Boise State Broncos College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
Boise State Broncos Biggest Key: Offense
Get the running game going again. The Broncos don’t have to crank out a gajillion yards per game, but they have to be more effective when they try running.
Losing George Holani to a knee injury early on was a problem, but now he’s back, the offensive line is experienced, and the ground game has to at least get back above four yards per carry again after averaging just 3.3 in 2020.
Last year, the running game failed to get to 200 yards after doing it five times in 2019 – winning all five games – but again, it’s more about the yards per carry after having one of the worst seasons on the ground in decades.
Boise State Broncos Biggest Key: Defense
Takeaways. Welcome to how things should change up right away under the new coaching staff that’s going to try tweaking this.
It’s not that Bryan Harsin and the old staff didn’t know defense – quite the opposite – but takeaways were on a downward trend over the last few years.
After coming up with just nine takeaways in 2016, the 2017 defense fixed the glitch and generated 26. The Broncos came up with 24 in 2018, 19 in 2019, and in 2020 …
Three.
There were only seven games, but there weren’t any fumble recoveries and just three lonely interceptions spread out across the season. The Broncos didn’t win the turnover margin in any of the seven games.
Boise State Broncos Key Player To A Successful Season
QB Hank Bachmeier, Jr.
It’s just this simple – stay healthy.
That’s not entirely up to him after having a bit of bad luck over his first two seasons, but he’s the talent, he’s the star, he’s the gutty veteran quarterback who cranks the passing game up a few notches.
He missed almost half of 2019 after a huge start, and he missed two games last year including the blowout loss to BYU.
Now, he doesn’t just have to stay in one piece, but he has to be better in the biggest games. He struggled in the Mountain West title game against San Jose State – he failed to hit 50% of his passes – and didn’t do much right in the bowl loss to Washington to end 2019.
Okay, so the 2019 Las Vegas Bowl was hardly his fault, but if he plays a full season and is terrific, Boise State wins the Mountain West title.
Boise State Broncos Key Game To The 2021 Season
Nevada, Oct. 2
Boise State should be the best team in the Mountain Division by far, and the key division games – Air Force and Wyoming – are in Boise. There’s a dangerous game against San Diego State from the West to end the season, and going to Fresno State will be tough, but there’s no San Jose State to deal with.
Nevada is the other conference star this year. It might be the first of two – this could be a Mountain West Championship preview – and it’ll be when Boise State could mark its territory as the team to beat.
– Boise State Football Schedule Analysis
2020 Boise State Broncos Fun Stats
– Fumbles: Boise State 8 (lost 4) – Opponents 6 (lost 0)
– 4th Down Conversions: Opponents 13-of-19 (68%) – Boise State 4-of-7 (57%)
– Punt Return Average: Boise State 18.29 – Opponents 7.85