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Wednesday Weekly: August 26, 2026.
I don’t know how many people counted on Boise State wide receiver Ben Ford being back in time for the Oregon game, but it was a minority. How about Ford now going full-on in practice, 10 months after tearing his ACL (again) last season against UNLV? That’s big for a wideout room that’s reinventing itself. How ready he is for extended action against the Ducks remains to be seen.
Here’s the next question. As a former Eagle High quarterback, when will Ford throw a pass for Boise State? Seems like a natural for the Broncos’ playbook, but hey, former high school quarterback Riley Smith, who turned into a standout tight end at Boise State, never had a pass attempt. Remember Garrett Collingham? He was another Broncos tight end who played QB at Mountain View and never threw a pass. It’s definitely crossed Ford’s mind. “I’ve been talking to them about doing the double-pass for a while,” Ford grinned during Boise State’s Media Day in July. “Hopefully we can get it done this year.” The last former high school quarterback to throw a pass as a position player for the Broncos was wideout Cedrick Wilson in 2017.
CUTFORTH’S BEEN THERE, DONE THAT
After the final scrimmage of fall camp Saturday, coach Spencer Danielson said Boise State’s No. 2 quarterback will be who it has been: Skyview grad Max Cutforth. He performed the best in fall camp, but he also has the experience. Let’s walk through Cutforth’s development last November. When he was thrown into the fire against Fresno State upon Maddux Madsen’s injury, he was not ready, and the result was the punishing 30-7 loss to the Bulldogs. At San Diego State, he was a victim of the rain and the baffling game plan the Broncos used to answer it. Against Colorado State, Cutforth got his footing with 239 yards and 65 percent passing. And at Utah State, he helped deliver a crucial victory with 341 yards and two touchdowns. Cutforth has the proper dose of seasoning.
WEIRD YEAR FOR EXPECTATIONS
This is not expected to be Boise State’s best team ever—or even be better than the 2024 squad. But it is expected to win the Pac-12, and more. Respected Athletic writer Chris Vannini made his Group of 6 predictions last Friday, and he picks Boise State to make the College Football Playoff. Unless they lose by five touchdowns or more at Oregon, experts will let the Broncos move on from that game. But from Memphis on, they’ve gotta get it done. Vannini has also now released his rankings of all 138 FBS teams to kick off 2026. There, he has Boise State at No. 21, the highest-ranked Group of 6 team. But while Vannini has high hopes for the Broncos, he doesn’t see the new Pac-12 being as balanced as others see it. San Diego State is No. 43 and Fresno State No. 57—the remaining five teams are all below 80.
SPECIAL TEAMS SWEEPSTAKES
One prominent talking point as Boise State’s settles its depth chart is special teams. Dylan Riley will be the lead kickoff returner, Division III transfer Jeremyah Lane is the favorite as punt returner and Oscar Doyle is rightfully locked in as the punter. But the placekicker? It might not be who we thought it would be. Colton Boomer, last season’s mainstay after transferring from UCF, has apparently not solved his consistency problems, and Canaan Moore, the sophomore from Vancouver, WA, may sneak in there. Broncos fans remember the Boomer they saw three 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. That Boomer hasn’t materialized yet.
Pop quiz for long-time Boise State fans: what was Shane Williams-Rhodes’ height and weight? SWR, as we liked to call him, was listed as 5-6, 158 pounds when he came in as a true freshman wide receiver in 2012. “Really?” people said. All Williams-Rhodes did over the next four years was become the Broncos’ second-leading pass-catcher of all-time with 233 receptions. The point is: size doesn’t matter when you’ve got skills. This year, here comes the 5-6, 150-pound Lane, who’s here to return punts. And if he does it in the FBS the way he did it at Division III Brevard College, one of Boise State’s special teams sore spots will be healed. Lane averaged 17 yards per runback last season. Those are Avery Williams-type numbers. Rootin’ for Lane to get the job.
ZEROING IN ON WEEK 0
Boise State has 10 days until it opens the season at Oregon. The wait is only two days for Idaho, as the Vandals kick it off Friday night at Cal Poly on ESPN. It was a stroke of genius by Big Sky commissioner Tom Wistrcill, who approached ESPN and offered to switch some conference games to Thursday or Friday of Week 0 to give the network more inventory—and his league exposure. The result is ESPN’s earliest regular season telecast of a conference game ever. These are two teams hoping to get untracked this season after a disappointing 2025. The Vandals and Mustangs had identical records: 4-8 overall, and 2-6 in the Big Sky.
Idaho State also plays in Week 0, hosting VMI (Virginia Military Institute, a fellow FCS school) Saturday at the ICCU Dome. The Bengals are looking for their long-awaited breakout year, while the Keydets are coming off a 1-11 season. And College of Idaho is also poised for its 2026 opener. The Yotes head up to LaGrande for their I-84 rivalry game with Eastern Oregon.
THE JEANTY INJURY SCARE
NFL insider Ian Rappaport reported Tuesday that Ashton Jeanty’s ankle sprain is “believed to be more low than high” and not considered to be severe enough to be a “major injury.” The former Boise State great and Las Vegas Raiders star was hurt last Sunday in practice while diving for a pass thrown by Kirk Cousins and couldn’t put any weight on his right leg as he was helped off the field. But hopefully Jeanty won’t miss too much time. Taking first-team reps in his place will be Mike Washington Jr., a fourth-round draft pick out of Arkansas who took handoffs from former Bronco Taylen Green last year the same way Jeanty did in 2023. Washington’s been impressive in the preseason.
POST-THANKSGIVING HOOPS IN IDAHO FALLS
It’s not the Maui Invitational nor the Cayman Islands Classic, but it is something different. The Snake River Collegiate Basketball Invitational (how about we shorten that to “Snake River Invitational”) makes its debut Thanksgiving weekend at the Mountain American Center in Idaho Falls. It’s meant to be a mid-major showcase, with Boise State joining North Texas, North Dakota State and Drake. It’ll be a round robin—six games in three days—so there’ll be no tournament champion. Right now, the Broncos are getting Georgia Tech transfer guard Lamar Washington assimilated into the program. He’s basically a replacement for injured Illinois transfer Ty Rodgers. Washington averaged 5½ assists per game the past two seasons at Pacific and with the Yellow Jackets.
PLAYOFF POSTURING FOR ACB
AC Boise may be an expansion team, but it’s in the thick of the USL League One playoff race. After rallying from a 2-nil deficit to draw 2-2 with One Knoxville SC in Tennessee last Saturday night, there are 10 games left in the regular season. The top eight teams make the USL One playoffs, and AC Boise is currently tied for fifth place. Boise dominated the Knoxville match, so it would have been a bummer to have come away with a loss. ACB’s in Tennessee again on Saturday to face the Chattanooga Red Wolves SC, which happens to be the team right below them in the standings. AC Boise beat Chattanooga 2-1 back on May 2. It’s a tight, tight race.
MORE BOISE ‘PROPOURRI’
The annual Western Idaho Fair road trip continues for the Boise Hawks with Part II: six games in Great Falls. It began Tuesday night with 11-10 win over the Voyagers by rallying for three runs in the top of the ninth. The Hawks’ eight-game winning streak ended a week ago with stunning swiftness, as they dropped the final five games of their series against the Glacier Range Riders. Also on the local pro sports front, the Idaho Steelheads have signed Eagle native John Driscoll, a 6-4 defenseman who played the previous four seasons in the amateur UHL. In Boise, Driscoll will be reuniting with former Junior Steelheads teammate Luke Mylymok, the son of Steelies legend Jeremy Mylymok. Luke just signed with Idaho last week.
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August 26, 1939: Major League Baseball game is broadcast on live television for the first time, as the station that would become WNBC-TV in New York City shows a doubleheader between the Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers from Ebbets Field. It was tied into the 1939 World’s Fair, where television was one of the prize exhibits. The medium was in its infancy, as there were only about 400 TV sets in the Big Apple at the time. The Reds and Dodgers split the twin bill.
(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.)
