Quarterback decision looms as Coach Lewis will need to decide who leads the team moving forward.
Boise State shaping up to be the conference leader despite hanging on in the conference game of the year (so far).
One would think that this late in the season a college football team wouldn’t be having to deal with quarterback issues. Usually with an injury, the player returns to resume his position when he is physically able. This is not that usual situation. Coach Sean Lewis and staff will have a week
of practice to evaluate whether they continue with successful backup Stone Saunders or a healthy Jayden Denegal when he returns. While Denegal has struggled on what seems a weekly basis, Saunders has had three very impressive performances closing out a win against Fresno State, a close loss to Colorado State and a slugfest against Washington State.. His line for the season so far is 43 of 69 passing attempts for 552 yards and a 62.3% completion percentage. His average yards per pass is 8 yards and he’s thrown two touchdowns against three interceptions. He is more of a typical drop back passer, but has the ability to escape a rush and he will choose to get rid of the ball instead of running. This is different than Denegal, who has a 55% completion percentage on 93 of 151 passing attempts for 899 yards. He has thrown seven touchdowns against five interceptions. Denegal has been ineffective in most of his outings, just lacking the spark to drive consistency. Saunders, meanwhile, has realistic expectations attached to a freshman. He has missed some targets, but has shown the ability to stretch the field with longer passes and establish consistency on his short to midrange targets.
One knock against the Aztecs this season has been their inability to move the chains, especially on third down. Saunders has been impressive, capturing a 52.4% conversion rate compared to 29.4% when Denegal is under center. Lewis will need to weigh all these factors as he goes through practice this week in preparation for their next game, versus Utah State at home.
“There are a lot of things and a lot of factors that were different than a week ago,” said Lewis. We knew that there wasn’t going to be a whole lot of gimmies, and so I thought he did a nice job managing what we asked him to do.” These are strong words of praise as Lewis is looking not only at this year, but beyond to next year. This week will be important for Saunders as practice reps with the first team are premium quality snaps. One doesn’t know what next season will hold, but Saunders certainly has got the inside track to both carry on the rest of this season and be the early favorite to be the starter next season. What will Coach Lewis do? That will be a quandary Lewis will need to address before the next game. He may have the keys to the kingdom, but will he walk through the door? This writer thinks he should and he will.
Boise State and Texas State played what many people say Pac-12 football is meant to be like in this recap from Saturday night’s game.
Boise State looked comfortably ahead at halftime, leading the Bobcats of Texas State 28-3 at halftime in front of a large, partisan crowd on the Blue Turf. Someone forgot to tell Texas State they were supposed to lose. They came out in the second half with their hair on fire, ripping off 36 unanswered points and a 39-28 lead in the fourth quarter. Boise had lost starting quarterback Maddux Madsen to an injury and were using backup Max Cuthforth. He led them to three straight touchdowns in the span of four minutes to complete the come from behind victory. The game showed two things: The Broncos (7-1, 4-0 Pac-12) are susceptible to losing in conference and Texas State (4-4, 2-2 Pac-12) is fun to watch.
No. 20 ranked Boise State had all they could handle as their overconfidence nearly led to disaster. Losing a 25 point halftime lead to trail by eleven might have been the undoing of many a team. Boise State did show they have the ability to do what is needed to come away with a win. Their furious comeback and resiliency shows the Broncos deserving of top spot in the conference.
“The third quarter was one of the worst quarters of football that I’ve ever been a part of,” Boise State Head Coach Spencer Danielson said. “But then in the fourth quarter, we throw a pick-six, we’re down 11 and a quarterback. But I’m proud of this team and this group of leaders that found a way to win.” Danielson referenced the pick-six, which was Madsen’s first interception of the season.
The Bobcats were on the verge of pulling off a titanic upset behind quarterback Brad Jackson, who threw for 327 yards and four touchdowns. But reality hits when it is least expected as the Bobcats had a pass intercepted and returned to their 11 yardline to flip the field and momentum. Texas State would score on a huge 72 -yard scoring strike from Jackson to Zechariah Sample, but failed on the two-point conversion giving them a 45-40 lead. Bronco backup Cutforth found receiver Akeem Wright for an 18 yard score with 2:40 left to put the Broncos up 46-45. Their two-point conversion failed also. In the evening both teams attempted five 2-point attempts, converting only one. Converting only one would have made a difference for the Bobcats.
Madsen threw for 236 yards and a touchdown and rushed for two more before he left in the fourth quarter with a potential knee injury.
Just for fun Premiere League Promotion
Continuing with an occasional “Premier Promotional League”, we see definite consistent contenders. We would create two conference standings with a higher and a lower status. The teams with the best records utilizing overall records are in the higher league and the other teams would be relegated to a lower league. Of course, this is just for fun. We would split into 9 teams with a tie given a promotion. Here’s what we’ve got so far:
Upper League (5 MW teams, 4 Pac-12 teams)
- Boise State (7-1, 4-0)
- New Mexico (7-1, 4-0)
- North Dakota State (7-2, 4-2)
- Air Force (6-2, 3-2)
- Oregon State (5-3, 3-1)
- UNLV (5-3, 3-1)
- Wyoming (5-3, 4-1)
- Fresno State (5-3, 2-2)
- San Diego State (4-5, 3-2)
Lower League (5 MW teams, 4 Pac-12 teams)
- Texas State (4-4, 2-2)
- San Jose State (4-5, 2-3)
- Utah State (3-5, 2-2)
- Nevada (3-5, 2-2)
- Colorado State (3-5, 1-3)
- Hawaii (2-6, 1-4)
- UTEP (1-7, 0-4)
- Washington State (1-8, 0-5)
- Northern Illinois 0-8, 0-4)
