There is almost universal belief across the college football community that Bronco Mendenhall will turn around a Utah State football program that won just four games last season and has been mired in mediocrity since the unexpected Mountain West Conference title run the Aggies made in 2021.

Mendenhall has a proven track record of program building — at BYU, Virginia and briefly at New Mexico — and his familiarity with the state of Utah has engendered considerable optimism about the future of Aggie football.

That turnaround isn’t expected to happen immediately, though. Far from it in fact.

The Mountain West Conference released its 2025 preseason poll Wednesday morning, as voted on by a media panel, and Utah State is projected to finish No. 9 in the conference this season.

The Aggies received 165 total votes, putting USU in a similar tier with rival Wyoming (picked to finish No. 10). Per the voting, Utah State is expected to be clearly better than New Mexico and Nevada (No. 11 and No. 12 in the league) but beyond those two schools the Aggies have some catching up to do in terms of perception.

Boise State is the preseason favorite to win the league, a year after running away with the conference before playing in the College Football Playoff.

UNLV, San Jose State, Colorado State and Fresno State round out the projected top five in the conference, with Air Force at No. 6 being considered a team in similar quality, per the voting.

Boise State was a runaway favorite, receiving 35 of 39 available first place votes, with UNLV (under new head coach Dan Mullen) snagging the other four.

The complete MWC preseason poll can be found below:

2025 Mountain West Predicted Order of Finish

Rank Team (first-place votes) Points

1. Boise State (35) 464

2. UNLV (4) 415

3. San José State 359

4. Colorado State 326

5. Fresno State 301

6. Air Force 280

7. Hawai’i 213

8. San Diego State 202

9. Utah State 165

10. Wyoming 150

11. New Mexico 84

12. Nevada 83

Utah State will kick off the 2025 season on Aug. 30 at home against UTEP at 5:30 p.m. MT. Three of the Aggies’ first four games will be in Logan at Maverik Stadium, the lone exception being a trip to College Station, Texas to take on Texas A&M.