Welcome to episode 49.5 (episode 50 needs one more week to be perfect)! We have a mountain of portal news to cover, with new landing spots for stars like Lamont Butler and Rytis Petraitis, to the John Tonje chronicles! We also hit you with the most important updates from the CFB spring transfer window, and we end the show by going over both of the players from the Mountain West that got drafted into the NFL, along with all of the players who have been signed as undrafted free agents! Enjoy, and make sure to tune in for an awesome episode 50!

Welcome back, everyone, to the Hike’s Peak podcast, thank you for coming back to the mountain! We had our first bowl game of the year go down, with Boise State getting knocked around by Washington in the LA Bowl. We’ll talk about what went wrong for the Broncos, and what this showing tells us about their 2026 prospects, and then we’ll shift to the hardwood for another Mountain West basketball update! We’ll go over the seven teams that have set themselves apart from the rest of the pack as contenders to watch as conference play begins, complete with their best players and wins so far. After that, we’ll talk about the most notable stories surrounding the transfer portal, and then we’ll end the show with a preview and prediction for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, with Bryson Barnes and Utah State taking on Washington State on the blue turf in Boise. Lots of show to get through this week, let’s dive right in!

Quick plug before we get started, last week I released my transfer portal team of the year! It featured 78 players across all three teams, each of them getting a write-up on their journey to the Mountain West, along with an honorable mention section and overall trends that I found during the process. In total, it spans four parts and over 20,000 words, so don’t feel like you have to read all of it, but maybe scroll through and look at the stories of some of your favorite players from 2025! Did you know that New Mexico star edge rusher Keyshawn James-Newby was originally more focused on his engineering degree than his football career? Or that Fresno State linebacker Jadon Pearson played for five different schools and 25% of the Mountain West? There’s a million fun facts like that throughout the series, so please check that out!

Show Notes:

1. Boise State no match for Washington in LA Bowl: What went wrong, & what's the QB plan for 2026?
2. MW Basketball: Top 7 Contenders, complete w/ top players and wins
3. Top 3 Portal Stories of the week: Wide receivers, Rams exodus, and UNLV locking in
4. Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Washington State vs. Utah State) Preview/Prediction

If you enjoy the episode, consider rating it 5 stars, leaving a review on Apple Podcast/Spotify, or sharing the podcast with one friend who you think would enjoy it! It would help us immensely if you took the time out of your day to help the show! Our CFB transfer portal tracker is now LIVE, find that here and keep an eye out for daily updates. Make sure to check out the depth chart tracker for football and basketball, available to all for free and updated as soon as news breaks! Thank you for coming back to the mountain, and we hope you’ll make the trek back up here for the entire 2025 football season!

Welcome back everyone to the Hike’s Peak podcast, thank you for coming back to the mountain! In the much-anticipated title bout, Boise State knocked out UNLV by TKO to win their third straight Mountain West championship game. We’ll break down how the Broncos did it, what went wrong for the Rebels, as well as if there was a path for those Rebels to sneak into the College football playoff if they had come away with the win. Then, we’ll switch gears to bowl season, as all seven bowl games featuring Mountain West teams have been announced. We’ll go through those, and then we’ll go over my award votes for this season, which will be officially released on the site later this week, with highlights like players, transfers, and coach of the year! To end the show, you’ll hear a preview and prediction for Boise State’s bowl game, which will be going down against Washington on Saturday night! No time to waste, let’s dive in!

Real quick, I just want to say thank you to every single person out there that has listened to the podcast over the years, we just broke the 10,000 listen mark, which is just absurd. I’m blessed to have this platform, so thank you to all of you out there, and thank you to Mountain West Connection for allowing me to fulfill my dream of rambling on the internet.

Show Notes:

1. Boise State completes the three-peat: How they did it, what went wrong for UNLV
2. Hypothetical: Could UNLV have snuck into the CFP with a win?
3. Times/Previews for all 7 Mountain West bowl games!
4. Jack's picks for 2025 Mountain West Season Awards
5. LA Bowl (Boise State vs. Washington) Preview/Prediction

If you enjoy the episode, consider rating it 5 stars, leaving a review on Apple Podcast/Spotify, or sharing the podcast with one friend who you think would enjoy it! It would help us immensely if you took the time out of your day to help the show! Make sure to check out the depth chart tracker for football and basketball, available to all for free and updated as soon as news breaks! Thank you for coming back to the mountain, and we hope you’ll make the trek back up here for the entire 2025 football season!