Former Oregon football coach Mike Bellotti is in his third year as a college football analyst for ESPN and will work Saturday’s game at Bronco Stadium. He also is Boise State coach Chris Petersen’s former boss at Oregon — the last place Petersen worked before he moved to Boise in 2001.

Q: What do you think of the Utah State-Toledo matchup?

A: I’ve had Utah State and Toledo in games the past couple years and they’ve played right down to the wire against better opponents. … They’re well coached, they have a lot of fight in them and I’m looking forward to a great game.

Q: What do you like about these two up-and-coming coaches?

A: What (Gary Andersen) has done there at Utah State is just short of amazing. He’s really a winner, he does it the right way, they play great defense. He’s had a couple different offensive coordinators and he keeps the ball rolling. Matt Campbell is one of the youngest coaches in the country but seems to have just a magic touch. He won the bowl game last year. He has this team 9-3 and playing in a bowl game again.

Q: Not sure if you’ve looked at it, but what do you think of Boise State-Washington in Las Vegas?

A: I’m a Chris Petersen fan. I think he’s done a tremendous job. They’re not as explosive an offensive team this year. They’re still developing a young quarterback to a degree. They’ve been spoiled by the guy they had before. They’re playing great defense and they’re finding ways to win. Washington is an interesting team in that they’re very inconsistent. They can beat anybody when they’re playing well. I won’t say they can lose to anybody but they lost the Apple Cup to a Washington State team that probably doesn’t match up very well. It probably depends on which Washington team shows up. … I think Boise should be favored and probably will win because they play more consistent football.

Q: I know you were high on Petersen when he got the job, but are you surprised by the degree of his success?

A: Yes and no. No, because Boise’s always been successful. … But at the same time you can’t assume that’s going to happen. Pete has done such a tremendous job. His winning percentage, it’s out there. It’s outside this galaxy. The reality is he’s done such a great job. The real test of a great coach is when you lose some of your very good assistants. He’s lost offensive coordinators and a defensive coordinator now and he continues to win.

Q: When you look at some of the young head coaches, the money coaches make and the media scrutiny out there, do you think coaching careers are going to get shorter?

A: Absolutely. No question. Coaching careers will be shorter — one, because you make more money so you can retire earlier, and two, because coaching salaries have gone up, the patience and tolerance level of boosters and administrative people have gone down. They just flat out can’t afford to have multiple losing seasons. Or the perception that instead of a program being on the rise it’s on the decline. … Coaches never made a lot of money so they had to coach forever because they didn’t get rich that way. Now, you can get wealthy coaching college football if you get in the right situation.