A Transfer Portal Talent Drain?
There’s no doubt the portal has upended the Mountain West since you don’t have to search for too long to find evidence of former players from the conference thriving elsewhere, some of whom were already stars and some of whom had previously struggled:
- Todd Centeio left Colorado State for James Madison and has led the Dukes to a 3-0 start, with a 63.3% completion rate and 11 touchdowns with zero interceptions.
- Khoury Bethley and Xazavian Valladay left Hawaii and Wyoming, respectively, for Arizona State. The former has 28 tackles and a forced fumble so far while the latter is second in the Pac-12 with 97.75 rushing yards per game to date.
- Solomon Byrd left Wyoming for USC, has already picked up three sacks and four tackles for loss, and may have inadvertently shaped the Mountain West title chase, anyway, after his sack and forced fumble of Jake Haener led to the quarterback’s current high ankle sprain.
- Daiyan Henley left Nevada for Washington State and currently ranks third in the Pac-12 with four sacks, second with 38 total tackles, and first with 8.5 tackles for loss.
- Lucas Johnson left San Diego State for Montana, where he’s completed 70% of his throws with ten touchdowns and one interception, and chipped in four rushing scores, while leading the Griz to a 4-0 start.
- Jacoby Windmon left UNLV for Michigan State and, through four games, is currently the second-highest graded edge defender in the entire country according to PFF, at 91.4.
How much different might the conference look had some of these players stuck around? The flipside of this, of course, is that the transfer portal moves made within the conference have mostly worked out: Andrew Peasley has brought stability at quarterback to Wyoming, for instance, while Chevan Cordeiro has done the same at San Jose State. Elijah Cooks has looked like his old self after leaving Nevada for the Spartans, as well, while Tory Horton has looked like the best pass catcher in the conference at Colorado State. Justus Tavai has been his usual reliable self at San Diego State, while Tylan Hines has emerged as a reliable depth piece at Hawaii and Daniel Grzesiak has done the same at Utah State.
Quality of Competition
Of course, it may just be that the Mountain West, in addition to some of the above factors, set itself up for a run through a proverbial buzzsaw. The conference has had contests against Alabama, Michigan, Utah, USC, and Iowa, the consensus preseason #1, #5, #6, #21, and #25, and lost by an average margin of 38 points. In retrospect, maybe that shouldn’t have been too surprising.
Add to that a two-touchdown loss to BYU, an eight-point loss to Auburn, a 38-point loss to LSU, and two losses to Oregon State, all of whom received votes in various preseason top 25 lists, as well, and it becomes clearer why optimism could have been tempered a little more.
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