Troy Calhoun led the Falcons to a 9-4 record in his 1st season after replacing the incredibly successful Fisher DeBerry who retired after 27 at the helm. Only 8 starters return but Air Force has a schedule that will help and in Colorado Springs it’s more about the system than the personal.

The Cougars have won 11 games the last two seasons for Bronco Mendenhall. Winning 11 games this season will be a disappointment in Provo, BYU returns 9 starters on offense and although they must replace much of the defense, they will reload, expect them to be in the hunt for a BCS bid.

The Rams have been by Sonny Lubbick for the past 15 years, but the Lubbick era is over and new man is former quarterback Steve Fairchild. Fairchild has been an NFL offensive coordinator, so you can expect the offense to improve but the talent level has declined and the rebuilding process has begun.

Rocky Long's Lobos have been to 5 bowls the last 6 years, last year's "home" bowl victory in The New Mexico Bowl over Nevada ended a 46 year drought since their last bowl victory.

This is year 3 of the Chuck Long era and they have just 7 victories in that time. The team appears to be set defensively but on offense they’ll struggle. The must replace 4 starters upfront and their entire backfield, it might be another long season in San Diego, but they do have Torrey Pines.

Gary Patterson will be entering his 8th year at the helm and under his guidance the Horned Frogs have been a perennial bowl team. TCU has been bowl bound nine of the last ten seasons and you expect to see them contend for the Mt West crown and possibly an upper tier bowl invite.

Three years, six wins not what Mike Sanford envisioned when he took the job. They return 9 starters on offense and 5 on defense but the heats on in the dessert and the locals refuse to support anything less than a winner. Septembers schedule is tough and spell the end of Sanford era at UNLV.

Kyle Whittingham has proven to be a solid head coaching by winning 24 games in three seasons in the post Urban Meyer era, including nine last year. The Ute’s return 14 starters and if the offense can improve they’ll contend for the conference title and could be a BCS party crasher.

The Cowboys appear to have enough pieces in place to be earn a post-season bowl bid. They return 14 starters, but the big issue is can they score and can they cut down the turnovers. Last year they were 106th in scoring and 112th in turnovers, just too much to overcome for the Wyoming defense.