Editor’s note: This article is part of the College Football Playoff Prospectus , previewing and predicting the top CFP contenders for the upcoming season. In the locker room before Boise State ’s resounding win in last season’s Mountain West title game, star defensive end Ahmed Hassanein found teammate Roger Carreon and saw that the offensive lineman had tears streaming down his face because he never thought they’d be there. Advertisement They’d been 5-5 when head coach Andy Avalos had been fired with two regular-season games to play and the Broncos players huddled inside the team meeting room of the Bleymaier Football Center to regroup.
Despite looking nothing like legendary teams of old, last year’s team was galvanized by the message that interim head coach Spencer Danielson kept relaying. The Broncos won out the regular season and made the league title game. “He kept just telling us each week, ‘Give me one more week of your best, and you’ll never know what could happen,’” said star running back Ashton Jeanty .
The day after the MWC title win, 44-20 over UNLV , Danielson was named head coach for the first time. And as this unprecedented season of college football kicks off, the Broncos are a popular pick to claim the automatic berth that goes to the highest-ranked Group of 5 conference champion in the new 12-team College Football Playoff. “As a competitor, you’ve got a shot now,” said Danielson, the 35-year-old former defensive coordinator.
“That’s my message to Bronco Nation, and that’s my message to our team. We’ll cross that bridge in December, but it’s there for you to cross.” That bridge is now built, in large part, due to Boise State’s storied past.
The Broncos have gone undefeated twice (13-0 in 2006 and 14-0 in 2009) in the past 20 years and have 13 Top 25 finishes since 2002. They have the “Statue of Liberty” play forever synonymous with their program in the legendary 2006 Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma . Yet there was a sense of angst around the fan base in recent years about the state of the program.
Danielson said the Broncos need to “turn up the heat” on what they’ve done recently. Meaning: It hasn’t been good enough for them or for the fans who pack Albertsons Stadium to watch the greatest show on blue turf. “It is an interesting dance in the landscape of college football where expectations are high, but they need to be high,” Danielson said.
“That’s why I’m here. That’s why these coaches are here, that’s why these players committed to come here, because of what happened in the past.” Danielson is committed to bridging the past and present, too.
This preseason camp, former Boise State coach Chris Petersen spent some time around the team. During Petersen’s eight seasons as head coach from 2006-2013, the Broncos went 92-12. Danielson wants to find a way to recapture Boise State’s dominance.
Advertisement “What makes a good team is if it’s player-led,” Hassanein said. “When Coach D took over, it was a player-led team. Right now it’s a player-led team.
And it’s an elite team. I promise.” There will be pressure on Boise State, should it win another MWC championship, to do it with style and ensure there are minimal bumps in the road.
“We have a special opportunity,” Jeanty said. “Part of it is just for all those guys who paved the way long before we came here, winning conference championships and not really getting a chance to go to the College Football Playoff.” The Broncos return 18 starters from a year ago, headlined by Jeanty, one of the top returning running backs in the country (FBS-leading 159.
7 yards per game from scrimmage last year) and veteran leadership across both front lines. Danielson does not hesitate when pointing out the strengths of this team. The front four of Boise State’s defense returns, headlined by Hassanein, who had 12.
5 sacks a year ago. The most pressing matter is the performance of redshirt sophomore quarterback Maddux Madsen , who beat out former five-star recruit and USC transfer Malachi Nelson . “We need to be an efficient running team so teams have to put more guys in the box so there’s more 1-on-1 situations and more 50-50 balls that Mad Dog can throw,” Jeanty said.
The Broncos lost part-time starting quarterback Taylen Green (Arkansas) and leading receiver Eric McAlister ( TCU ) in the offseason, but signed Nelson, former five-star wide receiver Chris Marshall (Texas A&M) and two starting-caliber cornerbacks in Jeremiah Earby (Cal) and Davon Banks (Washington). Danielson’s portal approach is different from many. “We’re a developmental program.
First and foremost, we develop freshmen,” he said. “Ninety-five percent of the returning starters and impact players are guys we got as freshmen. If we just chase a tackle, receiver or quarterback, if we just go recruit the kid everybody else is and we don’t do the work, it’s just not going to work here.
” Advertisement Danielson has also not shied away from his claim earlier this year that several programs were tampering with Jeanty in an attempt to whisk him away from Boise. Jeanty was getting offered “a substantial amount” to leave, Danielson said, but decided to stay in blue and orange. “In this day and age in college football, if you’re a top-end player, other schools will come after you,” Jeanty said.
“The love for my team and for this program, that’s what’s keeping me here. The people in this city, nothing beats what I have here at Boise State. No amount of money can outweigh that.
” And nothing would be bigger for Boise than nabbing the first G5 rung of the 12-team bracket. “We win here,” Hassanein said. “We have to hold that standard for the people that came before us and those that come after.
We want to leave that legacy.” The coach Danielson signed a five-year, $6.5 million contract the day after he led the Broncos to the MWC title last December, becoming the first interim head coach to win a conference championship game in FBS history.
Under Danielson’s direction, Boise State’s defense was ranked sixth in the nation last season while the scoring defense was ranked 15th. He has been at Boise State since he started as a graduate assistant there in 2017. Before joining Boise State, Danielson spent four seasons coaching at his alma mater, Azusa Pacific.
The QB Madsen threw for nine touchdowns and 1,191 total yards last year as he split time with Green. But this preseason camp, he had a leg up on Nelson. Offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter and Danielson went with knowledge of their offense.
He has the luxury of having one of the top running backs in the country to help ease his transition into full-time starter, but if the Broncos are going to have a shot at making the CFP, Madsen will need to introduce himself as one of the best QBs in the conference in 2024. Impact players RB Ashton Jeanty: Boise State’s star might be the most underrated player in the country, which is a wild declaration considering the season he had a year ago. He led the nation with 159.
7 yards per game from scrimmage (112.3 rushing yards for seventh-best), tied for the most receiving yards by a running back (569) and finished third in the country in all-purpose yards (1,916). Advertisement LT Kage Casey : The 6-foot-5, 315-pound tackle started all 14 games as a freshman in 2023 and anchored an offensive line that ranked 13th in the country by conceding just one sack a game.
LB Andrew Simpson : The middle of the defense is patrolled by the 6-foot, 238-pound linebacker and preseason All-MWC player who should benefit from playing behind Boise’s stout line. Scouting report A Mountain West coach weighed in on what to expect from Madsen: “He’s accurate. He gets the ball out.
He’s a really competitive guy. It’s not a surprise (he won the job). .
.. As a whole, I’d rather play him than Taylen Green.
He’ll get the ball to the right people, get it out. He’s a smart guy that’s pretty tough. While they may not be dynamic at that position, they’re probably in pretty good hands.
” On Boise State’s overall team talent: “If you looked at it player-for-player, they’re the most talented roster in the conference.” Why Boise State will make the Playoff The Broncos resemble the blue-and-orange mayhem of old as Madsen gets to play action the heck out of teams that commit to stopping Jeanty behind a veteran offensive line. Marshall reaches the heights that earned him a five-star ranking out of high school and becomes a 1,000-yard receiver in Boise.
Biggest hurdle to making CFP No pressure, kid. But the same reason why Boise State could make the Playoff is the same reason why it won’t if the QB position fails to live up to expectations. Should Madsen struggle, then the calls for Danielson to go with highly touted but inexperienced Nelson will grow louder.
Path to the Playoff Will we know the ceiling of this Boise State team just two weeks into the season? Back-to-back road trips to Georgia Southern and No. 3 Oregon are whopping tests to start the year. While there is no definitive season-defining stretch of this schedule, the Broncos get both Pac-12 leftovers Washington State and Oregon State .
They have tricky road games at Hawaii, at UNLV (which was picked to finish second to Boise in the Mountain West preseason poll) and then at Wyoming in late November. Advertisement Austin Mock’s projection The race to be the top-ranked Group of 5 conference champion will be interesting to follow. Though I don’t think the Mountain West is the best G5 conference, Boise State is going to have the easiest path to double-digit wins.
Per our model , Boise State has a 55 percent chance to win the Mountain West and a 32 percent chance to earn a spot in the College Football Playoff. The Playoff Prospectus series is part of a partnership with Allstate. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence.
Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication. (Top photo of Ashton Jeanty: Loren Orr / Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic ).
