For all that has changed in college athletics, Boise State being favored in the Mountain West remains a remarkable constant. The Broncos were picked for the 17th consecutive year to win a conference or division title, including all 14 years they have been in the Mountain West. Boise State's Spencer Danielson, like most coaches, didn't want to put much stock into the media prediction, and he has history as his best argument.
As then-interim coach, Danielson led the Broncos to the Mountain West championship last season , but that was the program's first conference title since 2019. “There’s a lot of great excitement and buzz and our players deserve that, but we’ve got to continue to earn it every single day," Danielson said. UNLV is expected to be Boise State's biggest challenger.
The Rebels are coming off their first bowl trip in a decade, which led to Barry Odom being named conference coach of the year in his first season. He takes a different approach from Danielson when it comes to preseason polls. He said his goal is to be at the top of any such conference list, be it the preseason poll or recruiting rankings.
“It’s great for our program and some validation on the things that we’re doing,” Odom said. "But when you look at preseason polls, last year we were ninth. I’m so glad that we got to play the games because we were able to earn what we got.
This year, I’m going to use being preseason No. 2 as great motivation for our team.” Boise State and UNLV hav.