Dan Mullen looks to put on a show in Las Vegas.
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Article by WestCoastCFB
1. Dan Mullen (UNLV)
Dan Mullen returns to the sidelines as the coach of UNLV. He comes to Las Vegas as one of the most accomplished coaches in the country with 103 career wins and he has had six seasons where his teams have finished in the Top 25. Expect UNLV and Boise State to battle it out for the conference title once again in 2025.
2. Bronco Mendenhall (Utah State)
The Mountain West has some quality coaching and that is evident with Dan Mullen at the top of the list and now Bronco Mendenhall who has 140 career wins in the 2nd spot. Mendenhall has succeeded at BYU, Virginia and New Mexico and that success should continue in Logan. Throughout his career, Mendenhall has had six teams finish in the Top 25 of the Coaches or AP Poll.
3. Spencer Danielson (Boise State)
Spencer Danielson looks like he could be a rising star in the coaching world after leading Boise State to the College Football Playoff in 2024. The key now is to see if he can without Ashton Jeanty and Dirk Koetter contributing. Since taking over the Boise State job, Danielson is 15-3 and 10-0 in conference games. The three losses have come to UCLA, Oregon and Penn State.
4. Troy Calhoun (Air Force)
At the four spot we have another coaching legend in Troy Calhoun who has 135 career wins. Calhoun has five career ten win seasons and thirteen bowl appearances. Air Force went 5-7 in 2024 but the last time the Falcons won five games, Calhoun followed that up with an 11 win season in 2019.
5. Matt Entz (Fresno State)
Entz was a sneaky good hire for Fresno State after going 60-11 at North Dakota State and winning two national titles. Fresno State found similar success when they hired Kalen DeBoer who had won big at lower levels and they are now looking for history to repeat itself. If Entz wins at Fresno State, expect him to get looks from Power Four programs very soon.
6. Jay Norvell (Colorado State)
Jay Norvell just knows how to win. He took Nevada from 3 wins in his first season to 8 wins by year two. At Colorado State, Norvell won 3 games in year 1 and then had 8 wins in year 3. The next step for Norvell is to prove he can reach 10 wins and if he can do that he could see interest from bigger programs.
7. Jimmy Rogers (WSU)
WSU went the Fresno State route and found a winner at the lower levels. Rogers is just 37 years old and went 27-3 at South Dakota State. If he wins at WSU, I'd expect him to get looks for the Arizona job if Brent Brennan doesn't work out.
8. Ken Niumatalolo (SJSU)
The Mountain West is full of proven winners. Ken Niumatalolo came to San Jose State after racking up 109 wins with Navy. His tenure did not end well, however, with just 11 wins in his final 3 seasons there. In year 1 with the Spartans, the Hawaii native went a respectable 7-6.
9. Jeff Choate (Nevada)
We are seeing a lot of winners from the FCS level getting chances at FBS jobs. Choate went to the FCS Semifinal in 2019 with Montana State before taking the Texas Co-DC position. At Nevada, Choate won just 3 games last season but he nearly upset both Boise State and SMU who reached the College Football Playoff and did beat Oregon State. Expect the Wolf Pack to make a big jump in 2025.
10. Jason Eck (New Mexico)
New Mexico went the FCS route as well and called up Jason Eck to the big leagues. Eck became a hot commodity after he nearly upset Oregon and went on to win 10 games in 2024.
11. Trent Bray (Oregon State)
The ranking of Trent Bray at 11 is largely due to a small sample size. He has only been a head coach for 1 season and went 5-7 with a bunch of disappointing performances. The future does look bright though with Maalik Murphy coming in at QB.
12. Sean Lewis (San Diego State)
Lewis is a respected mind on the offensive side of the ball but his track record as a head coach leaves some question marks on if he can win big. His career record now stands at 27-40 after going 3-9 at San Diego State in year 1.
13. Timmy Chang (Hawaii)
Chang was named the Hawaii head coach after serving as the Nevada WR coach in 2021. He's a former legend as a player but he never served as an FBS OC. His career record at Hawaii is now 13-25 and year 4 could be when he needs to reach a bowl game in order to keep his job.
14. Jay Sawvel (Wyoming)
Sawvel had a disappointing debut with the Cowboys while going just 3-9. The Cowboys did end the season on a high note with a win over WSU and a close loss to Boise State.
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