Welcome back everyone to the Hike’s Peak Podcast, thank you for coming back to the mountain! The 2026 college football season is officially underway, with the big story being North Dakota State steamrolling their way to their first win as an FBS program, as well as disappointing losses from Hawaii & UNLV. We’ll break down all four week 0 games from the Mountain West, & then we’ll dive straight into your week 1 preview, where I’ll let you know the most important storyline to watch for all 13 PAC-12 & Mountain West teams that are playing in their season opener. Lots of games to get through this week, let’s dive in! Episode link is here! Show Notes:
Week 0 Recap North Dakota State steamroll Jacksonville State for 1st win as an FBS program UNLV loses steam in second half, falls to Memphis Hawaii’s late comeback against Stanford thwarted by slow start, controversial finish New San Jose State QB Luke Weaver shines in debut @ USC
Top storyline for all 13 Mountain West/PAC-12 teams’ season opener (4/13 listed): #2: Fresno State: New QB Jayden Mandal #5: Boise State: Can the Broncos hang with top-tier Oregon? #9: Border War showdown between Wyoming & Colorado State: Which transfer QB will seize the day? #11: New Mexico: Jack Layne update, state of the QB room
That is it for this week’s episode of the Hike’s Peak podcast, thank you so much for listening! Find all 21 of our full length interviews from Mountain West Media Days in Las Vegashere, as well as our Media Days episodes spotlighting the attending players, every head coach, & MW Commissioner Gloria Nevarez & college sports business expert KC Smurthwaite! Make sure to explore the FREEdepth chart tracker app, which provides starting lineup projections for every team in the Mountain West & PAC-12! If you like the show & enjoy our coverage, leave a rating on whatever platform you’re listening on, every single one of those helps us out immensely. Follow us on twitter atMWCConnection & find all of your Mountain West news atMWCConnection.com. Also make sure to check out our site’s brand new podcast, “The Pac-Mountain Pulse”, with Derek & Dom’s conversations airing on Thursdays! Thank you so much for listening, hopefully, your favorite team gets off on the right track this weekend! Until next time, I’m Jack Thompson, & thank you for coming back to the mountain!