The 2023 Mountain West Conference football season was the 25th season of college football for the Mountain West Conference. It was part of the 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season. 12 teams competed in the conference during the season. The season began on August 26 and concluded on December 2 with the Mountain West Conference Football Championship Game. The full schedule for the season was released on March 2, 2023.
Conference changes Prior to the 2023 season, the Mountain West Conference announced that it would eliminate divisions, with the two teams with the best conference records now playing in the championship game instead of division winners.
Preseason Preseason Poll The Preseason Media Poll was released July 19, 2023. Boise State has been selected as the preseason favorite to claim the 2023 Mountain West football regular-season title.
1Boise State 433 (28) 2Air Force 364 (2) 3Fresno State 351 (5) 4San Diego State 338 (1) 5San Jose State 293 6Wyoming 281 7Colorado State 201 8Utah State 194 9UNLV 177 (1) 10Hawai'i 102 11Nevada 92 12New Mexico 60
Preseason All-Conference team Mountain West preseason awards and all-conference teams were announced on July 19.
Awards Position Player Class Position Team Award Offensive Player of the Year Chevan Cordeiro Sr. QBSan Jose State Defensive Player of the Year Easton Gibbs Jr. LBWyoming Special Teams Player of the Year Jack Browning Sr. PK/PSan Diego State
All-conference team Position Player Class Team First Team Offense QB Chevan Cordeiro Sr.San Jose State RB John Lee Eldridge III Sr.Air Force George Holani Sr.Boise State WR Tory Horton Sr.Colorado State Justin Lockhart Jr.San Jose State TE Mark Redman Sr.San Diego State OL Thor Paglialong Sr.Air Force Cade Beresford Sr.Boise State Mose Vavao Sr.Fresno State Cade Bennett Jr.San Diego State Frank Crum Sr.Wyoming First Team Defense DL Payton Zdroik Jr.Air Force Mohamed Kamara Sr.Colorado State Devo Bridges Sr.Fresno State Jordan Bertagnole Jr.Wyoming DeVonne Harris Jr.Wyoming LB DJ Schramm Sr.Boise State Cody Moon Jr.San Diego State Easton Gibbs Jr.Wyoming DB Trey Taylor Sr.Air Force Jack Howell Jr.Air Force Cam Stone Sr.Hawai'i Ike Larsen So.Utah State First Team Special Teams PK John Hoyland Jr.Wyoming P Jack Browning Sr.San Diego State PR Tory Horton Sr.Colorado State KR Christian Washington So.New Mexico
Coaches Coaching changes On November 28, 2022, UNLV announced that they had fired head coach Marcus Arroyo. Arroyo posted a 7–23 record with the school over three years. UNLV announced on December 6, 2022, that former Missouri head coach Barry Odom would become the new head coach for the 2023 season.
Head coaches Team Head coach Years at school Overall record Record at school MW recordAir Force Troy Calhoun 17 121–78 121–78 72–51Boise State Andy Avalos 3 17–9 17–9 13–3Colorado State Jay Norvell 2 36–35 3–9 26–22Fresno State Jeff Tedford 5 118–75 36–18 23–9Hawaii Timmy Chang 2 3–10 3–10 2–6Nevada Ken Wilson 2 2–10 2–10 0–8New Mexico Danny Gonzales 4 7–24 7–24 3–20San Diego State Brady Hoke 6 101–84 36–24 23–15San Jose State Brent Brennan 7 27–42 27–42 19–28UNLV Barry Odom 1 25–25 0–0 0–0Utah State Blake Anderson 3 68–47 17–10 11–5Wyoming Craig Bohl 10 156–88 52–56 32–38
Mid-season changes On November 12, Boise State announced that they had fired head coach Andy Avalos. Boise State's defensive coordinator Spencer Danielson was named as the interim head coach. On December 3, Danielson was promoted to the school's permanent head coach.
Post-season changes On November 13, San Diego State head coach Brady Hoke announced that he would retire at the conclusion of the season. On November 29, the school announced that Sean Lewis would become the head coach for the 2024 season. Lewis had previously been offensive coordinator at Colorado and the head coach of Kent State. On November 25, New Mexico announced that they had fired head coach Danny Gonzales after four seasons as head coach. Gonzales had posted a 11–32 record during his time at the school. On December 6, New Mexico announced Bronco Mendenhall as the new head coach for the 2024 season. Mendenhall had previously been head coach at BYU and Virginia. On December 1, Nevada announced that they had fired head coach Ken Wilson. Wilson had gone 4–20 in his two seasons with the school. On December 4, Nevada announced Jeff Choate as the new head coach for 2024. Choate had previously been the co-defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach at Texas and the head coach of Montana State. On December 6, Wyoming head coach Craig Bohl announced that we would retire following Wyoming's 2023 bowl game. Wyoming's defensive coordinator Jay Sawvel was promoted to head coach for 2024.
Rankings
Pre Wk1 Wk2 Wk3 Wk4 Wk5 Wk6 Wk7 Wk8 Wk9 Wk10 Wk11 Wk12 Wk13 Wk14 Final Air Force AP RV RV RV 22 19 17 RV RVC RV RV RV RV RV RV RV 22 19 17 RV RV RV RV CFP Not released 25 Boise State AP RV C RV RV RV CFP Not released Colorado State AP C CFP Not released Fresno State AP RV RV RV 25 24 RV RV RV RV RV RV RV C RV RV RV RV RV 24 RV RV RV RV 25 RV RV RV CFP Not released Hawaii AP C CFP Not released Nevada AP C CFP Not released New Mexico AP C CFP Not released San Diego State AP C CFP Not released San Jose State AP C RV RV CFP Not released UNLV AP RV RV RV C RV RV RV RV RV RV RV RV CFP Not released Utah State AP C CFP Not released Wyoming AP RV RV RV RV RVC RV RV RV RV RV RV RV RV RV CFP Not released
+ Legend Improvement in ranking Drop in ranking Not ranked previous week No change in ranking from previous week RV Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll т Tied with team above or below also with this symbol
Schedule The schedule for the 2023 Mountain West football season was announced on March 2, 2023.
Index to colors and formattingMW member wonMW member lostMW teams in bold All times Mountain time.
Week 0
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Championship Game
Postseason
Bowl Games
Legend Mountain West win Mountain West loss
Bowl gameDateSiteTelevisionTime (MST)Mountain West teamOpponentScoreAttendance New Mexico Bowl December 16 University Stadium • Albuquerque, NM ESPN 3:45 p.m. Fresno State New Mexico State W 37–10 30,822 LA Bowl December 16 SoFi Stadium • Inglewood, CA ABC 5:30 p.m. Boise State UCLA L 22–35 32,780 Armed Forces Bowl December 23 Amon G. Carter Stadium • Fort Worth, TX ABC 1:30 p.m. Air Force James Madison W 31–21 30,828 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl December 23 Albertsons Stadium • Boise, ID ESPN 1:30 p.m. Utah State Georgia State L 22–45 12,168 Hawaii Bowl December 23 Clarence T. C. Ching Athletics Complex • Honolulu, HI ESPN 8:30 p.m. San Jose State Coastal Carolina L 14–24 7,089 Guaranteed Rate Bowl December 26 Chase Field • Phoenix, AZ ESPN 7:00 p.m. UNLV Kansas L 36–49 Arizona Bowl December 30 Arizona Stadium • Tucson, AZ Barstool / The CW 2:00 p.m. Wyoming Toledo W 16–15
Selection of teams Bowl eligible (7): Air Force, Boise State, Fresno State, San Jose State, UNLV, Utah State, Wyoming Bowl ineligible (5): Colorado State, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State
Mountain West records vs other conferences
2023–2024 records against non-conference foes:
Power Conferences 5RecordACC0–0Big Ten1–2Big 121–3Pac-121–10Notre Dame0–0SEC1–2Power 5 Total4–17Other FBS ConferencesRecordAmerican1–1C-USA4–1Independents (Excluding Notre Dame)2–1MAC2–1Sun Belt1–2Other FBS Total10–6FCS OpponentsRecordFootball Championship Subdivision11–1Total Non-Conference Record25–24
Postseason
Power Five ConferencesRecordACC0–0 Big 12 0–1Big Ten0–0Notre Dame0–0Pac-12 0–1SEC 0–0Power 5 Total0–2Other FBS ConferencesRecordAmerican 0–0C–USA 1–0Independents (Excluding Notre Dame) 0–0MAC 1–0Sun Belt 1-2Other FBS Total 3-2Total Bowl Record3–4
Mountain West vs Power 5 matchups This is a list of games the Mountain West has scheduled versus power conference teams (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12, Notre Dame and SEC). All rankings are from the current AP Poll at the time of the game.
Date Conference Visitor Home Site Score August 26 SEC Hawaii Vanderbilt FirstBank Stadium • Nashville, TN L 28–35 August 26 Pac-12 San Jose State No. 6 USC Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum • Los Angeles, CA L 28–56 September 1 Pac-12 Stanford Hawaii Clarence T. C. Ching Athletics Complex • Honolulu, HI L 24–37 September 2 Pac-12 Boise State No. 10 Washington Husky Stadium • Seattle, WA L 19–56 September 2 Pac-12 Washington State Colorado State Canvas Stadium • Fort Collins, CO L 24–50 September 2 Big Ten Fresno State Purdue Ross–Ade Stadium • West Lafayette, IN W 39–35 September 2 Pac-12 Nevada No. 6 USC Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum • Los Angeles, CA L 14–66 September 2 SEC New Mexico No. 23 Texas A&M Kyle Field • College Station, TX L 10–52 September 2 Big Ten Utah State No. 25 Iowa Kinnick Stadium • Iowa City, IA L 14–24 September 2 Big 12 Texas Tech Wyoming War Memorial Stadium • Laramie, WY W 35–33 2OT September 3 Pac-12 No. 18 Oregon State San Jose State CEFCU Stadium • San Jose, CA L 17–42 September 9 Big 12 UCF Boise State Albertsons Stadium • Boise, ID L 16–18 September 9 Pac-12 UCLA San Diego State Snapdragon Stadium • San Diego, CA L 10–35 September 9 Big Ten UNLV No. 2 Michigan Michigan Stadium • Ann Arbor, MI L 7–35 September 16 Pac-12 Colorado State No. 18 Colorado Folsom Field • Boulder, CO L 35–43 2OT September 16 Pac-12 Fresno State Arizona State Sun Devil Stadium • Tempe, AZ W 29–0 September 16 Pac-12 Hawaii No. 13 Oregon Autzen Stadium • Eugene, OR L 10–55 September 16 Big 12 Kansas Nevada Mackay Stadium • Reno, NV L 24–31 September 16 Pac-12 San Diego State No. 16 Oregon State Reser Stadium • Corvallis, OR L 9–26 September 16 SEC Vanderbilt UNLV Allegiant Stadium • Paradise, NV W 40–37 September 16 Big 12 Wyoming No. 4 Texas Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium • Austin, TX L 10–31
Mountain West vs Group of Five matchups The following games include Mountain West teams competing against teams from the American, C-USA, MAC, or Sun Belt.
Date Conference Visitor Home Site Score August 26 MAC Ohio San Diego State Snapdragon Stadium • San Diego, CA W 20–13 September 9 C-USA Air Force Sam Houston NRG Stadium • Houston, TX W 13–3 September 16 C-USA New Mexico State New Mexico University Stadium • Albuquerque, NM L 17–27 September 16 MAC San Jose State Toledo Glass Bowl • Toledo, OH L 17–21 September 23 C-USA Colorado State Middle Tennessee Johnny "Red" Floyd Stadium • Murfreesboro, TN W 31–23 September 23 MAC Kent State Fresno State Valley Children's Stadium • Fresno, CA W 53–10 September 23 C-USA New Mexico State Hawaii Clarence T. C. Ching Athletics Complex • Honolulu, HI W 20–17 September 23 Sun Belt Nevada Texas State Bobcat Stadium • San Marcos, TX L 24–35 September 23 C-USA UNLV UTEP Sun Bowl • El Paso, TX W 45–28 September 23 Sun Belt James Madison Utah State Maverik Stadium • Logan, UT L 38–45 September 23 Sun Belt Appalachian State Wyoming War Memorial Stadium • Laramie, WY W 22–19 September 30 American Boise State Memphis Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium • Memphis, TN L 32–35 October 21 American No. 22 Air Force Navy Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium • Annapolis, MD W 17–6
Mountain West vs FBS independents matchups The following games include Mountain West teams competing against FBS Independents, which includes Army, UConn, or UMass.
Date Visitor Home Site Score September 23 New Mexico UMass Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium • Hadley, MA W 34–31 OT September 30 Utah State UConn Rentschler Field • East Hartford, CT W 34–33 November 4 No. 25 Air Force Army Empower Field at Mile High • Denver, CO L 3–23
Mountain West vs FCS matchups