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Wednesday Weekly…August 27, 2025.
You can’t teach instinct. Kellen Moore was the king of instinct, of course. Comparing Maddux Madsen with Moore in that department is unfair, but Boise State’s junior quarterback definitely has instinct. His crucial touchdown scrambles in two of the Broncos’ biggest wins of last year are a testament to that. Both happened to be against the same team: UNLV in the regular season and the Mountain West championship game. Madsen’s decisions last year were generally sound. Preparation? Sure, but executing instinctively in a nano-second is a gift. That’s why he beat out Malachi Nelson last season and has had the job all to himself since. His leadership has blossomed along with it. Madsen always has a smile on his face, and you sure as heck couldn’t say that about Nelson. The Broncos are in capable hands at South Florida.
BULLS HOPE TO PUSH THEIR TIMELINE
South Florida is scheduled to visit the blue turf in 2027. Not that the Bulls won’t be Thursday evening, but they could be a very tough out for Boise State in two years. USF isn’t where it wants to be yet, but it’s getting close. The Bulls are committed. Three American Conference sources told The Athletic recently that South Florida is way ahead of its fellow league members in football roster budget, which is believed to be in the $8-10 million range. The norm in the American is theorized to be $3-5 million. USF is also building a new 35,000-seat on-campus stadium. If you want trends, Bulls coach Alex Goresh has produced some. Golesh took over a program that was a combined 4-29 in the three seasons prior to his arrival and has turned in consecutive 7-6 seasons. And now they’re looking for the payoff.
USF WOULD BE A MOUNTAIN WEST THREAT
The Athletic’s Chris Vannini ranks all 136 FBS teams, and he doesn’t just draw straws. “I take every spot in these rankings seriously, and I try to explain it as best I can,” writes Vannini. He has Boise State at No. 23, but let’s look at a couple of non-Notre Dame Broncos opponents. No. 48 is UNLV and its cast of new characters. And No. 59 is…South Florida—higher than anyone in the Mountain West outside of the Broncos and Rebels. Vannini’s assessment: “This could be the Bulls’ breakout year if quarterback Byrum Brown stays healthy; they are deep almost everywhere else.” And when oddsmakers have a team playing at home as a six-point underdog, anything can happen.
I think some fans are looking past USF—and Eastern Washington and Air Force—to Notre Dame. Fortunately, I don’t think the Broncos are. But to lure you back into complacency, Austin Mock of The Athletic released his 2025 CFP projections last week, and it includes this line: “Boise State owns the Group of 5.” Mock gives the Broncos a 50 percent chance of returning to the CFP—the next best out of the Group of 5 is Tulane at 12 percent.
LOCALS PLAY UP FOR THE BRONCOS
A couple of “good for you” shoutouts to local players on the Boise State depth chart for the USF game. To Eagle High’s Ben Ford, who gets an “OR” next to Cameron Bates as one of the starters at wide receiver. It’s been five years of resilience for the redshirt senior, the former Mustangs quarterback. But he solidified the trust Maddux Madsen had in him this summer and has obviously done that with the coaches as well.
And to Max Cutforth, the Skyview High grad who walked on in 2023. He’s the backup quarterback, without an “OR” on the depth chart. The hype coming from Spencer Danielson was real. Kaleb Annett came out of the Broncos’ spring game in a good spot after going 6-for-10 for 77 yards and a touchdown. But Cutforth produced a consistent fall camp and made a ton of progress. Cutforth is the only QB on the roster other than Madsen who has thrown a pass in a game.
BOOMER WINS HIS BATTLE
Boise State kicker Colton Boomer returned to the practice field last week and won the competition with Jarrett Reeser for the starting spot to replace five-year star Jonah Dalmas. This is a fresh start for Boomer, who tried to play through an ankle injury at UCF last year and connected on just three of six field goal attempts before using his redshirt year. Broncos fans remember the Boomer they saw two years ago on the blue turf—the one that made field goals of 50 and 55 yards for the Knights before knocking through a 40-yarder to walk off an 18-16 UCF victory. Boomer is only a junior (Reeser is, too).
FROM WEEK 0 TO WEEK 1
Week 0 in college football demonstrated what many feared last Saturday: the Mountain West is marginal. Hawaii did pull off a 23-20 walk-off win over Stanford, but the Cardinal are bad. Fresno State scored on its first drive—but not again in a 31-7 thumping at Kansas. And props to Idaho State coach Cody Hawkins, who pulled out all the stops in Allegiant Stadium before falling to UNLV 38-31. What does it say about the Rebels and new coach Dan Mullen? A bazillion transfer portal players do not mesh overnight. Week 1’s feature games (outside Broncos-Bulls) include New Mexico at Michigan in Jason Eck’s debut—plus Nevada at Penn State and Colorado State at Washington. Maybe CSU at least has a chance? Well, the Rams are 20-point underdogs.
THOSE 53-MAN ROSTERS
First, the good news for Boise State as NFL rosters are set for season openers next week. Among the 11 former Broncos who made 53-man rosters are two who started their careers as undrafted free agents. George Holani had a stellar training camp and parlayed that into solid performances in preseason games and will be a gameday suit-up for the Seattle Seahawks. And John Ojukwu, the one-time slender Boise High star, has done it again, making the Tennessee Titans roster. The bad news, of course: Ahmed Hassanein never got a chance to rehab his pectoral injury, at least not yet. The Detroit Lions waived him Tuesday with an injury settlement. One report, though, says the Lions may be gambling that another team won’t pick up Hassanein, in which case they’d be able to keep him on injured reserve and bring him back.
FOLLOWUP ON THE HOOPS SLATE
More on the non-conference schedule for Boise State men’s basketball, and the six home games in ExtraMile Arena. There isn’t a Clemson on that list, but that game against the Tigers last year should be considered a one-off. It’ll probably be a long time before a Power 4 program comes to Boise again. The best matchups of the bunch are against Wichita State and defending Big Sky champion Montana State three days apart in mid-November. The one versus the Bobcats has a cool sidebar, as the Broncos’ R.J. Keene may get to face off against his brother, Howie, a 6-7 freshman guard for MSU.
HOME SAYONARA FOR THE HAWKS’ 38TH SEASON
The Boise Hawks theme at Memorial Stadium is “Fan Appreciation Week” as the team wraps up its home schedule. The first of two three-game series began Tuesday night with the Idaho Falls Chukars, and the game was called in the seventh inning with the score knotted 5-5. But the key in minor league baseball, just as it has been for the Hawks since they played their first game in 1987, is what happens in the stands. Fans go to the games to enjoy a summer evening, have some fun, and watch some baseball—regardless of the result. It doesn’t matter if the Hawks are playing the Tri-City Dust Devils in the Northwest League or the Missoula Paddleheads in the Pioneer League (who the team plays in its final three Memorial Stadium games this weekend). The Hawks organization has delivered in a good fan experience.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by THE JAMES…craft food and cocktails, with heart and soul.
August 27, 2018: A forgettable day for Simona Halep of Romania, as she becomes the first top-seed on the women’s side to lose in the first round of the U.S. Open during the half-century of the professional era. Halep, the reigning French Open champion, was routed 6-2, 6-4 by 44th-ranked Kaia Kanepi of Estonia. Only five times before had a No. 1 women’s seed in a major been ousted in the first round, three times at Wimbledon and once each at the Australian and French Opens. But it had never happened in New York.
(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.)
