BOISE, Idaho — This Day In Sports…October 31, 2015:
On a sunny Halloween afternoon in Las Vegas, quarterback Brett Rypien breaks a Boise State and Mountain West freshman single-game record by throwing for 469 yards in a 55-27 win over UNLV. Rypien eclipsed Kellen Moore’s Bronco freshman standard of 414 yards at Nevada in 2008. Rypien, who had burned his redshirt year six weeks earlier, completed passes to 10 different receivers. He also made the first touchdown reception of his career on a four-yard pass from wide receiver Thomas Sperbeck, who had 10 catches for 163 yards on the day.
There were a bunch of other firsts in that game—in addition to Rypien's first career 400-yard game. Jake Hardee, the one-time walk-on tight end out of Bishop Kelly, had his first career TD catch, too. Sean Modster's first two career catches came within three plays on that same drive. Chaz Anderson recorded the first 100-yard game of his career on a 54-yard fourth-quarter touchdown grab from Rypien. And backup QB Tommy Stuart capped the afternoon with his first career touchdown.
The win at UNLV clinched Boise State’s 18th consecutive winning season. Coach Bryan Harsin had been a part of 14 of them as a player, assistant coach and head coach. Those are sometimes taken for granted around here, and that’s unfortunate, because today it’s up to 26 (and on the verge of 27), and is the longest streak in the country. This is Boise State's 57th season as a four-year program, and the Broncos have had winning seasons in 50 of them—soon to be 51.
It wouldn’t be Rypien’s last 400-yard passing game at Boise State. In fact, he’d go over 500 two weeks later, throwing for a career-high 506 yards against New Mexico. That remains the fourth-highest mark in Broncos history, but it was an otherwise forgettable night. The Lobos were 30.5-point underdogs—and won 31-24 on the blue turf. It took a school-record 75 pass attempts for Rypien to reach 506, and Sperbeck did what he could with two more school records: 20 catches and 281 yards. Rypien would have one more 400-yard effort in his career, with 442 yards against BYU in 2016. That was a 28-27 win.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
