten. Yet it has happened in the MWC for three consecutive years, with three different champions: Utah in 2004, TCU in 2005 and BYU in 2006. Of the three, however, only Utah did not have a game that was decided in overtime or on the last play of regulation.

Staying home in December
The MWC has four bowl tie-ins for its nine teams, in addition to the possibility of Bowl Championship Series qualification. Uniquely, all four of the conference-affiliated bowls are staged in members’ home stadiums: the Las Vegas Bowl, the New Mexico Bowl, the Poinsettia Bowl (San Diego) and the Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth). Last season, only New Mexico played at home in the postseason. League rules allow a school to play in its hometown bowl once every three years. The league is 14–12 in bowl games over the past eight seasons, led by Utah’s 6–0 mark. MWC schools went 3–1 in a five-day period last December, with victories by TCU (over Northern Illinois), BYU (over Oregon) and Utah (over Tulsa) and a loss for New Mexico (to San Jose State). 

DeBerry steps down at Air Force
After 23 years as Air Force’s head coach and 27 years in all at the Academy, Fisher DeBerry retired, resulting in the loss of one of the Mountain West’s best-known figures. DeBerry posted a 169–107–1 record, including a 35–11 mark against Army and Navy in the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy series. He was replaced by one of his former players, Houston Texans offensive coordinator Troy Calhoun.

The league’s other notable coaching change was New Mexico’s loss of offensive coordinator Bob Toledo, who became Tulane’s head coach after one season in Albuquerque. Dave Baldwin, formerly of Michigan State, replaced Toledo.

UNLV also has a new offensive coordinator, former Army coach Todd Berry. More recently, Berry was Miami’s quarterbacks coach.

Streaks carry over into ’07 season
BYU (10 games) and TCU (eight) will open the season with two of the longest winning streaks in the country. Each school will be severely tested Sept. 8 when BYU visits UCLA and TCU plays at Texas. But if either team pulls off an upset that day, its streak could last until Nov. 8, when the Cougars and Horned Frogs meet in Provo.

Challenging the BCS schools
The BYU-UCLA and TCU-Texas games are two of the key contests for Mountain West Conference schools, which welcome the opportunity to take on teams from the leagues with automatic access to the BCS. Last season, the league was a collective 4–10 against BCS teams, with three wins over the Big 12 and one over the Pac-10. Among other big-name schools that MWC teams will be taking on this year are Louisville, Notre Dame, California, Oregon State and Wisconsin.

Getting it done in time
Mountain West schools should be advised to avoid being tied at the end of regulation play in non-conference games. In overtime games last year, Wyoming lost to Virginia and Syracuse and BYU fell to Boston College. Those losses dropped the league’s all-time record to 2–8 in non-conference overtime contests.

Thursday night specials
Part of the Mountain West’s motivation for creating its own television network (The Mtn.) was to control kickoff dates and times. This year, the conference has scheduled six TV tripleheaders on Saturdays. Yet two of the games that are likely to help determine the championship were positioned for Thursday night telecasts: Utah at TCU (Oct. 18) and TCU at BYU (Nov. 8). Utah and TCU are meeting on a Thursday for the third year in a row.

Earlier finish
Unlike last season, when the conference schedule stretched into December and some teams had two open dates, all nine MWC schools will conclude the regular season by Nov. 24. The 13-week schedule means that no team will have more than one open date and two schools — San Diego State and Air Force — will play 12 straight weeks. That’s a disadvantage for Air Force, whose athletes face a demanding lifestyle at the Academy. SDSU plays four non-conference games, followed by eight straight league contests.

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