Each summer since Boise State joined the Mountain West Conference, the media has feasted on stories about Coach Pete, conference changes and great QB's during the annual Media Days. Boise State first started coming to Las Vegas to preview the up coming season July of 2011. At that time, they were a 2 time Fiesta Bowl winning team and were loaded with stars and more BCS game hopes for the Mountain West. BYU, Utah and TCU had either left the conference or were planning too. Kellen Moore was on top of the world and Ryan Lindley of SDSU was expected to be a NFL prospect. Coach Pete was busy explaining why he didn't think bigger was better and sincerely said he had no intentions of leaving Boise State. In the summer of 2012, Boise State was off to the Big East, TCU had left and the conference was reeling from a Conf USA merger that was cancelled and instead added San Jose State and Utah State. Kellen Moore was gone and the big QB on campus was Fresno State's Derek Carr. Coach Pete speculation had really quieted down and most thought he was rejuvenated by the Big East move and life after Kellen challenge. Last year, the Coach Pete is Beat drum was loud and the national media got the story that he could leave. Boise State was staying in the Mountain West but nobody knew when the merry go round of college football conference movement would stop. Derek Carr was obviously the best QB of the conference but San Jose's David Fales and Wyoming's Brett Smith were considered NFL guys.
Well, now what?
The 2014 Media Days begin Tuesday and things have changed in the area of Coach Pete, conference speculation and great MWC QB's.
Coach Pete: These questions will be answered by Bryan Harsin. Can the Assistant turn into the Professor? If we are thinking that Harsin can join Pete as one of the greats in college football , it is unlikely.Sporting News ranked the top College Football coaches and three of the Top 10 were hired to replace a legend at the same school they once served as an assistant. Saban, Spurrier, Meyer, Stoops and Kelly all have done it differently. As did Petersen, Shaw and Fisher. It's possible but not a slam dunk.
Conference-a-palozza: The focus has turned to if the MWC can keep up with the Power 5. Looks like the big schools have shut the door to expansion and are preparing to hoard all the money. The talking points won't be about getting new schools to join or holding onto rising stars. Rather, who can afford stipends and who can't? Seems like a new reality is creeping in and the middle class is being pushed down to lower class.
QB's: The best player, Utah State's Chuckie Keeton has a major knee injury to over come and almost an entirely new offensive line. Colorado States Garret Grayson was a slow starter last season and only had 23 tds vs 11 interceptions. Nevada's Cody Fajardo, while a true dual threat QB, only has 39 TD passes in 3 years and has never started more then 8 games in a row due to injury. BUT, if Keeton/Fajardo puts it together they can dominate the MWC and be a 3-4th round NFL pick.
It's time to get these new questions answered.
