May we have your attention please?
Will the real Boise State please stand up?
We repeat, will the real Boise State please stand up?
Or we are gonna have a problem here in Fresno..
After the lows of an opening day loss to Washington and heights of a FCS home opener win came the 4th quarter destruction of and win over Air Force. I think it is safe to say now that Boise State is not up to the challenge of beating a #17 ranked BCS team on the road but is quite capable of handling a FCS team or middle of the pack MWC team at home. What they can do on the road vs a upper level MWC team is the real question.
So, at this stage of the season, I have BSU with 6 wins easy, 8 with some skill and 9-11 with a Championship team effort. Southern Miss, Nevada, Wyoming and New Mexico should all be home wins. Although, Nevada has proven they can rise to the occasion through the years on the road vs BSU and Wyoming has the QB to keep up the scoring pace, BSU should prevail. Throw in road wins vs Colorado State and an injury prone San Diego State and call it 8. Now, the problems begin.
Fresno State, Utah State and BYU still remain mysteries. I don’t have the blind faith in this team that they will deliver a typical road blowout win. Even though they have beaten Fresno St 7 straight times, the Bulldogs are still a 3-4.5 point home favorite over BSU. Last year, Boise State won the game 20-10 but both teams made several mistakes. BSU ran the ball well but passed for only 113 yards by Joe Southwick and had several drives stalled. The defense was pitching a shutout until late in the 3rd quarter and a Fresno field goal made it 20-3. Fresno St. QB Derek Carr ran the no huddle offense with little run game and got off a 29-43 performance for 266 yards through the air. Fresno had 9 penalties and a few turn overs. I can’t say the BSU defense will defend as well as they did last season, but I do know Southwick and the offense will put up points. This game will be high scoring and most likely go over 65 points. I still like Boise State but I am not ready to predict the win without more consideration and will do so on Bronco GameDay on 670 KBOI Friday at about 350pm.
Utah State put away Air Force early in the 3rd quarter and cruised to a 52-20 road win. The stats look very close between Boise State and Utah State using Air Force as a measuring stick. Doing it on the road looks good. Advantage Utah State.
BYU destroyed Texas at home but lost to Virginia in their opener and still has Utah at home and Utah State in Logan before Boise State. I will hold my tongue.
I do think though the real Boise State, whoever that is, will stand up in Fresno and behave the same way in Logan and it could be the Air Force game showed us what the BSU defense could do when it buckled down in the second half and held them to under 100 yards offense. So, for now, I am holding at 8 wins …
