All the Marbles: Boise State vs. UNLV MW Championship Preview

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Game Facts

• Date: (Today) Friday, December 6th @ 6PM
• Location: The Blue
• Weather at kickoff: 38°
• Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent
• Odds: Boise State by 4.5
• TV: FOX
• Radio: 670 KBOI/Here or Stream
• Commentators: Jason Benetti (Play-by-Play), Brock Huard (Analyst), and Allison Williams (Sideline)

Other facts

1. Playoff Szn

Big Noon Kickoff will have a mini pregame show beforehand, and it should be a doozy. All the stops have been pulled between the skycam and (presumably) blue Big Noon Kickoff cowboy hats.

2. Bring Home the Boom

JL Skinner returns to raise the blue chaos flag raiser, and in the spirit of Skinner, let’s take some souls today. (Just no targeting though, please)

3. Analytics, Advanced

For the most part, it’s strength-on-strength out here. The one matchup that does look interesting is Pts/Eckel. I won’t dive too far into what Eckels are, but it’s essentially a measure of how good your drives are. If we cast our minds toward our previous meeting with UNLV, it was an 8 minute drive at the end to wrap it all up. If we play to that weakness, long TD drives will break the Rebels, slowly but surely.

4. THREADZ

Another big day for Blue on Blue enthusiasts!

5. If you can remember back this far…

Although really I’d prefer this one to happen again:

Streaks

Boise State – Won 10

UNLV – Won 4

Best Name On Their Roster

Tiger Shanks, OL

My only criticism is that it would be an even better DB name.

Best Picture On Their Roster

Sammy Norris, OL

At First Kick Was Good, we reward excellent facial hair. Even when he doesn’t win on the field today, Sammy is still a winner here, plain and simple.

Players To Watch

Hajj-Malik Williams, QB

We can say that we held Williams on the ground last time “besides a 71 yard TD run”, but that’s probably a massive caveat? Need to have 1 less of those (in my humble opinion).

Ricky White III, WR

Between the special teams play and an admirable performance from Amarion McCoy, Ricky White wasn’t much of a factor last time around. I don’t expect he’ll be down for long, and will certainly get his.

Jackson Woodard, LB

The “Jeanty killer” helped hold the best player in the country to a meager 128 yards and a TD last time around. No two ways about it, he’s a good LB, but going to need a massive performance to stop this rushing attack.

Keys to Victory

Turnover Margin

This will be a game of mistakes. The Rebels thrive off of turnovers, and some game you can afford to lose the turnover battle, but this game isn’t one of them. Keep the ball in safe hands, and let’s force some turnovers, folks.

Special Teams

UNLV specializes in getting good field position, thanks to their exceptional ability to return and block kicks. Stacy Collins made some of his money back last time out with good coverage (minus one return) including some nifty quick punts by JFR. Another battle we can’t lose.

Get Madsen Settled In

Here is my “broken record” key of the game. I’ve said it all year at this point, but the quicker Madsen gets a part of the game, the better everything is. His last time out against UNLV was potentially his best career game, considering competition. If he can take care of the ball? Great. If he can make more plays? Even better. (If BSU is taking requests I would like a deep ball TD) If Madsen remains a threat, Jeanty will feast with our restored OL.

Score Prediction

I will be sick until the final whistle, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’ll be a nervy game, but the Broncos will make the plays they need to pull it out.

Boise State 31, UNLV 27