Friday Five: Top 5 Mountain West Football Head Coaches
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Welcome to the beginning of May! The off-season continues. 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 Mountain West football head coaches.
5. Tim Polasek, North Dakota State
Polasek is not unfamiliar with the Mountain West, he was Craig Bohl’s offensive coordinator at Wyoming from 2021-2023 before returning to Fargo. In his first two seasons as head coach he went 14-2 and 12-1, winning the Missouri Valley twice and of course, winning a national championship. He’ll be tasked with guiding the Bison into the FBS and this new edition of the Mountain West. Bison fans rightfully have big expectations, can Polasek hit the ground running come fall 2026?
4. Troy Calhoun, Air Force
It’s not every day you see an NFL offensive coordinator leave his job to coach a college football program, let alone a non-power team, but that’s exactly what Calhoun did nearly twenty years ago when he left the Houston Texans to become Air Force’s head coach. Calhoun’s job is complicated, he’s tasked with producing a winner and developing young people with strong character that are prepared to serve on active duty. Calhoun has led the program to 13 bowl games and won the Mountain Division in 2015 and 2021. With several of the old conference title contenders off to the Pac-12, you can bet that Calhoun is hoping to break through and win the conference.
3. Timmy Chang, Hawaii
The transfer portal can be very unforgiving. Few understand that more than Timmy Chang when he took over the program in 2022. The Todd Graham fiasco led to a near complete roster turnover that left Chang and his staff in a bad place. The results were predictably disastrous and in an age where loyalty seems like a bygone concept, some wondered if Hawaii would ever recapture its former glory. Chang broke through in 2025 posting a 9-4 record and defeating multiple Power 4 programs with a surprisingly young roster, setting the stage for more to come. I’m putting Chang at third here simply because I think it’s incredibly hard to win at Hawaii right now with NIL, the portal, and the ongoing stadium issue making life difficult on UH and yet…Chang has struck gold at Manoa.
2. Dan Mullen, UNLV
Needless to say, Mullen knows big-time college football. He found success at Florida and Mississippi State before becoming an analyst for ESPN’s college football coverage. UNLV convinced him to return to the sidelines and the Rebels maintained the success they found under the previous regime. Anthony Colandrea was a star and the Rebels were thrilling on offense, qualifying for the conference championship game. Mullen was the first head coach in FBS history to win BCS/New Year’s Six bowl games in both of his first two seasons with a program, so there’s a habit Rebels fans are hoping continues this fall. He’s helped produce the likes of Tim Tebow and Dak Prescott, so you can expect the Rebels to thrive at quarterback as long as Mullen is head coach.
1. Jason Eck, New Mexico
I won’t fight anyone for putting Mullen at number 1 on this list, but I’m going with Jason Eck based on vibes. His teams just play sound football in all phases despite Eck having at least one hand tied behind his back wherever he coaches. Don’t lie, Lobos fans, success on the gridiron has been hard to come by. Eck found it right away, dominating UCLA at the Rose Bowl in his debut season with a 35-10 win. The Lobos would be in the thick of the conference race all season, going 9-4 in his debut season in Albuquerque. This after Eck helped establish the Idaho Vandals as a nationally-ranked program after years of struggles. Eck is a rising star and will find more success this fall, then the Lobos will have the tall task of trying to keep the Power 4 programs away.
Others in consideration: Ken Niumatalolo absolutely could be on this list, he was consistent for ages at Navy before taking over at San Jose State. The rest of the coaches in the Mountain West, Jay Sawvel, Jeff Choate, Scotty Walden, and Rob Harley, have some work to do to climb into the Top 5.
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