2011 WAC Conference Preview

> Check out the entire 2011 College Football Preview

No conference has seen more changes during the last calendar year than the Western Athletic Conference. The conference was home to a tremendous back-and-forth, behind-the-scenes battle with the Mountain West Conference for non-AQ supremacy in the western United States. At the end of the day, the WAC was left battered, changed, and with an unsure future. Boise State, which either won or tied for the WAC title in eight of its 10 years in the league, will play in the Mountain West Conference during the upcoming season. The poster child for the WAC is gone, and with it, the most dominant program in the history of the WAC.

Defections didn’t stop there.

Shortly after the conference realignment saga in the summer of 2010, both Nevada-Reno and Fresno State accepted invitations to the join the Mountain West Conference in 2012. During bowl season, Hawaii became the fourth school to bolt for the WAC’s biggest competitor, further putting the conference’s future at stake. The Warriors will also begin play in the MWC in 2012. Where do these apostasies leave the WAC? Following the upcoming year of WAC play, no team currently within the conference has ever won a WAC championship. To say a new day has come to the WAC does not do it justice.

So how is the dawning day of the WAC of our forefathers looking from an athletic standpoint? With the continuation of Fresno State, Nevada, and Hawaii in the league for one more year, one would not be smart to look past any of these schools as the prohibitive favorite. Nevada, coming off its best season in history, will have holes to fill on the offensive side of the football. Departed from Reno is the best player ever to don a uniform for the Wolf Pack. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who amassed an astounding 14,000 yards of total offense over his four year career in the base of the Sierra Mountains, moved on to the NFL. Vai Taua is also gone, after rushing for more than 1300 yards in each of the past three seasons. Thankfully for head coach Chris Ault’s bunch, the defense, which showed signs of strength during the last portion of the year, returns seven starters, including All-WAC performers James-Michael Johnson and Isaiah Frey. The Wolf Pack have a brutal non-conference schedule, traveling to Oregon, Texas Tech, and Boise State during the first month of the season.

Not to be outdone in the brutal scheduling department, Fresno State head coach Pat Hill again has an impressive slate. With trips to California and Nebraska to begin the season, and home contests against Mississippi and Boise State, the Bulldogs will know exactly what kind of ballclub they have by the beginning of October.

Hawaii, on the other hand, will try to surprise the WAC yet again. In 2010, the Warriors had the best passing attack in the nation and finished the season with 10 wins. In 2011, it may be harder for boys from the Islands to sneak up on opponents, as they lost one of the best 1-2 wide receiver duos in the nation in Greg Salas and Kealoha Pilares. Back is quarterback Bryant Moniz, but he will have to find a new stable of targets to find success in the pass-happy Warrior spread offense.

• 2011 Fresno State Bulldogs football preview
• 2011 Hawaii Warriors football preview
• 2011 Idaho Vandals football preview
• 2011 Louisiana Tech Bulldogs football preview
• 2011 Nevada Wolf Pack football preview
• 2011 New Mexico State Aggies football preview
• 2011 San Jose State Spartans football preview
• 2011 Utah State Aggies football preview

By Zach Bloxham
DFN Sports College Football Correspondent