It’s that time, patient people. T-minus two days now until we get Boise State vs. USF.

Game Facts

  • Date: Thursday, August 28th @ 3:30 PM MST (No, you did not read that time wrong)
  • Location: Raymond James Stadium (Tampa, FL)
  • Weather at kickoff: 89° Partly Cloudy
  • Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent
  • Odds: Boise State by 7
  • TV: ESPN
  • Radio: 670 KBOI/Here or Stream
  • Commentators: Matt Barrie (Play-by-play), Tom Luginbill (Analyst), and Harry Lyles Jr. (Sideline)

Other facts

1. What’s next?

The long wait is over! Football season is back

2. Dependable depth

Week 1 depth chart ahead of the season. Kaleb Annett might be QB3, but he’s also Punter #2?? Some cool opportunities for true freshmen on here as well, namely Bol Bol and Arthur de Boachie on the defense, and Qumonte Williams and Quinton Brown over on offense. Future is looking bright, folks.

3. THREADZ
(Photo Courtesy of Boise State Athletics)

Buried deep in the game notes we find that the Broncos are rocking the White-White-Blue on Thursday, probably because Dale hates getting grass stains out of white pants. The last time out was a 28-7 win a year ago in Hawaii, who was also wearing all black like USF will be (for some reason?). I would be fine with another 21 point win.

4. Fancy Schmancy Stats

Advanced stats are trickier for game one, given that teams tend to have different players in different seasons because of things like graduation. (why do they do that?)

Couple things to note from the gameonpaper‘s stat tables—namely that USF was atrocious defending through the air a year ago, finding themselves among the worst in giving up quality passing plays, ranking 118th in EPA/pass. (EPA—expected points added)

Every other matchup looks to be strength on strength to some degree. USF offense will look different anyway with Byrum Brown, but the running game will be the difference. If USF can run the ball, it will be a long evening. Also note the sheer number of plays they ran. They play with tempo and hope to wear defenses down.

5. Long time no see, East Coast!

Another year, another trip to the eastern United States. As long as there aren’t technical issues for the first 15 minutes of the game I’ll be happy. Am also willing to launch a Heisman campaign if any players want to put up gaudy numbers! (Madsen? Marshall? Gaines??)

Streaks

Boise State – Lost 1

USF – Won 1

Best Name On Their Roster

Boogsie Silvera, DB

Source: gousfbulls.com

USF had several excellent contenders for this honor, but Boogsie Silvera took the cake.

Best Picture On Their Roster

George Courides, Director of Football Sports Performance

Source: gousfbulls.com

Strength coach? What gave it away?

Players To Watch

Bynum Brown, QB

Coach speak or not, Byrum Brown is a legit player that will cause problems on Thursday. One more favorable perspective I’ll add here is that JVM and Notrianni both compared him to John “Moneyline” Mateer, a very good dual threat QB—but one the Broncos were able to shut down a year ago.

Keshaun Singleton, WR

Singleton came on late for South Florida, not seeing the field until mid-October, but he put together a nice series of games in the back half of the season, racking up 400 yards and 3 tuddies in his last 6 games. That got him 2nd team all-conference preseason honors, so it would certainly help if the Bronco secondary picks up where they left off and not where they started…

Rico Watson III, B-Backer

Rico plays the position USF likes to call B-Back on defense, which seems like it’s similar to edge? Regardless, it’s somewhere on the defensive line and his 37 tackles, 6 TFLs and 2.5 sacks from a year ago earned him preseason 3rd team all-conference honors. It would be well to keep him blocked where possible.

Keys to Victory

Tackling

Game one tends to be a struggle in the tackling department in a normal season. Add in a dare-I-say Collin Kaepernick-esque QB, and it could be a frustrating night (afternoon?) Talk around fall camp seemed to put an emphasis on tackling, but one of the nation’s worst tackling teams from a year ago has plenty of room to show their growth in 2025.

Turnovers

The 2024 Bronco defense broke the school record for sacks before they even hit a bowl game, but as the team noted a several times in fall camp interviews, none of those were strip sacks. It doesn’t have to be strip sacks, but forcing turnovers would go a long way to slow down USF’s speedy attack and knocking them off their game.

Score Prediction

Coach Danielson’s start to his head coach-ency is slowly bringing me to delusional levels of hope not seen from me in years. It’s a dangerous place to be, but is also very fun. I’ll say the Broncos have too much experience and firepower for the Bulls, eventually pulling away in the 4th.

Boise State 35, USF 24

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