BOISE, Idaho — Ashton Jeanty is 13th in the nation in rushing after his 205 yards in Boise State’s 34-31 win at San Diego State. That’s pretty good. But Jeanty is No. 1 in the country in all-purpose yards with 173 yards per game. What’s striking about that: all-purpose yards combine rushing, receiving, punt returns, and kickoff returns, and Jeanty has done this without a single yard on returns. He doesn’t have the body of work of Jay Ajayi, Jeremy McNichols and Alexander Mattison et al. But he’s in the conversation.
Jeanty went into the game at Snapdragon Stadium with a lot of resolve after the North Dakota game. But so did the offensive line. We’ve got to say their names, because you didn’t hear them on the telecast last Friday. One reason? No false starts. Again. Kage Casey, Mason Randolph, Garrett Curran, Roger Carreon and Cade Beresford. Their job on Jeanty’s 58-yard touchdown run, in particular, was outstanding. They completely walled off the left side of the field. Jeanty was all about those guys in his postgame presser.
Jeanty has his first Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week honor after his first 200-yard game. Turns out he’s not only the first Bronco to hit 200 yards since Mattison in 2018 against Fresno State—he’s the first Mountain West player to do it since then. Two other things that stand out: Jeanty accounted for 12 of Boise State's 19 first downs at SDSU, and he accumulated 168 of his 254 all-purpose yards in the second quarter alone against the Aztecs.
THOSE TIGHT ENDS
One of Bronco Nation’s favorite pastimes is wondering what’s going on with the tight ends. Like, they’re not catching passes. In four games, Riley Smith has three receptions for 31 yards, including one for six yards at Snapdragon Stadium. Matt Lauter has zero catches. But that masks the value of those two guys in Boise State’s run game. Coach Andy Avalos told the media Monday that he showed the entire team clips of Smith and Lauter blocking against San Diego State. They played big parts in springing Jeanty's big runs against the Aztecs. It’s a real tribute to Smith in particular. He came in as a 206-pound quarterback in 2018, a late signee after Zach Wilson had decommitted and gone to BYU. Now Smith is a senior who weighs in at 236 pounds and has become a road-grader for the Broncos.
SEE PASS, DEFEND PASS
When we talk Boise State-Memphis this Saturday, we’ve gotta talk about some warts. The Tigers like to throw the ball, and defending that is not the Broncos’ forte. What is San Diego State’s Jalen Mayden doing passing for 241 yards and completing 73 percent of his throws like he did last Friday night? That continues to be Boise State’s Achilles heel, as it’s ranked 122nd in the nation in passing yards allowed per game. A lot of aspects of this team are correcting themelves, but pass defense is the sore thumb. Memphis quarterback Seth Henigan threw 47 times in a 34-27 loss to Missouri last Saturday. He completed 31 for 316 yards and two touchdowns, but he tossed three interceptions. Ball hawks, anyone? The Broncos have just two picks this season, and both came on tip drills against UCF.
HARD TO HANDICAP THIS MATCHUP
Respected college football writer Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News (who, by the way, has Boise State rated No. 4 in the Mountain West) has an interesting take on the Broncos’ game at Memphis Saturday afternoon. Writes Wilner: “Memphis has one loss, to Missouri, but no quality wins, average quarterback play and a mediocre defense. The best versions of Boise State would make just enough plays in the second half to leave Grind City with a victory. Does this edition qualify? We shall see.” That kind of draws a line in the sand for the Broncos. “The best versions of Boise State.” This year’s Broncos certainly want to be in that club, but they’re not yet. Will they get out of September at 3-2 or 2-3? That feels like a big difference.
MOUNTAIN WEST REGAINS ITS COMPOSURE
I think it’s clear that the Mountain West has recovered from its moribund 2022 football season. The trek through the conference is going to be tough for Boise State. For example, a road game in November at Fresno State, which destroyed Kent State Saturday night 53-10. The Bulldogs have a 13-game winning streak, second in the nation to Georgia, and they’re in the AP Poll at No. 25. Fresno State is drawing big crowds again—there was an announced 38,728 for Kent State, including what they say is a record number in the student section. Air Force, the day-after-Thanksgiving opponent, is also 4-0 and on a roll after roughing up San Jose State in the second half. And how about Wyoming, with half the yardage of Appalachian State and less than a third of the first downs? The Cowboys won on a blocked field goal for a touchdown.
TO RELEGATE OR NOT TO RELEGATE
There was churn on the conference realignment front late last week—and now it’s back to no news.But the athletic directors and presidents at Washington State and Oregon State held a joint Zoom conference last Thursday and said they’ve had “very constructive conversations” with the Mountain West. OSU AD Scott Barnes also said the promotion/relegation proposal created by Boise State associate athletic director Mike Walsh is “certainly worthy of our study.” The plan is based on the soccer model in Europe. Let’s say it works and settles at 16 teams. Instead of calling the top tier the Pac-8 and the bottom tier the Mountain West, why not name the whole thing the Pac-16, with Tiers I and II? Then in the non-football sports, they could decide which ones use the relegation model and which ones don’t.
HOOPS OFFICIALLY HAPPENIN’
Boise State men’s basketball officially started practice yesterday for the 2023-24 season. Presumably the newcomers are already assimilated into the program after the team’s three-game tour of Canada two months ago. At the outset, the Broncos look like a team with a ton of depth—certainly a lot more than they had last year. Coach Leon Rice hit the transfer portal hard, and he came out of it with Roddie Anderson III from UC San Diego, Cam Martin from Kansas and O’Mar Stanley from St. John’s. Anderson and Martin could start, and Stanley will certainly get minutes. Boise State’s freshman class is stout as well: sure-to-be fan favorite Andrew Meadow, Chris Lockett and Emmanuel Ugbo, although Ugbo is “working through the admissions process” and not currently with the team.
BRONCOS’ HOME SLATE IS WHAT IT IS
Barring any last-minute changes, we have Boise State’s hoops schedule for the upcoming season. The non-conference highlights are all away from ExtraMile Arena, but you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. The Broncos load up in November, with a road game at Clemson before the ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando. That tournament begins with Virginia Tech and will include a game against either Iowa State or VCU on Day 2. You’ve got the neutral site games against Saint Mary’s in Idaho Falls and Washington State in Spokane. As for the home schedule, the season opens November 7 against Vanguard, and the best non-league matchup appears to be against San Francisco on November 12.
FROM A KIBBIE DOME THRILLER TO THE…’RED’
The Game of the Year in the Big Sky (so far) did not disappoint. Idaho and defending conference champion Sacramento State went toe-to-toe in the Kibbie Dome in a 36-27 Vandals victory. That it was closer than the score indicated is obvious. Idaho scored nine points in (technically) the final second of the contest. After Ricardo Chavez hit an apparent game-winning field goal with one second left, Ormanie Arnold scored as time expired when he scooped up a fumble as the Hornets tried to lateral on the ensuing kickoff return. Now Idaho, up to No. 4 in the FCS rankings, has a tough test on the Cheney eyesore, the red turf of Eastern Washington. Easy for us in blue turf land to say that, but it really is.
NOT A GOOD TIME TO FACE THE YOTES
Maybe College of Idaho had gotten too comfortable at home, or maybe Montana Tech is that good. But the Orediggers got out to an early lead last Saturday in Butte, and the offense kept its foot on the gas in a 44-35 victory, the Coyotes’ first loss of the season. It spoiled another solid day from quarterback Andy Peters, who threw for 354 yards and three touchdowns. The Yotes return home this Saturday to face Rocky Mountain College at Simplot Stadium. Other than a 45-0 rout of Montana State-Northern, the Bears haven’t been scoring a lot of points. It’s a chance for the C of I defense to right the ship.
THIS DAY IN SPORTS…September 27, 1998, 25 years ago today:
Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals hits his 69th—and, in his final at-bat—his seemingly impossible (for good reason, as it turns out) 70th home run of the season. By hitting five homers in his final three games, he finally pulled away from the Cubs’ Sammy Sosa in the home run race, 70-66. Both players had shattered Roger Maris’s 38-year-old major league record of 61 homers in a single season. McGwire’s record would be broken in 2001, with San Francisco’s Barry Bonds hitting 73 homers (under a similar cloud).
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
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