UCF’s Game plan for Boise State

We're literally days away from the start of college football season in the Treasure Valley. Whether you're a fan or not, Boise State Football will be impossible to ignore for the next few weeks.

The Broncos travel to Orlando to take on UCF in a nationally televised game on ESPN. Training camp is over, so how will UCF Coach Guz Malzahn, one of the great offensive minds in football, attack the Broncos? The coach hasn't shared his game plan with us, but we've had a chance to research what's coming out of Orlando.  

UCF will look to go head to head with the strength of the Boise State Defense.  Sports Illustrated pointed out that Malzahn wins many more games when his team effectively rushes the football. Everything in the UCF offense is predicated on running the ball and tempo. Malzahn's tempo game rivaled that of Chip Kelly's when he was in Oregon. If UCF runs the ball, look for less time between plays and the ever-dangerous quarterback bootleg along with play-action passes.  

Once again, Sports Illustrated points out that when Malzahn's last team, Auburn, rushed for over two hundred yards, they were nearly unbeatable as opposed to when they ran for over one hundred yards in losses.  

The conventional wisdom for a Boise State win would be to keep the ball away from UCF's offense by controlling the ball without committing turnovers. The Bronco defense will be tested by the UCF running game and a quarterback who likes to go deep off the play-action pass. Coach Avalos commented that facing a Malzahn offense has been one of his toughest challenges as a defensive coordinator. We're about to find out who wins that challenge this Thursday night. Are you ready?