Calhoun: Mountain West is better this season

LAS VEGAS • In 2009, the Mountain West Conference went 25-16 against nonconference opponents, sent five teams to bowls and had three teams ranked among the top 18 squads in the nation at the end of the season.
And Air Force coach Troy Calhoun thinks the league will be better in 2010.
“I think this year, from top to bottom, will be the strongest this league has been,” he said Tuesday at the league’s media days at Red Rock Resort.
Calhoun pointed to the number of returning starters — eight teams return 12 or more offensive and defensive starters, including San Diego State and defending league champ TCU, which return 17 and 16, respectively.
And, specifically, he noted the quality returning starting quarterbacks.
“I think there’s something about whenever you’ve got a guy that’s been underneath center and he’s coming back,” Calhoun said.
Six of the nine MWC teams have returning starting quarterbacks, led by TCU’s Andy Dalton, the 2009 MWC Offensive Player of the Year and the 2010 MWC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year.
Utah has sophomore Jordan Wynn, who took over as the Utes’ starter in the second half of their eighth game, and then started their final five, facing TCU and BYU and capping the season by winning Offensive Most Valuable Player honors in the Poinsettia Bowl.
San Diego State returns junior Ryan Lindley, a two-year starter who passed for 3,054 yards and 23 touchdowns in 2009.
Wyoming boasts sophomore Austyn Carta-Samuels, the 2009 MWC Freshman of the Year.
UNLV has Omar Clayton.
And Calhoun has Tim Jefferson, the 2008 MWC Freshman of the Year and a two-year starter.
“That’s always a big factor,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said of having an experienced signal-caller. “Our best seasons at Utah have come with an established starter in place. I think if you look at the past several years, I think that’s with most teams. It’s no guarantee that you’re going to have a great year if you have an established starter, but it’s a great starting point.
“The quarterback position is so critical that if you’re unsettled there, it seems like the rest of the team can kind of have that unsettled feeling. But if you’re solidified at that position, a lot of things seem to fall into place.”
And it’s not as if the three schools without returning starters have no options.
BYU hasn’t named a starting quarterback, but freshman Jake Heaps was considered the best prep signal caller in the nation in 2009 and is “extraordinarily talented,” Calhoun said. And Colorado State and New Mexico both have highly touted freshmen.
New Mexico coach Michael Locksley said he had confidence in either Tarean Austin or Stump Godfrey to start as freshmen, and he noted that the Lobos’ no-huddle offense takes much of the pressure off the quarterback.
“We’ve played a true freshman in this system the last two stops I’ve been,” Locksley said. “We played Chris Leak as a true freshman at Florida in this system. And then when we went to Illinois, we played Juice Williams as a freshman in this system. So it’s very friendly for young quarterbacks.”
In addition to returning players, Calhoun also mentioned that the league’s coaches are more established. Three programs had first-year coaches in 2009, but only one — UNLV’s Bobby Hauck — is new this year.
“When you look at our players and how they understand the expectations of how we’re going to go to class and how we’re going to represent ourselves in the community and how we’re going to play and how we’re going to lift and how we’re going to run, I think all of that part of it is really — I don’t want to use the word easier — but it’s more familiar to them,” second-year San Diego State coach Brady Hoke said.