Presented by BACON BOISE.
Wednesday Weekly…September 24, 2025.
Storylines changed almost drive-by-drive last Saturday in Boise State’s win at Air Force—from Maddux Madsen out, to Madsen back in, to 11 penalties in the first half to one in the second half, to some big defensive stops interspersed with inexplicable deficiencies in defensing the pass. But one storyline began midway through the first quarter and didn’t change. That’s when Dylan Riley scored the first of his five touchdowns for the Broncos. Riley had an unconscious night, proving that he could come up big against an FBS team (his signature games previously had come against Portland State and Eastern Washington). Riley only magnified the versatility of the Boise State running backs room. While many would like to anoint him RB1, he and Sire Gaines and Malik Sherrod are 1A, 1B and 1C, in whatever order.
From the “Who else?” department, Riley was named Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week on Monday. The conference release says Riley became “the first player in Boise State’s FBS era (since 1996) to record four rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown in a game.” But the school correctly points out it’s the first time that’s ever happened in program history, regardless of level. The previous four players to score five TDs in a game, Jon Helmandollar, Ian Johnson, Jay Ajayi and Ashton Jeanty (who had six), logged all of theirs rushing. Riley is also only the third Bronco ever to scoring rushing and receiving touchdowns of 70-plus yards in the same season. If he can be half that good against Appalachian State this week, all will be well.
POTTER’S GETTING THE HANG OF IT
New Boise State offensive coordinator Nate Potter was kind of feeling his way in the season-opening drubbing at South Florida. But Potter seems to be in a groove after a great play-calling performance at Air Force. For one thing, he didn’t back off when Max Cutforth suddenly had to take the reins on the third play of the game, as he completed throws of 13 and 17 yards to Latrell Caples on the Broncos’ first touchdown drive. Then when Maddux Madsen came back in there was the tight end screen to Matt Lauter that covered 20 yards and a seam route called for Matt Wagner, netting 24 yards on third-and-21. And do you think he used Riley okay? After a 10 minute, 41 second drive by the Falcons, Boise State was in the end zone in 12 seconds on the 75-yard screen pass to Riley.
ANOTHER ‘NEXT BOISE STATE’
Appalachian State, the esteemed guest on the blue turf Saturday night, has been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. It’s one of those programs that have fancied themselves on being “the next Boise State.” So let’s see what has happened since App State moved up to the FBS in 2014. It’s closer than you might think. Both teams have played the exact same number of games the past 11 seasons, and the Broncos, at 107-37, have only five more wins than the Mountaineers. Boise State has just one more conference title than App State (five versus four), and its seven 10-win seasons are only two better than ASU. The only thing missing from the Mountaineers’ resume is a BCS/New Year’s Six/College Football Playoff appearance. In the grand scheme of things, these are Group of 5 heavyweights.
APP STATE’S HEAVY HEARTS
You never know how something like this affects a team, but we can only assume that Appalachian State is going to be a very inspired bunch Saturday night against Boise State. Former Mountaineers head coach Shawn Clark died unexpectedly Monday at the age of 50. Clark succeeded Eli Drinkwitz, the former Boise State offensive coordinator, at App State in 2020 and led the program to a 40-24 record and three bowl victories in five seasons. Just as importantly, he was also an ASU alum—a two-time FCS All-American as an offensive lineman there in the late 1990s. Appalachian State fired Clark last December following a 5-6 campaign, the Mountaineers’ first losing season since 2013. But a lot of this year’s team played for him and cared about him.
OH BOY – APP IS PASS-HAPPY
While there were some big defensive stops by the Boise State defense at Air Force—Zion Washington on fourth down, Jeremiah Earby on third down to turn a potential touchdown drive into a field goal and Ty Benefield’s interception—hoo boy is there some work to do. The Falcons had minus-3 yards passing at halftime, but once they rolled full-time with Liam Szarka at quarterback, the Broncos had no answers. Szarka threw for 242 yards, 153 in the fourth quarter alone, on just 18 attempts. Those watching on TV almost never got a wide-angle replay, so it was hard to tell exactly where the breakdowns were. It’s not always the fault of the last guy you see on-screen chasing down an opponent after a big play. But the coaches know. They also know App State is a passing team—third in the nation at 358 yards per game.
STILL IN ‘PROVE IT’ MODE
It kind of feels like Boise State is getting its mojo back, but for national writers, there’s still a lot of convincing to do. Chris Vannini of The Athletic has released his weekly rankings of all 136 FBS teams, and the Broncos keep falling—they’re now No. 62. And in respected West Coast writer Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News future Pac-12 power rankings, he has Boise State rising only one spot after the win at Air Force. The Broncos are No. 4 behind Fresno State, Texas State and Utah State. The hope is that this will be chip-on-the-shoulder stuff for them.
JEANTY HAS YET TO JUMP-START
Ashton Jeanty began the Las Vegas Raiders game at Washington with five carries for five yards last Sunday. Then Jeanty looked like his old Boise State self more often than not, finishing with 63 yards on 17 attempts. While the grumbling over Jeanty’s slow start has begun, there are plenty of those who say the blame lies elsewhere. Pro Football Focus ranks the Raiders offensive line 28th out of 32 NFL teams in run blocking, and Las Vegas is the only squad in the league averaging negative yards before contact per rush. ESPN’s Ryan McFadden noted that Jeanty was hit at or behind the line of scrimmage on 11 of his 17 rushes vs. the Commanders and has now been hit at or behind the line on 57 percent of his rush attempts this season.
IDAHO ON A NATIONAL STAGE
Idaho could taste an FBS win at San Jose State before the Spartans took it away 31-28 last Saturday. The Vandals scored the first 14 points of the game, but they fell on a 48-yard field goal with seven seconds left in the game. The Vandals are on ESPN2 Saturday night for a showdown against Montana in Missoula in the battle for the Little Brown Stein, a rivalry trophy that dates back to 1938. Vandals coach Thomas Ford knows all about that trophy. “I know, as an assistant, it was pretty awesome getting that thing and taking it back to Moscow,” said Ford. “I know, also as an assistant, it hurt pretty bad seeing them leave with it here in Moscow back in 2023.” The Grizzlies are 3-0 and ranked No. 5 in the FCS—the Vandals are 2-2 and are No. 8 in the country.
AROUND THE STATE
I’m thinking Idaho State’s game last Saturday against Lincoln University of Oakland will forever be a one-off. There were lots of double-takes when the rag-tag program with no money lost by a staggering 90-0 count in Holt Arena as quarterback Davis Harsin threw for six touchdowns on just 13 attempts. The Bengals have a shot at win No. 2 this week at Northern Colorado. And College of Idaho, at 4-0, is the only remaining undefeated team in the Frontier Conference after rolling past Montana State-Northern 38-16. The Yotes go to Montana Tech this Saturday.
HOCKEY SEASON SNEAKING UP
The ice is going down in Idaho Central Arena, as the Utah Mammoth and L.A. Kings face off in a preseason game next Tuesday night. This will be the third NHL preseason game in the arena’s history. The first was an exhibition tilt between the Kings and San Jose Sharks in 1997, just the third event ever at what was then the new Bank of America Centre—just ahead of the Idaho Steelheads’ inaugural season. There wasn’t another NHL preseason game in Boise until three years ago when the Vegas Golden Knights and Arizona Coyotes met. (The Steelheads also hosted the Dallas Stars training camp in 2018.)
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
I don’t often agree with Barstool Sports honcho Dave Portnoy, but he’s right when he says the hubbub over four Boise State basketball players wearing Utah gear at a Utes football game last Saturday is much “to do” (as he puts it) about nothing. I, too, was wondering why in the world Andrew Meadow, RJ Keene, Peanut Carmichael and Dominic Parolin were doing that when I saw the photo with Portnoy. But it was just college guys having a good time visiting friends at another school. I don’t think you can doubt that Meadow and Keene, in particular, bleed blue. Go re-watch last year’s games.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by THE JAMES…craft food and cocktails, with heart and soul.
September 24, 1977: Former Boise State coach Tony Knap is on the field for his first game in Bronco Stadium in two years, now as the leader of UNLV. In the last of a six-game series between the two schools, both Division II at the time, Boise State ambushed the Rebels 45-14. Former Borah High star Terry Hutt sealed the deal with an 85-yard touchdown catch from Hoskin Hogan. The Broncos—with 629 total yards—bounced back stunningly from what is still the worst total offense output in their history, 69 yards the previous week in a loss at Fresno State.
(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.)
