Welcome back everyone, to the Hike’s Peak podcast, thank you for coming back to the mountain! We’ve made it to the 2025 Mountain West football season, with 3 teams kicking off in week 0, and the rest of the conference getting going this time around! As for last week, UNLV survived a scare, Fresno State laid an egg against Kansas, and the big story of the week, Hawaii completed a comeback in the final two minutes to beat Stanford for their first power four win in 6 years! We’ll break down the biggest takeaways from each of those games, and to get you ready for Week 1, I’ll break down the three can’t miss matchups of the weekend! Let’s dive right into this!

Show Notes:

1. Hawaii outlasts Stanford; is the Run-N-Shoot back?
2. UNLV has close dust-up with Idaho State; how concerned should Rebel fans be?
3. Fresno State struggles in loss to Kansas; is there trouble in the Valley?
4. Week One Slate Summary
5. The 3 "Can't Miss" games of the weekend

If you enjoy the episode, consider rating it 5 stars, leaving a review on iTunes, or sharing the podcast with one friend who you think would enjoy it! It would help us immensely if you took the time out of your day to help the show! Make sure to check out the depth chart tracker for football and basketball, available to all for free and updated as soon as news breaks! Thank you for coming back to the mountain, and we hope you’ll make the trek back up here for the entire 2025 football season!

Welcome back everyone, to the Hike’s Peak podcast, thank you for coming back to the mountain! We are at the finish line of the offseason, with Week 0 literally right around the corner! For our final out-of-season episode, I’m taking you through what I think will happen this season. From the contenders in the conference championship race, to the award races, and much, much more, this week will be my best attempt to tell you the script for the 2025 Mountain West football season. No time to waste, let’s dive in!

Note: Episode begins with a brief rundown of what we know about Utah State star safety Ike Larsen's suspension.

Prediction list:

1. Number of Bowl Temas
2. Number of Ranked Teams
3. Offensive Player of the Year
4. Defensive Player of the Year
5. Coach of the Year
6. Most Successful 1st Year Head Coach
7. Most Improved Team
8. Top NFL Draft Riser
9. Top Transfer Class
10. Conference Championship Winner

If you enjoy the episode, consider rating it 5 stars, leaving a review on iTunes, or sharing the podcast with one friend who you think would enjoy it! It would help us immensely if you took the time out of your day to help the show! Make sure to check out the depth chart tracker for football and basketball, available to all for free and updated as soon as news breaks! The 2025 CBK transfer tracker is NOW live, you can find the always-updating list here. Thank you for coming back to the mountain, and we hope you’ll make the trek back up here for the entire 2025 football season!

Welcome back everyone, to the Hike’s Peak podcast, thank you for coming back to the mountain! Last week, we ranked all 12 offenses in the Mountain West, so this time, we’re breaking down the defenses. Our very own Mike Wittmann joins the show to preview every defense in the conference, complete with our analysis and players to watch. Week 0 is right around the corner, so this is the perfect place to get started for the 2025 season! Let’s dive in!

If you enjoy the episode, consider rating it 5 stars, leaving a review on iTunes, or sharing the podcast with one friend who you think would enjoy it! It would help us immensely if you took the time out of your day to help the show! Make sure to check out the depth chart tracker for football and basketball, available to all for free and updated as soon as news breaks! The 2025 CBK transfer tracker is NOW live, you can find the always-updating list here. Thank you for coming back to the mountain, and we hope you’ll make the trek back up here for the entire 2025 football season!

Welcome back, everyone, to the Hike’s Peak podcast, thank you for coming back to the mountain! With the beginning of the 2025 season less than a month away, it’s time to begin our roster breakdowns. To kick things off, we’re going over our offensive rankings, and to help us out with that, we have our very own Zach Ballard joining the show! No matter what team you’re rooting for, you’ll hear a full projected starting lineup and analysis for your guys. Let’s dive into this, we have 12 offenses to get through so let’s get going!

If you enjoy the episode, consider rating it 5 stars, leaving a review on iTunes, or sharing the podcast with one friend who you think would enjoy it! It would help us immensely if you took the time out of your day to help the show! Make sure to check out the depth chart tracker for football and basketball, available to all for free and updated as soon as news breaks! The 2025 CBK transfer tracker is NOW live, you can find the always-updating list here. Thank you for coming back to the mountain, and we hope you’ll make the trek back up here each week of the 2025 offseason!

Welcome back everyone, to the Hike’s Peak Podcast, thank you for coming back to the mountain! This is part two of our media days recap from Las Vegas! Last week, we talked to all 24 players attending the event, and for this week, you’ll hear from all 12 Mountain West head coaches! From the longtime conference icons like Air Force’s Troy Calhoun and Colorado State’s Jay Norvell, to all four new showrunners! Another awesome episode for you guys, lets dive in.

Just so you guys know the format for this week, I’ll start by introducing the coach and school, with a bit of background on who they are and what they did last year. Then, you’ll hear my live interview from the event, and then we’ll discuss what I learned for a bit. Also, these aren’t the full interviews, an answer or two was removed for time, but the full interview will be up on the website and my YouTube page next week. Alright, let’s get into this.

Head Coaches Interviewed:

1. Troy Calhoun, Air Force
2. Spencer Danielson, Boise State
3. Jay Norvell, Colorado State
4. Matt Entz, Fresno State
5. Timmy Chang, Hawaii
6. Jeff Choate, Nevada
7. Jason Eck, New Mexico
8. Sean Lewis, San Diego State
9. Ken Niumatalolo, San Jose State
10. Dan Mullen, UNLV
11. Bronco Mendenhall, Utah State
12. Jay Sawvel, Wyoming

If you enjoy the episode, consider rating it 5 stars, leaving a review on iTunes, or sharing the podcast with one friend who you think would enjoy it! It would help us immensely if you took the time out of your day to help the show! Make sure to check out the depth chart tracker for football and basketball, available to all for free and updated as soon as news breaks! The 2025 CBK transfer tracker is NOW live, you can find the always-updating list here. Thank you for coming back to the mountain, and we hope you’ll make the trek back up here each week of the 2025 offseason!

Welcome back, everyone, to the Hike’s Peak podcast, thank you for coming back to the mountain! I am back from Mountain West Media Days, which happened on July 16th and 17th in Las Vegas, and I was able to interview every single attendee from the event! This week, you’ll hear my exclusive interviews with all 24 players that came to town, along with my impressions of their team heading into the 2025 season. And don’t worry, I talked to every head coach as well, you just have to wait for next week’s episode to hear those. We’re going to go from Air Force down to Wyoming, talking with everyone from Kage Casey to Trey White about this upcoming year. Hang on to your hiking gear, because we have a lot of stops to make! Let’s dive in.

Before we begin, a little more housekeeping. What you’ll hear in this episode is not the full interviews with these players, I had to shorten them to three questions each for time’s sake. But, if you want to hear those full interviews, don’t worry, all of my interviews from media days will be out in the next week or so on our website, MWCConnection.com, as well as on my YouTube channel, which is JackTalksCFB, all one word. Stay tuned for those videos, and the same applies to the coaches episode as well. The podcast episode will have 75% of the interview, and the website and YouTube will have the full versions available to you. Sounds good? Alright, let’s actually dive in.

Players interviewed:

1. Air Force: TE Bruin Fleischmann, Punter Luke Freer
2. Boise State: LT Kage Casey, DE Jayden Virgin-Morgan
3. Colorado State: QB Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, DE Mukendi Wa-Kalonji
4. Fresno State: Center Jacob Spomer, CB Al'Zillion "AZ" Hamilton
5. Hawaii: WR Pofele Ashlock, LB Jamih Otis
6. Nevada: QB Chubba Purdy, DT Thomas Witte
7. New Mexico: LG Richard Pearce, DE Gabriel Lopez
8. San Diego State: Center Ross Ulugalu-Maseuli, DE Trey White
9. San Jose State: QB Walker Eget, LB Taniela Latu
10. UNLV: WR/RET DeAngelo Irvin Jr, Safety Jake Pope
11. Utah State: QB Bryson Barnes, DT Gabriel Iniguez Jr
12. Wyoming: Center/Podcast Host Jack Walsh, TE John Michael Gyllenborg

If you enjoy the episode, consider rating it 5 stars, leaving a review on iTunes, or sharing the podcast with one friend who you think would enjoy it! It would help us immensely if you took the time out of your day to help the show! Make sure to check out the depth chart tracker for football and basketball, available to all for free and updated as soon as news breaks! The 2025 CBK transfer tracker is NOW live, you can find the always-updating list here. Thank you for coming back to the mountain, and we hope you’ll make the trek back up here each week of the 2025 offseason!

Welcome back everyone, to the Hike’s Peak podcast, thank you for coming back to the mountain! We have finally reached the fabled Kickoff Week, where the 2025 Mountain West football season kicks into full gear! We’ve brought up the expert for this rundown, joining us this week is our site’s runner Mike Wittmann, and we have a jam-packed show for you all leading into Media Days! Mike and I go over our votes for our All-Mountain Teams, Award Race and Order of Finish predictions, as well as best position groups, All-Coach team, and the top ten overall players in the conference! By the time you’re reading this, I am on my way to Las Vegas for this year’s media days event, but before we can get there, we have some ballots to go over! Let’s dive right in, shall we?

Topics of discussion:

1. All-Mountain West Team
2. Awards (OPOY, DPOY, Transfers, Breakouts, & Freshman)
3. Predicted Order of Finish
4. Best Position Groups
5. All-Coach Team
6. Top 10 Players

If you enjoy the episode, consider rating it 5 stars, leaving a review on iTunes, or sharing the podcast with one friend who you think would enjoy it! It would help us immensely if you took the time out of your day to help the show! Make sure to check out the depth chart tracker for football and basketball, available to all for free and updated as soon as news breaks! The 2025 CBK transfer tracker is NOW live, you can find the always-updating list here. Thank you for coming back to the mountain, and we hope you’ll make the trek back up here each week of the 2025 offseason!

Welcome back everyone, to the Hike’s Peak podcast, thank you for coming back to the mountain! With media days just a week away, I’m incredibly excited to dive headfirst into the 2025 mountain West football season. To get in the spirit, we’re handing out a bunch of preseason superlatives! From games of the year, to breakout stars that are waiting in the wings, and some off-the-wall awards, this episode is the perfect place to start if you haven’t paid much attention to the offseason's moving and shaking. No time to waste, we’ve got nine plaques to hand out so let’s dive right in, shall we?

Superlative list:

1. Watched and Learned Award
2. Game of the Year Award (non-conference)
3. Roughest Road Trip Award
4. Game of the Year Award (MW play)
5. Transfer Portal Gem Award
6. Hottest Seat Award
7. PFF's Darling Award
8. Comeback Crew Award
9. Dark Horse Darling Award

If you enjoy the episode, consider rating it 5 stars, leaving a review on iTunes, or sharing the podcast with one friend who you think would enjoy it! It would help us immensely if you took the time out of your day to help the show! Make sure to check out the depth chart tracker for football and basketball, available to all for free and updated as soon as news breaks! The 2025 CBK transfer tracker is NOW live, you can find the always-updating list here. Thank you for coming back to the mountain, and we hope you’ll make the trek back up here each week of the 2025 offseason!

Welcome back everyone, to the Hike’s Peak podcast, thank you for coming back to the mountain! The NBA Draft is in the books, and we now know what team the careers of Nique Clifford, Kobe Sanders, and one other player are starting! We’ll break down the landing spots and their chances of seeing the floor as a rookie, and then we’ll slide over to football. For the second year, I’ve gotten the opportunity to vote on the official preseason Mountain West awards, so I’ll take you through my ballot, complete with player of the year awards! Awesome episode for you all this week, let’s dive in!

If you enjoy the episode, consider rating it 5 stars, leaving a review on iTunes, or sharing the podcast with one friend who you think would enjoy it! It would help us immensely if you took the time out of your day to help the show! Make sure to check out the depth chart tracker for football and basketball, available to all for free and updated as soon as news breaks! The 2025 CBK transfer tracker is NOW live, you can find the always-updating list here. Thank you for coming back to the mountain, and we hope you’ll make the trek back up here each week of the 2025 offseason!

Welcome back, everyone, to the Hike’s Peak Podcast, thank you for coming back to the mountain! With the NBA Draft going down Wednesday evening, I’ve brought in some help! Joining us this week is our hoops expert Matt Hanifan, who’s here to tell you everything you need to know about Colorado State star Nique Clifford’s potential landing spots, Nevada guard Kobe Sanders’ chances of getting picked, and the top prospects to watch from the Mountain West for next season! After we get the rundown from Matt, we’ll switch gears to the football field, but still staying on theme. I’ll let you know each school’s top NFL prospect, including what they’ve already accomplished and what they’ll have to do this season to make it to the next level. Awesome episode for you guys this week, let’s dive in!

If you enjoy the episode, consider rating it 5 stars, leaving a review on iTunes, or sharing the podcast with one friend who you think would enjoy it! It would help us immensely if you took the time out of your day to help the show! Make sure to check out the depth chart tracker for football and basketball, available to all for free and updated as soon as news breaks! The 2025 CBK transfer tracker is NOW live, you can find the always-updating list here. Thank you for coming back to the mountain, and we hope you’ll make the trek back up here each week of the 2025 offseason!