BOISE, Idaho — Wednesday Weekly…October 23, 2024.
We don’t often dive into individual players among Boise State’s opponents, but UNLV has star power. You can start with quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams, who has really glued the Rebels together since Matt Sluka left in an NIL dispute. I’ve mentioned the Broncos’ Maddux Madsen leading the Mountain West in pass efficiency with a rating of 152. If Williams had enough pass attempts to qualify, he’d lead the conference with a rating of 183. Then Boise State has to deal with UNLV’s leading receiver, Ricky White III, who could be even better on special teams than he is on offense. On defense, there’s Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year Jackson Woodard and reigning MW Defensive Player of the Week Jalen Catalon. Woodard and Catalon have four interceptions—each. The Broncos as a team have, you know, one.
PRAYING FOR A PICK
UNLV went into the weekend tied for the national lead in turnover margin at plus-12. And the Rebels came out of it tied for second after their 33-25 win at Oregon State last Saturday. UNLV is also tied for second in the country with 13 interceptions, and they don’t cough up many offensively. Man is that a fun subject going into Friday night’s game. No. 17 Boise State is tied for last in the nation in picks. And yes, it is frustrating. There were at least two “interceptable” balls in the Hawaii game. Jeremiah Earby had a shot at one of them and A’Marion McCoy the other. Ironically, McCoy’s last interception was a big one against UNLV in the Mountain West championship game last December. The Broncos are first in the country in sacks and last in interceptions. So I guess that makes the defense “mid.”
BUT DON’T SLEEP ON MADSEN
Not many had this on their bingo cards: Madsen being added to the Midseason Watch List for the Davey O’Brien Award that goes to the nation’s best quarterback. There were lots of fans who had Madsen on the bench by now in favor of Malachi Nelson. But it hasn’t happened, as Madsen has put up 12 touchdown passes against two interceptions with a 64 percent completion rate. To hear offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter tell it: “Mad Dog does a good job running the team. He's not turning it over, he's getting the ball out of his hands, which is having the effect where we have very few negative plays in the pass game.” Koetter wants more, though: “We need to be more consistent with our ball location.” I’d include route locations from the wide receivers in there.
THE BIG ‘IFS’
For Boise State, the game at UNLV is huge in the CFP race. If the Broncos win. And that’s a big if. But there has been talk of the possibility that the Group of 5 representative in the CFP could finish ahead of one of the four Power 4 champions, thus earning a first-round bye. How would that happen? First, Boise State would have to run the table from here. Then, Oregon would have to run the table, too, and enter the Big Ten championship game undefeated. That would give the Broncos’ three-point loss to the Ducks the highest value possible. Finally, Texas Tech would have to be the upset winer of the Big 12. In that case, Washington State’s rout of the Red Raiders in September carries weight for the Broncos, who in turn pounded the Cougs. (Thanks to Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News for helping sort this out.)
ANOTHER NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Bye week catchup—“The Pulse,” the daily newsletter from The Athletic, led off with this last week: “Good morning! Be like Ashton Jeanty today.” That’s where we are in the Jeanty pub machine. There was a section in the newsletter headlined “The absurd specter of Ashton Jeanty.” It ran down stats that most of us know. But what was interesting was the national view of Boise State football. Here’s what Chris Branch wrote: “By this point, Boise State is far from the plucky mid-major it was in the early 2000s, when it was just known as the team that had blue turf. The Broncos are a legitimate Group of 5 powerhouse, one of the more stable college football programs of this century.” The point is, even though Boise State isn’t what it was 15 years ago (and can’t expect to be), it never really lost its mojo (26 straight winning seasons).
ASHTON’S LATEST ENDEARING OUTREACH
We are here not to talk about Jeanty’s latest odds to win the Heisman Trophy (he still leads) or how he’s pacing versus Barry Sanders’ college football rushing record. No, the Boise State star put things into perspective Monday night when he launched the Ashton Jeanty Endowed Scholarship for Football “to support future Broncos and help them realize their dreams.” Jeanty reportedly kicked it off with a $2,000 donation, and the fund reached five figures within 20 minutes. I know you can’t wait for the UNLV game Friday, but take a moment to appreciate this, whether you contribute or not. Plug in $1,000 or more and you’ll receive a limited-edition poster signed by Jeanty. The campaign is being facilitated through the Boise State University Foundation.
HOPING FOR A HEALTHY CAMPER
Boise State’s second bye week came at a good time, especially—everyone hopes, anyway—in the case of wide receiver Cam Camper. He’s one guy who needs to heal. Camper appeared to injure his knee on his final catch at Hawaii early in the fourth quarter. He walked off the field under his own power, but he was gimpy after his best performance of the season: seven catches for 111 yards. Camper has been the prize of the transfer portal for the Broncos, leading the team with 25 receptions for 441 yards and four touchdowns, topping his six-game output at Indiana last year. The thing is, Camper only made it through six games last season with the Hoosiers. Boise State could sure use him in Game 7.
BRONCOS BUCK THE TREND
In an era when the home TV experience has made it extremely difficult to grow college football attendance, Boise State has announced that its remaining three home games next month have now sold out, just like the first three did. Just amazing. Athletic director Jeramiah Dickey has had his mantra since 2021: “Six games, six sellouts.” And it actually happened for the first time in school history. It’s painful to see huge swaths of empty seats at other Group of 5 games, especially in the Mountain West. But here’s Boise State averaging 37,298 fans per game. It is an anomaly.
‘IT’S NOT WHERE YOU START…’
Expectations. They ain’t just for football around here. As you know, Boise State has been picked to win the Mountain West for the first time in program history. The eye-opener: the Broncos received 19 first-place votes, and no other team picked up more than two. Also noticeable was the fact that Boise State had three first-team all-conference picks, and they are all seniors, albeit different kinds of seniors. Tyson Degenhart, the Preseason Mountain West Player of the Year, is homegrown, going into his fourth season as a Bronco. O’Mar Stanley arrived from the transfer portal last year and stuck, and point guard Alvaro Cardenas is fresh out of the portal from San Jose State, ready to spend his final college season in Boise. This team is experienced, and (seems like we said this last year) is deeper than ever.
Boise State hoops was off-stage—intentionally—last weekend. The Broncos defeated Washington 92-69 in a “secret scrimmage” in ExtraMile Arena. KTVB’s Jay Tust reports that Degenhart and Stanley combined for 37 points, and Cardenas, Javan Buchanan and Andrew Meadow “did some good things.” (And I don’t know how Jay even got that much information out of it). But it’s a good sign for the Broncos.
STEELHEADS GO INTERSECTIONAL
Regular-season winter sports came into view in the Treasure Valley last weekend. And the Idaho Steelheads were welcomed with an overflow crowd at Idaho Central Arena last Friday. For the first time in my memory, the Steelheads played a single game on opening weekend. But it was a doozy, as the Steelheads took apart the Utah Grizzlies 7-2. The Steelies scored three times in less than four minutes in the first period and never looked back. Ty Pelton-Byce had two goals on the night. The Steelies stay home this week for what you might call an “intersectional” three-game series against the Toledo Walleye beginning tonight. It’s a rematch of the 2023 ECHL Western Conference Finals, when the Steelheads eliminated Toledo in five games.
VANDALS FINALLY SHAKE IT OFF
The Bozeman doldrums had a firm grip on Idaho during the first half against Cal Poly last week. The Vandals trailed 14-6 at the break before exploding in the second half and coming away with a 34-29 victory. It was an important step forward for quarterback Jack Wagner, who went 17-of-23 for a career-high 347 yards and three touchdown passes. Do the math—Wagner averaged more than 20 yards per completion. Idaho is 5-3 overall and 2-2 in Big Sky play going into Saturday night’s game against Eastern Washington in the Kibbie Dome. The conference title is a longshot, but the FCS Playoffs are still on the table for the Vandals.
REJUVENATED YOTES DEFENSE
College of Idaho was giving up yards and points in large clumps earlier this month, but the Coyotes defense has momentum now after smothering Montana State-Northern last Saturday. In the 28-7 win in Havre, the Yotes allowed a 40-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter, but just 102 yards total the rest of the game. C of I will need to stay the course Saturday as it hosts 5-1 Carroll College in a crucial Frontier Conference matchup Saturday at Simplot Stadium. The Yotes are a half-game behind the Saints, who are the only undefeated team remaining in league play.
THIS DAY IN SPORTS…October 23, 1993:
Joe Carter of the Toronto Blue Jays becomes the second major league player ever to end the World Series with a walk-off home run. With Blue Jays trailing Philadelphia 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 6, Carter connected on a three-run shot to win it. Toronto also became only the seventh franchise to win back-to-back world championships, defeating the Phillies four games to two (the Jays had beaten the Atlanta Braves in 1992). The only other player to finish a Series with a walk-off homer was Bill Mazeroski of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960 against the New York Yankees. That one came in Game 7.
(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.)
