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Wednesday Weekly…October 15, 2025.
He was Eagle High’s quarterback when he won Idaho Gatorade Player of the Year honors during the COVID season in 2020. He could have gone on to play major college baseball, but Ben Ford had his sights set on the blue turf from the get-go, wherever Boise State wanted to play him. Ford’s position would be wide receiver, but man has it been a long journey. He came into this season with four career catches (one of them for 12 yards and a first down against Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl). I asked Maddux Madsen in July which wide receiver has stood out in summer drills. Without hesitation, Madsen said, “Ben Ford.” Now, Ford is one catch behind Latrell Caples for the team lead, with 20 grabs for 299 yards and a team-best five touchdowns, with two in the 41-25 win over New Mexico last Saturday.
Ford is a fifth-year senior, but he told Prater & The Ballgame on KTIK Tuesday that he is indeed eligible for a medical hardship for the time he’s lost to injury during his career—including all of 2023—and will apply for an additional year after the season. Fans are still discovering Ford, but among those in the know he’s a favorite. He wears No. 82, Thomas Sperbeck’s old number 10 years ago, and you can see Sperbeck in him.
BEWARE THESE TRANSFER-LADEN REBELS
The Mountain West Player of the Week awards don’t get much run here when they don’t involve Boise State. But this one should. The offensive winner is UNLV quarterback Anthony Colandrea, the transfer from Virginia. Colandrea threw for 361 yards—the most by a Rebel in seven years—and a touchdown, and he rushed for 62 yards and two TDs in the Rebels’ 51-48 win over Air Force. But the main thing is: Colandrea makes plays when it counts. After the Falcons took the lead with 1:13 left in the game, he marched UNLV down the field before popping a 19-yard touchdown run with 44 seconds remaining that saw him evade four would-be tacklers. Two years ago, the Rebels were starving for a bowl game. Now it’s October 15, and they’ve already clinched to their third bowl berth in a row.
WHAT DOES LAS VEGAS KNOW?
That point spread seems high, doesn’t it? Early Vegas odds had Boise State favored over UNLV by 11.5 points this Saturday afternoon on the blue turf. The Rebels are undefeated at 6-0 and are going to take that personally, as they keep taking flack for their soft schedule. In USA Today’s re-rank of all 136 FBS teams Monday, the Broncos were No. 47, and UNLV was No. 22, for cryin’ out loud. But the Rebels barely escaped Air Force in Allegiant Stadium. Make no mistake, though, they’ll have a “no one respects us” chip on their shoulder. A combination of an improved Boise State defense and a crowd that, uh, might stick around bodes well.
CALLING OUT THE CROWD
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Boise State fans scatter as quickly as they did last Saturday night when the first cloudburst hit at Albertsons Stadium. It was quite a jolt a day after an 85-degree high temperature. The original attendance of 32,000 was half that in the second half when the Broncos essentially righted their ship against New Mexico. I believe most fans were simply under-dressed, and especially under-poncho’d when the rains came. But it was a bad look, and athletic director Jeramiah Dickey especially didn’t like it. “I will recognize things when I see it,” Dickey told KTIK Tuesday. “My job is to speak the truth.” And the truth is, it hurt Boise State’s image—and recruiting in particular. There were some very important visitors on the blue turf that night.
PROLIFERATION OF PENALTIES
There’s an old saying: “He who thinks about failure has already failed.” Is the seed of failure planted in the Boise State offensive line after an onslaught of false starts this year? Coach Spencer Danielson has talked about “performance anxiety” in relation to penalties this season—maybe that only makes O-linemen more anxious. But it’s a problem that needs to be fixed as much as it can before the UNLV game. In the third quarter against New Mexico, there were back-to-back false starts, one of them shockingly going against left tackle and NFL prospect Kage Casey. There were five false starts in all. The Broncos have always been about discipline, so this has got to be correctible.
JEANTY’S GROOVE
Ashton Jeanty gets his first test against an elite NFL team this week when the Las Vegas Raiders face the Chiefs in Kansas City. The former Boise State great has settled in now, rushing for 75 yards and a touchdown last week in a win over Tennessee (albeit for only 3.3 yards per carry). Jeanty has 497 yards from scrimmage and five total touchdowns over the first six games for a team that is underachieving overall. But Chip Kelly has used him the way he should be used over the past three games, as Jeanty has averaged 22 touches per game in that stretch. He’s entrenched as the starter, as the Raiders play Raheem Mostert sparingly. It helps that Jeanty is so good out of the backfield. He has 14 catches for 73 yards and two TDs after only 23 receptions all season for Boise State last year.
THE IN-STATE SWING
Idaho is shaking off the shock of its 49-33 upset at home at the hands of Northern Colorado. That leaves the Vandals at 0-2 in the Big Sky and 2-4 overall going into Saturday’s game at Eastern Washington. Idaho State is 1-2 in conference and 2-5 overall after running into the buzzsaw known as Montana State and falling 48-14 in Bozeman. The Bengals have a bye this week. And College of Idaho, coming off a bye, plays its first home game in four weeks on Saturday. The Yotes are 4-1 overall and 1-0 in the Frontier Conference, as their loss at Montana Tech three weeks ago was scheduled as a non-conference tilt.
RIVALRY FINALLY REVIVED
We’d better get prepped for what I’d say is the most anticipated exhibition game in Boise State hoops history. It is, of course, against Idaho Friday night in Idaho Central Arena downtown. This matchup hasn’t been played since 2014, and this will tell you how long ago that was: Derrick Marks put up 31 points in an 86-75 Broncos victory. It was Boise State’s sixth straight win in the series, which went on hiatus with the Broncos leading 54-35. Boise State, without Tyson Degenhart but with a solid core returning, is hungry to get back to the NCAA Tournament after just missing last March. The Vandals are coming off their second year under coach Alex Pribble and are heading in the right direction. They got closer to .500 last season, going 14-19 overall.
The game Friday night doesn’t count in the season records. But oh, it counts. We’ll see if it gets the old juices flowing. Boise State assistant Roberto Bergerson, in particular, has been giving players “Broncos-Vandals 101” in practice this week. On the court, there’s veteran leadership to absorb that information. Andrew Meadow is the leading returning scorer, and R.J. Keene is the returning “glue guy.” Then there’s Javan Buchanan, who was seen as a transfer portal candidate at the end of last season when he was named Mountain West Sixth man of the Year. But Boise State was able to retain him. No more “sixth man” for Buchanan, as he’s a sure-fire starter at forward as a senior for the Broncos.
STEELIES LACE ‘EM UP FOR REAL
The Idaho Steelheads tuned up for Friday night’s season opener at Tahoe with a sweep of their exhibition series against the Utah Grizzlies. The Steelheads won 3-1 last Friday in Boise and 4-2 the following night in Idaho Falls. Names to note as the regular season begins include three players assigned to the Steelies Tuesday by the AHL’s Texas Stars: forward Francesco Arcuri, defenseman Tommy Bergsland, and goaltender Arno Tiefensee. Coach Everett Sheen begins his sixth season with the Steelheads, aiming for the Kelly Cup Playoffs after a rare miss last spring.
‘BANANA BALL’ VERSUS THE BANANAS THEMSELVES
I think most people realize now that it won’t be the actual Savannah Bananas that visit the blue turf July 31 and August 1 next summer. But the phenomenon that the Bananas have created—a Harlem Globetrotters-type barnstorming tour—is very real, and that’s what is headed to Boise. The Bananas have formed the Banana Ball Championship League and have added two more teams—the Loco Beach Coconuts and Indianapolis Clowns—to their rotation for the league’s inaugural season. Two of the existing teams, the Party Animals and Texas Tailgaters, will play on the Blue as part of a 75-stadium, 45-state Banana Ball Tour expected to attract about 3.2 million fans.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by LIGHTING ON DEMAND…illuminating the future!
October 15, 1994: Idaho State rallies in the final seconds to upset Boise State 32-31 at Holt Arena in Pocatello. The Bengals overcame a big night by Broncos tailback K.C. Adams, who became just the second Boise State player ever to record 100 yards both rushing and receiving in the same game (126 on the ground, 104 through the air). Boise State had gone into the game 6-0, and it would be the only blemish on the Broncos’ magical 1994 season until they fell to Youngstown State two months later in the Division I-AA national championship game.
(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.)
