By

Jeff Caves

There is no such thing as a bad win. But, this Boise State team is getting close to proving that theory wrong. After the win over Marshall, all the talk was about the defense saving the game and how the offense couldn’t run the ball but it was early and the Broncos had o line injuries, a freshman QB, etc etc. 

Now what? 

The offensive line was all back together, the Qb is getting hit less and less and he is 5 games older. The defense is still stellar even without 2 of its best players ( Noa and Pierce ) and Tyson Maeva should really still be out there as well. The offense can still strike quick as they did vs UNLV but poor execution and an ineffective run game haunt this offense. We can all see a loss or two coming. The right team hasn’t come along in the right situation is all. Can’t you feel it?

Bryan Harsin sees all that. I was expecting an angry Harsin post UNLV but that’s not what we got. I watched him happy as hell go meet his team, help them celebrate and then work the media. He pointed out how much he liked the fast start, special teams improvement and overall attitude of his team. He admitted execution needs to improve but he must like what he sees. Harsin thinks long and hard before he speaks to his team or the media. I think he had decided to focus on the positive and work towards improving the negative. Winning ugly 38-13 is a nice place to improve from. He knows well and good that this version of Boise State isn’t a New Years 6 winning group. Not yet. He is just worried about improving enough to beat Hawaii, then BYU, and the rest of the schedule. 

Maybe that’s why he is optimistic. 

When you are behind the scenes like Harsin you know what goes into getting the result. He sees a lack of execution and penalties as a temporary issue. He has to have the faith and lay out the self help plan. I have a feeling it may all come together vs Hawaii. The crowd is expected to be a near sell out. The weather is expected to be sunny , unless you are from Hawaii, and this offense has its back against the wall. Just like they did vs Florida State and then dominated. Winning ugly , on the road, against inferior teams, in sleepy ⅓ empty stadiums is no easy task. But, so far so good. Or, ugly.