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Wednesday Weekly…November 27, 2024.

The Boise State pass rush was on a roll into early November, leading the nation in sacks for most of the season. Things have leveled out since—although the Broncos are currently second in the country with 43 sacks. That is crucial in balancing out adventures on the back end. In the past two weeks they have logged just three sacks, one of them on San Jose State’s final snap of the game and another ending Wyoming’s second-to-last possession. And there have been lots of explosives from opposing quarterbacks. Friday morning Boise State should be able to get pressure on Oregon State’s Ben Gulbranson, not known for his mobility, but there’s no guarantee. It could be JVM time against the Beavers. Jayden Virgin-Morgan leads the Broncos and is second in the Mountain West with nine sacks, but he’s gone two games with out one.  

CFP IS MUST-SEE TV

The Court of Public Opinion (at least in the Big 12 commissioner’s office) is crying foul, but the College Football Playoff committee still believes after bumping Boise State up to No. 11 Tuesday night in the new CFP rankings. With that, the Broncos retained a projected bye in the first round of the playoffs as they’re the fourth-highest ranked among conference leaders. Boise State has the lowest strength-of-schedule in the top 25, and after going in as 23-point favorites they beat the Mountain West’s 11^th-place team by only four points. But the Broncos have won nine in a row. All eyes were on Arizona State after its takedown of BYU (goalposts included). The Sun Devils are up five spots to No. 16—as the new top-ranked Big 12 team, they’re in the projected playoff field as the No. 12 seed.  

OREGON STATE MEMORIES

I think Boise State looks at Oregon State differently than it did Wyoming last week. In Laramie, the Broncos were facing a team they had lost to once ever. On Friday, it’s a team that fairly boat-raced them in the season opener two years ago. It was 34-17 (and 24-0 at halftime) in the Reser Stadium construction zone. There are 17 players on the current Boise State roster who appeared in that game, including Ashton Jeanty. In the first game of his college career as George Holani’s backup, he rushed four times for 16 yards and led the team with six catches for 52 yards, one of them a 36-yarder. Jeanty also had the only kickoff return of his career, taking it back 22 yards. James Ferguson-Reynolds made his debut that night, too, giving us no hint of what was to come.  JFR averaged 37.4 yards on five punts.

MORE JEANTY IN CRUNCH TIME

In a perfect world, Jeanty wouldn’t have been on the field when Boise State got the ball with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter last Saturday night. The game at Wyoming would have been in hand, and it would be Breezy Dubar and Dylan Riley time. But there he was on the winning drive, rushing four times for 53 yards while in obvious pain. Those were Heisman moments. The Broncos absolutely had to have that game. But would they have gotten it without him? Discuss amongst yourselves. Talk about carrying a team. And now he’s a finalist for the Doak Walker Award, Maxwell Award and Walter Camp Award.

JEANTY TRACKER

After his 169-yard performance in Laramie, Jeanty sits at 2,062 yards for the season. He’s topped 100 yards in all 11 games this year and has a lead of a whopping 570 yards in the national rushing race. Jeanty has 1,512 yards after contact, which would still be enough to lead the country overall. In the “Jeanty against the world” category, he now has more rushing yards than 103 entire teams in the FBS. He has more rushing touchdowns than 118 teams. Last but not least, Jeanty has reached 4,230 career rushing yards, just 245 away from the 44-year-old Boise State career record held by Cedric Minter.

DOUBLE-DIGIT WINS ALMOST HALF THE TIME

Regarding the 17-13 escape at Wyoming, well, a win is a win. (Have you heard that before?) But that one gave Boise State its 27^th 10-win season in 57 seasons as a four-year program. The Broncos have nailed those at a 47 percent clip. Impressive. During Boise State’s run of 27 straight winning seasons, the longest active streak in the country, 19 of them have been of the 10-win variety. 

SPECIAL TEAMS SETTLE DOWN

The much-maligned Boise State special teams got some mojo back Saturday night in the win at Wyoming, and that story starts with Ferguson-Reynolds. The Aussie finally looked like his old self after an injury-affected stretch, and he’s been named Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Week after averaging 48.0 yards on five punts. The JFR highlight of the year came in the second quarter when he essentially faked a fake punt—then booted a 45-yard grounder. Elsewhere on special teams, the Broncos allowed one kickoff return for 18 yards and one punt return for one yard. As for Jonah Dalmas’ quest to reach the NCAA career field goals record, he went 1-for-2 in Laramie and is still six field goals short of the mark with three games to play. It can still happen. But what an odd year it’s been.

SO CLOSE IN THE CAYMANS

Three games in three days. If the Cayman Islands Classic was a training platform for the Mountain West tournament in March, Boise State almost passed the test. In Tuesday night’s title game, the Broncos looked like they were out of gas when—after they had gone up by nine points—Boston College went on a 15-1 run to take a 60-55 lead with just over three minutes left. But Boise State clawed back to take a two-point lead with 12 seconds left, only to see the Eagles’ Joshua Beadle nail a fadeaway three-pointer with two seconds remaining to give BC a 63-61 victory. It was tough sleddin’ for the Broncos stars all night, but not for newcomer Javan Buchanan, who was unstoppable during the 9½-minute stretch of the second half when Boise State built its biggest lead. Buchanan scored 15 of his game-high 24 points during that surge.

BUCHANAN IS BONAFIDE DIVISION I

The “NAIA” tag has officially been removed from Buchanan. Before starring against Boston College, the transfer from Indiana Wesleyan went off for 28 points Monday in the Broncos’ 83-82 nail-biting win in the Cayman semifinals. It came over South Dakota State (the team that beat them in the season opener in Boise two years ago). Buchanan was 11-for-17 from the field and 4-for-8 from three-point range, and his jumper with just over a minute left proved to be the winning points. The Jackrabbits missed a free throw with one second left that would have tied it. In the tournament opener last Sunday, Tyson Degenhart poured in 25 points to spur an 83-69 victory over Hampton.

MAYORS CUP MOVES BACK TO CALDWELL

It’s a “what have you done for me lately” series, and it’s College of Idaho that will have bragging rights in the Canyon County rivalry with Northwest Nazarene until next November. NNU had taken a thrilling 69-66 overtime win over C of I in Nampa two weeks ago, but the Coyotes had a steely edge to them Tuesday night at the J.A. Albertson Activities Center. The Yotes turned an 11-point halftime lead into a 76-44 blowout to take back the Mayors Cup. College of Idaho held the Nighthawks to 4-for-23 shooting from the field and just 20 points in the second half. Former Wood River High star Johnny Radford led the Yotes with 18 points.

VANDALS GET THE COVETED BYE

Even though there’s no Big Sky championship, Idaho’s strong early-season showing has morphed into a first-round bye in the FCS Playoffs. The Vandals, coming off a 40-17 win at Idaho State that earned them the Potato State Trophy last Saturday, received a No. 8 seed and will wait until December 7 to face the winner of Saturday’s game between No. 9 Richmond and Lehigh. Idaho is 9-3, and coach Jason Eck is now 25-12 in his three seasons at the helm. It has been a progression in the playoffs—Idaho lost in the first round in 2022 and in the quarterfinals in 2023. Next stop: the semis?

STEELIES FLIP THE MOMENTUM

The Idaho Steelheads were torqued after dropping three straight games at home to Rapid City. So the ol’ nose was to the grindstone when they faced the Rush again last weekend in Rapid City. The Steelheads jumped out to a 4-0 lead last Friday before holding off the Rush in a 6-5 win. Then the Steelies dominated Rapid City 4-1 last Saturday, with Ty Pelton-Byce picking up his second straight two-goal game. Now it’s time for the first-ever Boise visit by the new Tahoe Knight Monsters, with a three-game series beginning tonight in Idaho Central Arena. The Steelheads will be facing the Knight Monsters without goaltender Ben Kraws, who’s been recalled again by the AHL’s Texas Stars.

This Day In Sports…brought to you by THE JAMES…craft food and cocktails, with heart and soul.

November 27, 1997: In one of the best Thanksgiving Day performances in NFL history, Detroit’s Barry Sanders piles up 167 yards and three touchdowns on only 19 carries in the Lions’ 55-20 win over the Chicago Bears. It was Sanders’ 11^th consecutive 100-yard game, and it propelled him past Eric Dickerson into second place on the NFL’s career rushing yards list behind Walter Payton. Sanders would go on to be named NFL Most Valuable Player with 2,053 rushing yards. A year and a half later, Sanders was out of football after a surprising retirement at the age of 31.

(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)

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