Welcome, everyone! Previewing BSU vs. App St.
Game Facts
- Date: Today, Saturday, September 27th @5:30 PM
- Location: The Blue (Albertsons Stadium, Boise, ID)
- Weather at kickoff: 84°
- Moon Phase: Waning Crescent
- Odds: Boise State by 15
- TV: FS1
- Radio: 670 KBOI/Here or Stream
- Commentators: Noah Reed (Play-by-play), Robert Smith (Analyst)
- Note: These announcers come with my dad’s personal endorsement for their ability to correctly pronounce “Boi-see” at an elite level.
Other facts
1. Gameday Poster
7 straight weeks of Boise State football, who has it better than us?
2. Availability Report
Funny story, I’ve had this preview written for 3 days now in preparation to simply add the availability report and publish. It has just occurred to me on this fine Saturday morning that those are only for conference games. Well. Check out out Michael’s depth chart article at least!
3. They’re purdy, ain’t they?
Broncos will debut these beauts tonight. A loss could prove catastrophic for the Broncos—ceding not only our playoff chances, but the state capitol. They’d probably start calling Idaho “Really Really West Carolina”.
4. Idahoooooooooo
Who better than Benjamin Ford himself to rock the fit? Alas, as our dear former editor so aptly put:
5. HEI2MAN MEMORIES
Tonight feels like the spiritual equivalent to last year’s contest against against Wazzu. Is that because it was also an out-of-conference home game in mid-September? Maybe. It might also be because it’s possibly the greatest single-game highlight clip I’ve ever seen.
Streaks
Boise State – Won 2
Appalachian State – Lost 1
Best Name On Their Roster
Brayshawn Littlejohn, LB
Relation to rapper Lil Jon is unclear given the variance in spelling, but some report he uses the same words that Mr. Jon is famous for, including “Yeah,” “What,” and “Okay”.
Best Picture On Their Roster
Dylan Manuel, DL
As a child, he yearned for the mines. Today, he plays in the trenches.
Players To Watch
Jaden Barnes, WR
The Junior wideout has been off to a screaming start for App State, picking up a TD in each game and averaging 108 in each contest. I would love for us to be the ones to kill his average (although it’s feeling like an “I’ll believe it when I see it scenario” with our secondary).
Thomas Davis, DL
This weekend’s unstoppable force vs. immovable object is the App State pass rush vs. Maddux Madsen sack avoidance. Davis leads an Mountaineer defense trying their best 2024 Boise State impression with 9 sacks already to their name. He has 2 sacks himself and will look to be disruptive.
Matchup(s) to Watch
(Shoutout to gameonpaper for saving me the coding time on these tables)
On offense, the big thing for the Broncos is to stay ahead of the chains. It’s still early for 2025 stats (since we only have 2 FBS games so far), but where it stands, the Mountaineer defense is #12 in the nation in average 3rd down distance. In contrast, the Broncos are sitting at #125 (out of 130ish teams) which is typically described as “not good”. 3rd & 8 all day would not be ideal.
On defense, numbers are looking bleak thusfar for the Broncos, but probably not surprising given the, well, USF and Air Force games. I’m interested in seeing the response from the secondary.
App State is supposed to be a big passing team, although the early numbers suggest they’re about as bad at passing as we are at defending? I expect one to be much better than their numbers, and I’m genuinely not sure who.
Keys to Victory
Penalties (Or lack thereof)
Spencer Danielson likes to call them SINS (self-inflicted negatives), and I like them when they’re not called (on us). Caples mentioned—and then immediately apologized for mentioning—that penalties remained a struggle in practice earlier in the week. Should they remain a problem, the team is on upset watch and my new TV on shatter watch.
Pass Rush
Pass rush was very encouraging in the first quarter or so of week 1, but is Chins willing to make another deal with the devil to reproduce 2024? Would Coach D approve? App State will want to go downfield often and our secondary needs help. Pass rush needs to show out.
Score Prediction
Is it Nate Potter believer szn yet? I’m getting there. Another 50 burger and I’ll be writing an apology letter for my next column. I’d expect a few a few defensive lapses but the firepower to ultimately stay ahead.
Boise State 42, App State 27
App State has come to play. If the secondary hasn’t fixed it’s glaring deficiencies, it’s gonna be a long night for BSU.
That said, I trust Spencer to get it right.
BSU runs for another 225 yards, passes for an additional 306 yards and pulls out the win.
Broncos run roughshod over the Mountaineers.
51 – 34
Completely made of fact, waning crescent moon phases scare Mountaineers and make them wet their beds because bigfoot might be on the prowl. Boise State has over a hundred players with big feet. It’s gonna be a bad night for the Mountaineers.
Bob, we underestimated the defense.
42 – 28. the good guys. However, I really like Bob K’s score better.