2016 Mountain West football previews, from Hawaii to Boise State

Confused? Check out the advanced-stats glossary here.

Through what is now more than five years of writing these offseason previews, I have established certain benchmarks along the way. “Here’s where I talk about hard jobs [at ULM, Wyoming, Hawaii, etc.].” “Here’s where I note Marshall recruits better than everybody else in Conference USA.” “Here’s where I talk myself into North Carolina/USC.” “Here’s where I disappoint everyone by talking about how incredible Alabama is going to be.”

Confused? Check out the advanced-stats glossary here.

In this preview series, I frequently quote my previous year’s pieces as a means of table-setting. The quotes frequently serve as a reminder of things I got right. But that’s definitely not always the case.

At the end of each conference run-through (previously: Sun Belt, Conference USA), I take a look at how I perceive the conference’s balance of power heading into the season. This is in no way based on schedules, so they are not predictions. This is just how I would rank the teams after writing thousands of words about each of them.

On average, the Mountain West was worse than the MAC last year. The conference boasted four teams in the S&P+ top 55 but placed six teams 99th or worse.

Confused? Check out the advanced-stats glossary here.

During a disappointing 7-6 in 2014, an increasingly talented SDSU continued to struggle on offense and ranked just 83rd overall in S&P+. Rocky Long was at a bit of a crossroads, toeing the border of Glen Mason territory, the zone of a coach’s tenure in which the guy who has raised the bar fails to raise it further. Long knows this well -- during his tenure at New Mexico, Long engineered bowl trips in five of six seasons between 2002-07, but he only once topped eight wins.

Confused? Check out the advanced-stats glossary here.

Former Notre Dame and Missouri head coach Dan Devine used to call himself a fussbudget. It’s a great word that I think I have only seen used by Devine and in a Peanuts cartoon. A fussbudget is a worrier, a perfectionist with a permanent wince.

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Hughes Stadium’s days are numbered. Picturesque and isolated, it has served as the off-campus home of Colorado State football since 1968, when it replaced a tiny, on-campus facility called Colorado Field.

Confused? Check out the advanced-stats glossary here.

There is an order. Group of five programs can and do occasionally break through and play at an extraordinarily high level: Western Kentucky in 2015, Marshall in 2014, UCF in 2013, Utah State, Fresno State, and San Jose State in 2012. It happens almost every year. A given set of diamond-in-the-rough recruits performs at a high level, and when that group and, most likely, their head coach, departs, the program returns to its previous state.

Confused? Check out the advanced-stats glossary here.

On paper, my sentiment in last year’s Nevada preview was right. With turnover at quarterback, the Wolf Pack fell from 64th to 91st in Off. S&P+. With inexperience in the secondary, they fell from 87th to 100th in Def. S&P+.