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Wednesday Weekly: November 11, 2026.
It’s hard to win. And here we are grousing about a team that’s in the pole position for the Group of 6 spot in the College Football Playoff, the envy of 68 other G6 programs, the one with 29 straight winning seasons. But it’s impossible to ignore the elephant in the room: the Broncos defense. Mistakes are compounding, from tackling to coverage to unsuccessful blitzes. Boise State has allowed 70 points and 618 yards in the second half of its last two games. What that means for Saturday’s tilt against Oregon State is unknown. The Beavers could have a field day with the nation’s leading passer, Braden Atkinson, and freshman phenom wide receiver Jesse Legree. But Atkinson injured his throwing hand against Texas State last week, and his status is yet to be revealed.
Just over three minutes into the Broncos’ 64-38 win last Saturday at Colorado State, we saw a capsule of what the evening was going to be like.On Boise State’s second play from scrimmage came the 73-yard touchdown pass from Max Cutforth to Dylan Riley. Then the Rams got the ball. CSU’s first explosion play was on its third snap, and the second one came one play later. Boise State tallied its most points ever in a road game in the track meet, and it needed to as it faced the nation’s worst defense. Because the Broncos’ own defense is in a funk that’s hard to describe. The Colorado State offense is decent—and we learned how good Texas State’s is after it ran all over Oregon State last week. But nine games into the season, these struggles defy explanation.
RILEY SNIFFS A RECORD
Riley struck a Heisman pose after his third and final touchdown in Fort Collins—probably a precursor to the spotlight he’ll find himself in when ESPN College Gameday comes to town this week. Riley, having to do it once again without the benefit of Sire Gaines as best supporting actor, racked up 192 rushing yards and 88 receiving in the rout. To be sure, that’s the best backups Harry Stewart III and Juelz Goff have ever looked, but it was in the context of the nation’s worst defense. And on that note, maybe it’s good that Riley, with his 300 all-purpose yards, ended up one yard short of the late Doug Martin’s school record. Martin did it in his final game in 2011 on a big stage, in the Las Vegas Bowl against Arizona State. That mark can live on.
PAC-12 INDIVIDUAL SHOWDOWN
Sorting out the awards today—Riley is the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week, Terrious Favors gets the Special Teams award and Rasean Jones is the Freshman of the Week. Riley, the nation’s leading rusher, is also now one of 18 semifinalists for the Doak Walker Award, the honor Ashton Jeanty won two years ago. But Riley is not on any mainstream Heisman Trophy lists (while Legree is). So, is Saturday’s game between the Broncos and the Beavers a de facto contest for Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year? Riley also leads the nation in all-purpose yards and is tops in the conference in rushing touchdowns. Legree has slowed a bit but still leads the country in receiving yards and touchdown catches.
A STREAK TO BE APPRECIATED
This will no doubt come up Saturday morning on ESPN College GameDay. Boise State’s most amazing streak has been extended and is now up to 29 consecutive winning seasons (with Alabama a distant second). It’s a remarkable run, and it’s part of a bigger picture. This is the Broncos 59th season as a four-year program—and going back to the first two years as an NAIA school, and through the Division I-AA days and now four conferences in the FBS, there have been 53 winning seasons. That’s 53 out of 59. How about this, though? Linfield University in Oregon holds the overall college football record with 70 straight winning seasons. Fun fact: Boise State’s very first game as a four-year program in 1968 was against Linfield, a 17-7 loss to the Wildcats in old Bronco Stadium.
IT’LL STILL BE NICE FOR NOVEMBER
Well, my social media post last Sunday hasn’t aged well: “The first thing to check with ESPN College Gameday returning to Boise this Saturday is the extended forecast. According to the National Weather Service: ‘Mostly sunny with a high near 66.’ On November 14, no less. The morning is what matters, of course: ‘Low around 45.’ Can’t ask for anything more.” Well, we’re not going to be quite that fortunate, as the NWS now says “A 40 percent chance of showers, mainly before 11am. Partly sunny, with a high near 57.” No big deal. It probably won’t be enough to make the natural turf at DeChevrieux Field soggy. (I’ll talk more on the College GameDay experience on Friday.)
NEW-LOOK HOOPS IN EXTRAMILE
Following back-to-back 100-point games for the first time in 12 years, Boise State men’s hoops hosts Oakland University tonight. Oakland isn’t some random Division II team, and it’s not in California. The Division I school is in the Detroit area and visited ExtraMile Arena two years ago when it was coming off a first-round upset of Kentucky in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. The Broncos won that game 87-43, though. The Golden Grizzlies enter tonight’s matchup after a 109-68 loss to Alabama that saw former Bronco Drew Fielder score eight points for the Crimson Tide.
A NOD TO NETO
We can’t go without mentioning Boise State’s 100-81 win over Butler last Sunday. The Broncos actually put up their fourth straight 100-point game, two in exhibition games and two that count. We can cautiously call that a trend under new offensive coordinator Will Voigt. They’re playing the game differently. And speaking of different, how about AG Neto? The sophomore guard looks nothing like the tentative guy we watched last season. We wondered if what we were getting in the exhibition games was real. Apparently it is. He led the Broncos with 25 points against Butler and added six rebounds, five assists and three steals.
YOU COULDN’T HAVE WRITTEN THIS SCRIPT
It only gets better after Athletic Club Boise won its USL League One semifinal 1-0 over the Chattanooga Red Wolves FC last Saturday night. AC Boise’s crescendo is astounding, as it reaches the USL1 championship game in this, its first season. ACB’s last home appearance of the season drew a league record 8,003 fans, and the place came unglued when Jesus Barea scored the lone goal of the game in the 114th minute on an assist from Eagle’s Blake Bodily. What a scene. Boise could have hosted the title game, but the Charlotte Independence earned that right last Sunday with a 2-1 win over Forward Madison FC. AC Boise takes a six-match winning streak to North Carolina Saturday night.
YOUNG SPURS THE YOTES
Former Emmett High standout Caden Young has been the focal point of College of Idaho’s undefeated season so far, no more so than in the Yotes’ 49-41 win over Carroll College at Simplot Stadium last Saturday. Young, the senior quarterback, has been named NAIA National Player of the Week after rushing for a whopping 292 yards and two touchdowns on just 19 carries, ending up five yards short of the C of I school record set in 1948. He was also 14-of-21 through the air for 155 yards and three TDs. The Yotes wrap up the regular season Saturday at Southern Oregon—then await their assignment in the NAIA Playoffs.
FRUITLAND’S VIDLAK AN IDAHO ALL-TIMER
I saw this in USA Today: Fruitland High quarterback Titus Vidlak has broken Idaho’s high school career record for scrimmage yards. Vidlak totaled 253 yards last Friday in a 45-22 win over Emmett in the 4A quarterfinals and now has 9,628 as a four-year starter for the Grizzlies. The old record was held by Tanner Mangum, who amassed 9,599 yards at Timberline and Eagle before heading to BYU. Fruitland moves on to a titanic matchup Friday night in the 4A semifinals at Homedale. Interestingly enough, Vidlak’s brother Sam played for Montana in 2023 (and briefly for Boise State in 2022) before finishing his career at Stephen F. Austin.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by THE COLLEDGE BAR…the ultimate off-campus huddle!
November 11, 1967: With former Borah Lion Steve Preece at quarterback, the Oregon State Beavers continue their dizzying ride through the upper echelons of college football, upsetting top-ranked USC, 3-0, on a second quarter field goal. The OSU defense scrambled to keep O.J. Simpson out of the end zone despite a 188-yard day from the Trojans’ Heisman Trophy tailback. Earlier in the season the Beavers had beaten Purdue and UCLA, each ranked no. 2 at the time. This would be USC’s only loss on the way to a Rose Bowl crown and a national championship.
(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.)
