Chris Murray

RGJ

LAS VEGAS – The months of July and August are filled with optimism for college football fans.

Your favorite team — and for many Northern Nevadans, that'd be the Nevada Wolf Pack — is undefeated, on the cusp of a championship season filled with great moments and spectacular plays. That's the hope, at least. And then the season starts, the injuries pile up and following closely is a string of losses.

For many teams, summer optimism is nothing more than false hope. But for Nevada fans this season, the hope is real, it's tangible and there's a legitimate, attainable title aspiration.

That was reinforced Tuesday when Nevada was picked to finish third in the West Division in the Mountain West Conference's preseason poll. That's where the Wolf Pack belongs, but Nevada has as good a chance as any team to win the MWC's West title in 2014, especially when you look at the issues the league's other teams face.

• Fresno State, picked to win the West, lost record-setting quarterback Derek Carr, receiver Davante Adams and is essentially starting over on offense. The defense returns mostly intact, but that defense allowed more than 430 yards and 30 points per game in 2013. Plus, Fresno State has a brutal nonleague schedule.

• San Diego State, picked to finish second, is always tough, thanks to coach Rocky Long. But the Aztecs return just 10 starters, have struggled to find explosion from the quarterback position and are young at safety. The schedule also is loaded with tough road games (Fresno State, Boise State and Nevada).

• UNLV, picked to finish fourth, comes off its most successful season in more than a decade, but it has questions at quarterback, lost two key running backs and is unproven at defensive tackle, where a handful of junior-college transfers will try and solidify the position.

• San Jose State, picked to finish fifth, must replace all-league players in quarterback David Fales (the contenders for the job have a combined 24 college passes) and cornerback Bené Benwikere. The Spartans' defense allowed 35.1 ppg in 2013 (worse than even Nevada), and the unit must be rebuilt.

• And Hawaii hasn't been all that good since coach June Jones "aloha-ed" himself off the islands. Current coach Norm Chow is 4-20 in two seasons, with just one win in 16 MWC games. Forget about them.

This isn't to say Nevada is going to run through the West Division. The Wolf Pack isn't the favorite and has plenty of issues (depth at offensive line, wide receiver and safety, and questions on how much the defense will improve, especially against the run, under new coordinator Scott Boone).

But, Nevada has plenty going for it, too, namely: Cody Fajardo, who is one of the MWC's few proven playmakers at quarterback; a pass rush, keyed by Brock Hekking, that could be elite, which would help solve the defensive issues; a MWC-best 18 returning starters, the third most nationally; and a favorable MWC schedule that gives Nevada the home-field edge in all of its tough conference games.

Those strengths, coupled with the issues facing Fresno State, San Diego State and San Jose State, are enough to stoke legitimate optimism. It was enough for three media members to vote Nevada first in their preseason poll. I wasn't among them (I had the Wolf Pack third), but it's easy to see the rationale.

There's no clear-cut favorite to win the MWC, even in the Mountain Division, where favorite Boise State is coming off an 8-5 season and has a new head coach, and Utah State returns an FBS-low seven starters.

The consensus is that Boise State is the team to beat — "Until you knock them off, the road to the Mountain West championship goes through Boise State, especially in the Mountain Division," Utah State coach Matt Wells said Tuesday — but the Broncos are no longer the invincible beast they once were.

That brings us to something else Wells said Tuesday.

"We've created a culture here where we expect to win," Wells said of his program. "We don't hope to win or think we can win, but we expect to win."

That's the place Nevada needs to get to, and it can happen this season. As the Wolf Pack enters the season, there's optimism it can win the West Division championship. Yes, that's how it feels every season, but the difference this year is that optimism isn't false hope. It's legitimate. It's tangible.

Columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at cmurray@rgj.com or follow him on Twitter @MurrayRGJ.