Hello again, Group of Six western football fans. The month of May presses on. Spring ball is finished, summer workouts haven’t started yet. This is the quiet month of the college football calendar. The Mountain West is set to split this summer with the “departing five” leaving to create the reformed Pac-12. The Mountain West has added the likes of North Dakota State, Northern Illinois, and UTEP to fill the gaps.
We at the Mountain West Connection intend to cover both conferences going forward. “Friday
Five” will feature the five best of, well, anything leading into football season, alternating between each conference week-to-week. Best quarterbacks, stadiums, mascots, who knows. We’re open to your ideas! This week, we start off with the Friday Five Pac-12 football head coaches.
5. Sean Lewis, San Diego State
With no context, Sean Lewis’ overall career numbers don’t seem all that impressive. He was 24-31 at Kent State and took that program to two bowl games. Normally, nothing to write home about. Kent State, however, is one of the nation’s most difficult FBS jobs and Lewis performed admirably all considered. After a rough start in his debut season at San Diego State, Lewis bounced back in year #2 with a 9-4 record, just missing out on the conference title game. It feels like the best has yet to come for Lewis and the Aztecs, but he comes in at #5 for now.
4. Matt Entz, Fresno State
Same principle as last week when I ranked Tim Polasek in the top 5 MWC head coaches: you win national championships, even at the FCS level, that is going to hold weight. Entz went 60-11 in Fargo from 2019-2023, winning two national championships along the way. Entz then coached the linebacker position at USC and it was that acclimation at the FBS level that pushed Fresno to hire Entz. The Bulldogs were tragic on offense in his debut season, yet still found several impressive results. Clean up things on that side of the ball and this program could be humming soon.
3. Bronco Mendenhall, Utah State
You had to figure that Mendenhall would be on this list. At 146-95 over the course of 19 seasons at Brigham Young, Virginia, New Mexico, and now Utah State, Bronco found a way to get the job done no matter the task. He has a reputation for producing NFL talent and academic excellence from his players. His aggressive 3-3-5 scheme within Rocky Long’s defense produced Brian Urlacher back when Mendenhall was a coordinator. His BYU teams thrived for years before he unexpectedly took the Virginia job. With a strong administration in place and Mendenhall leading the way, the arrow is pointing up at Utah State.
2. Jim Mora Jr., Colorado State
Colorado State has supposedly been a sleeping giant in this sport for years, probably more of a coma than rest. Armed with the finances and wonderful area/campus to thrive, this program has been a bottom-dweller for ages. Are things about to change? Jim Mora Jr.’s resume is very long for a Group of Six head coach. He’s been a head coach in the NFL twice, led UCLA to a better six-year run than many acknowledged, before completely turning around a UConn program that always struggles to win. Now Mora Jr. is in Ft. Collins and this feels like a marriage that will produce the results Rams fans have longed for. His experience at UConn in particular has to leave Rams fans feeling like a similar turnaround is possible for CSU.
1. Spencer Danielson, Boise State
Spencer Danielson hasn’t been doing this for long. Danielson was made the interim head coach for the program twice, briefly after Bryan Harsin left for Auburn and then again when Andy Avalos was fired. Danielson inexplicably won the MWC from that position, was named the permanent head coach, then retained running back Ashton Jeanty and went to the College Football Playoff. Even in a down year with mixed results in 2025, the Broncos still won the conference. That’s right, Danielson has been head coach at Boise State for 2.5 seasons and has three conference titles to show for it. That crazy fact and the College Football Playoff appearance in particular are why I rank Danielson first on this list.
Others in consideration: GJ Kinne, Kirby Moore, and JaMarcus Shephard missed the cut. Kinne’s offenses in San Marcos have been a riot, results might soon follow with quarterback Brad Jackson set to return. Moore and Shephard are more than capable of rising on this list quickly, but obviously don’t warrant that at the moment as brand new head coaches. In general, I think the arrow is pointing up and all of these Pac-12 head coaches.
