Mike Farrell Sports

College Football Recruiting, Opinion, and Analysis

Jax State, Boise State, and More: C-USA and MWC Teams Who Could Regress in 2025

Which Group of 5 teams may regress in 2025? A deep dive into C-USA and Mountain West squads likely to take a step back.

Avatar photoMike Huesmann
Pin
Sep 28
Sep 28

By Mike Huesmann

Here in our series of teams who may regress by conference I tackle two Group of 5 conferences. Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference. In looking at who I expected to regress, I examined returning roster talent, transfer portal additions and subtractions, and how the team played in 2024. So for a team like Jacksonville State it is easier to regress because there was so much success last year.

Conference USA

Jacksonville State

New head coach Charles Kelly has his work cut out for him. Rich Rodriguez had Jax State competing immediately after the move up from the FCS level but it is a new era here and I’d be surprised if the Gamecocks were to repeat as C-USA champions. 

Charles Kelly

Gavin Wimsatt, formerly of Rutgers and Kentucky, looks to be the QB and he was less than stellar in 2024. Considering how impressive they were last year, only one conference loss, I’d be surprised if they match that this year.

Louisiana Tech

Louisiana Tech finished 5-8 last year but a respectable 4-4 in the conference. I don’t know if they can match that again in 2025. 

Sonny Cumbie

More Sports News

Evan Bullock returning at QB gives me hope. I saw good things in him, but losing Tru Edwards and John Locke to Power Four teams hurts them. The schedule does them no favors either with Western Kentucky, Sam Houston State and newcomer Delaware in consecutive weeks. I might end up eating crow on this one, but there are many barriers to repeating a .500 conference record.

Mountain West

Boise State

This one might be low hanging fruit, considering they were undefeated in conference play and made the College Football Playoff, but losing the best RB in the nation and probably the best G5 skill player of this century won’t happen without setbacks. Returning quarterback Maddux Madsen will help, and Boise will still be in the hunt for the G5 playoff spot, but I feel like a team in this state can’t handle losing a generational player like Ashton Jeanty without dropping another game or two, the bar was set too high last year.

New Mexico

I really liked the Jason Eck hire. I think he will do well, but I don’t think it happens right away. Hiring a new head coach in consecutive seasons is bad for stability. Especially, in an era where G5 stability is already tough to maintain. The Lobos did add several FCS players through the portal, I’m not sure it will be enough to match the 5-7 record of last season. The schedule is also very unkind with games at Michigan and UCLA early and conference road games at Boise State and UNLV. 

Category: , Tag: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Pin

You’ll Also Like