Boise State Is Back and Has Sights Set on Group of 5’s College Football Playoff Berth

Quarterback Maddux Madsen rises to occasion against fellow Mountain West upstart UNLV as Heisman Trophy hopeful Ashton Jeanty battles injury.

Boise State quarterback Maddux Madsen was 18-of-33 for 209 yards and two total touchdowns Friday. / Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK

Buckle up America, the Boise State Broncos bus is fully back in action and revving right up.

Better than ever? There’s still a long way to go in order to determine that. 

But back? Like back back to being the blue turf monsters that enthralled the college football world? 

That looks to be the case for No. 19 Boise State in the wake of another triumph in Las Vegas on Friday night, showcasing a gritty resilience in a 29–24 thriller over the UNLV Rebels that more than lived up to the heavyweight billing as the biggest Group of 5 clash the sport had seen in 14 years. 

“We’re doing stuff that Boise State hasn’t done in the last few years. There’s the potential to do stuff we’ve never done,” redshirt sophomore quarterback Maddux Madsen said of his 6–1 side. “I think everyone takes that as a motivation each and every week. We’re at the point where we can’t lose football games. That’s kind of like the chip we’re playing with on our shoulder—that we’re going to go out and win every game if we want to go where we want to.”

The aspirations of the original BCS-buster program have never been hidden from view nor have they changed much despite college athletics’ rapid evolution the past few years. From a small junior college in Idaho climbing the ranks of NCAA football to the recent powerhouses under former coach Chris Petersen knocking on the door of national hardware, all the Broncos have ever wanted is a shot to prove they belonged on the biggest stage. 

Now, however, they are not just the ultimate upstarts fighting to make it in a world ruled by the bluebloods. Now they have a shot—a real one—thanks to the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff and a guaranteed golden ticket for the top-ranked conference champion. 

This was the vision that former Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson had 3½ years ago, in a handful of curtain-drawn airport hotel conference rooms across the country as he huddled with three other powerful voices in the sport trying to shape the next iteration of a successful, yet flawed, postseason structure. 

In the four-team CFP era, plenty of people watched college football crown a champion. Money flowed in droves. The drama surrounding who was in and who was out provided enough debate over the course of a season to fuel a Midwestern town in the dead of winter. 

And it sure was a heck of a lot better than the BCS days that came before it.

But it still resembled an invitational and not the tournament that college football had clamored for. Though Cincinnati broke through one season and reached the final four, it took a perfect confluence of events and mostly reinforced the glass ceiling the bulk of FBS teams kept running into as the Alabamas and Ohio States of the world caught breaks.

In 2024, things are different. Boise State is, too.

Against UNLV, the Broncos put forth the kind of all-around effort that is needed to overcome tough teams and tricky spots on the road in conference play. The Rebels entered the week allowing just 3.35 yards per carry (same as Kirby Smart's Georgia Bulldogs) and loaded the box full of defenders to stop focal point Ashton Jeanty.

The Heisman Trophy hopeful—his odds changed midway through the contest by the sportsbooks down the street to prevent labeling him the favorite—should remain the nation’s leading rusher for another week, but he had to fight and claw his way to muster 128 yards and a touchdown. He was hit in the backfield on his first three carries and briefly left after injuring his left elbow.

It was far from the kind of display that nearly a dozen NFL scouts and front office personnel were on hand to see from a tailback averaging 9.9 yards per carry coming in.

It also didn’t matter much because others stepped up around Jeanty.

Madsen, a surprise choice to be the starter under center this season ahead of former five-star recruit Malachi Nelson, was nails throwing and carried the team when his backfield mate was stymied at the line. Madsen’s final numbers (18-of-33, 209 yards, two total touchdowns) weren’t much to jump off a stat sheet, but he fired a number of darts to move the sticks throughout the game (BSU went 4-of-4 on fourth down) and even had the team’s longest rush when he scampered 49 yards to setup a field goal on the first drive. 

“It’s easy to look at stats or flash or people that are in it for themselves, but that’s not this team,” Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson said. “Our players, they deserve everything they’re getting right now because they work at it when no one’s watching.”

Danielson had every right to shout how proud he was of his group. On top of an offense that found solutions on several third and fourth downs that could have swung the game, the Boise defense seemed to rise up just when the occasion called for it. In addition to sacking Rebels signal-caller Hajj-Malik Williams six times (to go along with nine tackles for loss), they limited the home side to just 5-of-13 on third down and drew a handful of penalties that made life even harder down the stretch.

“We poured a lot into it,” a dejected UNLV head coach Barry Odom said. “To come up short in a game of that magnitude, it hurts.”

It hurts even more because the Rebels were right there with Boise State in laying claim to that top spot among Group of 5 contenders coming into the night. They had two Power 4 wins already this season and a three-point overtime loss to another, the Syracuse Orange, three weeks ago.

Had they won in front of a school-record 42,228 at Allegiant Stadium and beaten the Broncos for the first time since 1976 (two years before moving to Division I), it would have been UNLV that suddenly became a must-follow. 

It also wouldn’t hurt extracting a measure of revenge for Boise State winning the conference title in the same building 11 months ago or for the school’s recent departure to join the Pac-12 that left Rebels brass desperately trying to hold the Mountain West together for much of the past few weeks.

“That team [UNLV] wanted this game more than any one on their schedule. We understood the fight we were getting into, we knew we were getting their absolute best,” sixth-year safety Alexander Teubner said. “But when it comes down to closing out the game, those last three possessions show the mentality of this team. We’re down one point going into the fourth quarter, our offense answered the bell, our defense got a stop and we had an eight-minute drive to close it. You can sum up the mentality of our team in the fourth quarter.”

There’s little doubt in that. Just when Boise State needed a little extra, they got it. 

Trailing and in the red zone with 13 minutes to play, it was Jeanty who reverted to his true form. Facing third-and-goal and a deafening crowd, he broke three tackles as he zig-zagged from one hash mark across the other, carrying nearly four defenders with him to the brink of the end zone. 

On fourth-and-short and with everyone knowing he was getting the ball, he punched it in for the winning touchdown a play later. After throwing in a few more hard-fought yards as part of a 14-play drive that salted away the final 8:07, Jeanty ran around the field to celebrate with fans in blue and orange chanting his name while holding up signs touting his “Hei2man” campaign.

Jeanty didn’t mind leaning into such dreams of making it to New York either, flashing the trophy’s famous stiff arm while sharing a moment with Las Vegas Raiders tailback (and former Bronco) Alexander Mattison before disappearing into the locker room. 

If he—and the team—keep the efforts up, individual awards will be far from the only thing that people will be talking about in December.

“When we get to the end of the season and we have the opportunity to play in the College Football Playoff, I can’t wait,” Danielson said. “But that’s not what we’re up to right now. We’re up to playing a really good San Diego State team that we play on Friday night next week at home.”

Yes, the Broncos will be back on the blue turf. But maybe more importantly, they’ll be back in the national spotlight with the opportunity to do more than just make a nice bowl game.

What happened in Vegas late Friday night, contrary to the marketing phrase that has defined the city, will not stay there. 

The Boise bus is back. Buckle up college football.