Maddux Madsen Leads Boise State Past Memphis Without Turnovers

Another week of college football is in the books, and Boise State came to play.

The 1-1 Broncos earned their first win of the season and put some important questions to rest. Junior running back Dylan Riley posted a career-high 206 rushing yards, and the special teams' unit had an impact play as junior wide receiver Cam Bates had Boise State’s first punt-return touchdown since 2022.

With all that said, the Broncos still have plenty more football to play in 2026, and have a few more questions that need to be answered if we expect to see them make a serious postseason run.

Maddux Madsen

Fifth-year senior quarterback Maddux Madsen had another solid game last week. His 221 yards and one touchdown, along with no sacks and no turnovers against Memphis spelled success for the Boise State offense.

His consistency speaks volumes for the veteran starter. What’s concerning is the lack of game-changing ability.

Madsen relies on a strong ground game to set up his throws. Oregon head coach Dan Lanning spoke to this ahead of his Week 1 matchup with the Broncos.

Running the ball is important in any offense, but what happens when Madsen is forced to win a game with his arm?

Against Memphis, we almost saw this play out, however the Broncos had 30 minutes left in the game to make a comeback possible, so running the ball was still viable.

Against Oregon, we saw two instances of two-minute offense where throwing the ball was the only option. Both times, the offense failed to get out of its own territory, producing only one first down across the two possessions..

Madsen isn’t the type of quarterback who’s going to woo you with his ‘other-worldly’ arm talent, but he’s also a consistent and experienced game manager. Boise State doesn’t necessarily need a Caleb Williams type of guy under center, but when push comes to shove and there are only two minutes to score, what do the Broncos do?

Boise State’s Big Play Problem

Ninety-nine percent of the time, Boise State’s defense looks like a top-10 unit, but then there’s that nagging one percent where they give up a home-run play that makes you want to rip your hair out.

In the first half against Memphis, the Tigers completed six passes. Not bad, right? Then you look at the stat sheet and see those six passes totaled 246 yards and two touchdowns.

“It’s a huge concern,” head coach Spencer Danielson said Monday. “If it’s not excellent, it’s not okay, and giving up 500 yards of offense two weeks in a row is not okay.”

The Broncos’ secondary cleaned up its act, thankfully. In the second half, Stokes hit 11-of-16 for 138 yards. Boise State favored man-coverage against Memphis, opting to bring the pressure.

Through two weeks, the team has allowed 27 points per game and 508 yards per game. The Broncos’ offense has outscored those metrics, posting 32.5 points per game, but struggles in per-game yardage with just 426.

This week against South Dakota, we likely won’t learn much. Boise State is the heavy favorite and hasn’t lost to an FCS program this century, so the Broncos really just have everything to lose and not much to gain, aside from reps.

“Giving up 500 yards of offense and close to 10 explosive plays is unacceptable,” Danielson said. “Proud of how we finished, but we gotta make sure we get that stuff fixed.”

Looking ahead, the Broncos will be tested by the defending MAC champions Western Michigan and later, Colorado State, which is averaging 537 yards and 46.5 points per game through two weeks.

Oregon lost, what does that mean?

Short answer: Nothing good.

Oregon dropped their game against Oklahoma State and dropped in the AP Poll. The Ducks plummeted from No. 6 to No. 21 after the upset. I suppose we can’t trust a Bronco to do a Cowboy’s job.

Jokes aside, the Ducks early-season spiral doesn't help the Broncos. As it stands now, Oregon looks like a very beatable team, and Boise State failed to do that when they had the chance.

This is reflected in the AP Poll as last week, Boise State was the unofficial 26th-best team in the country.

The Broncos garnered 86 votes in the poll after losing to Oregon, but now only have 57 votes to their name after beating Memphis. This ranks third-most among unranked programs behind 2-0 Washington (172) and 2-0 Florida (83).

Instead of going down the subjective rabbit hole of how Memphis’ win over UNLV is meaningless and how that equates to Boise State’s win this week not carrying a lot of weight, let's stick to what we know.

“We’ve played two games, we’ve had to learn a lot from two games, we’ve done some good things, we got a lot of stuff we gotta get fixed, and that’s what I’m urgent to do, we got a huge game against South Dakota this Saturday night,” Danielson Said.

Boise State’s gimme game this week is unlikely to spark a lot of movement for the program (assuming the Broncos win). What matters more for the Broncos is their Week 4 matchup, where they travel to Kalamazoo to take on the Western Michigan Broncos.

The “Bronco Bowl” will likely be the Group of 6 game of the year. Boise State played Oregon close and lost, as did Western Michigan did against Michigan, who is currently ranked ahead of Oregon at the No. 19 spot.

Early in the season, it’s difficult to gauge what teams are really made of. Oregon will win more games, as will Memphis and Boise State, but we’re just not there yet.

It’s hard to call either of the two games the Broncos have played so far a ‘quality performance’ and that is reflected in the AP Poll.

“Our goal is to go 1-0 every single week,” Danielson said. “I’m going to let everyone else tell me how big the game is. I get promised 12 games a year, we work our tail off every stinking day for these 12 opportunities and we gotta be our best, regardless of implications.”

So just because Boise State is on the outside looking in right now, it’s not a big deal. The Broncos will have their shot in Week 4 to make their statement and cap off the nonconference schedule with a bang.