By Jake Hamar (Twitter-@ktikjake)
5 touchdowns.
It wasn’t a close game by any means. I thought it might be a little closer, just due to the fact that Boise State lost so much on the defensive side of the football. But I was wrong.
Dead wrong.
Remember the episodes of “Seinfeld”, where Jerry and the gang would order soup, and whatever mistake they made incurred the wrath of the Soup Nazi? Well the UL Lafayette offense asked for the most minuscule morsel of offense they could muster, and were met with complete domination. Elijah McGuire, who was supposed to be a game changer for the Ragin’ Cajuns, was limited to just 46 yards and no touchdowns.
“No soup for you Elijah!”
Anthony Jennings, the former LSU quarterback, was supposed to light it up and show the world what he could do for the Cajuns.
“No soup for you!”
Tanner Vallejo showed why a lot of coaches and players were high on him in fall camp, with nine tackles in this game. Andy Avalos had his team ready and loaded for this game, and they responded to the challenge big time.
The Broncos also did a fantastic job of mixing things around, in terms of their offensive weapons. Jeremy McNichols got two rushing touchdowns, as well as a receiving TD, When McNichols was running towards the end zone, it was almost like the UL Lafayette defenders were like, “Hello sir, by all means have another touchdown. Would you like a Powerade as well?” McNichols also impressed many with his almost-100 yard receiving game as well.
This was also a nice introduction for new Boise State wide receiver Cedrick Wilson, who had 113 yards receiving with a touchdown. Now granted, this was only one game, and this season will have more intense competition as the season goes on, but let’s hope that he’s another deadly receiver that can alleviate the pressure off of Sperbeck a bit, and have a more balanced passing attack.
And what about Alexander Mattison, who had 61 yards and a touchdown? The Cajuns seemed to have no answer for the Broncos’ running game, who just hit the end zone with the greatest of ease. The way that McNichols and Mattison hit the end zone, might be a positive sign that Boise State will have a multi-faceted threat in the running game in 2016, and that is bad news for anyone that plays this team.
This week, the Broncos face off against Washington State, who got upset this weekend with a 45-42 loss to Zak Hill’s old team, Eastern Washington. Despite losing this game, the Cougars looked pretty good on the offensive side of the football. Heisman candidate Luke Falk had an impressive outing, with 4 touchdowns and over 400 yards passing. Gabe Marks, who was hurt in camp, came back and nabbed over 100 yards receiving and 2 touchdowns. Washington State is going to be coming into Albertson’s Stadium on Saturday mad as well, and will look to stop Rypien and company dead in their tracks. This will be one of the most intriguing games of the weekend.
In the words of Seinfeld’s friend and neighbor Cosmo Kramer, “Giddy up!”
