Taylor Tharp promised an explosive offense at his introductory press conference.
And Thursday night, he delivered — with a lot of help from his friends.
Tharp, the Boise State football team's new starting quarterback, led the Broncos to seven touchdowns in seven drives in the season opener against the helpless Weber State Wildcats.
The 24th-ranked Broncos won 56-7 — and it could have been much worse. They led 56-0 less than 5 minutes into the third quarter to the delight of a sellout crowd of 30,278.
Boise State (1-0) puts its national-best 14-game winning streak on the line at Washington on Sept. 8.
"What an awesome job the coaches did and those players did the last (eight) months really preparing to start the season like we did," Boise State coach Chris Petersen said. "It was impressive. … They did everything we asked them to do."
The Broncos generated 569 yards of offense, including 371 rushing yards. Star tailback Ian Johnson kicked off his Heisman Trophy campaign with a "ho-hum" 128 yards and three touchdowns.
Johnson, however, was overshadowed by a parade of new offensive stars who showed they're clearly ready for prime time.
The Broncos lost 22 seniors off their Fiesta Bowl championship team, including nearly all of the offensive production that didn't come from Johnson — the lone returning starter at a skill position.
"I didn't expect our offense to come out like they did," senior safety Marty Tadman said. "… I was concerned the whole eight months (thinking), ‘This is going to be a young team, there are lots of question marks.' Everyone said, ‘How are you going to do this year?' I said, ‘I don't know. We'll see. I know we're going to do good, but let's see how these young guys do in the first game.' And they did exactly what we needed them to do, they stepped up big time.
"I'm always a pessimist, but this kind of changed my mind about this team. I think we can do great things again."
Tharp, a senior, was 14-of-19 for 184 yards and a gorgeous 53-yard touchdown pass — a play that was breathtaking for fans and Tharp, who was drilledin the midsection as he let go of the ball.
True freshman wide receiver Titus Young caught the TD pass — the first catch of his career.
"That deep ball was unbelievable, just perfect in stride to Titus," Johnson said. "I think that's about where we said, ‘OK, we're going to be good.' "
Young also had a 24-yard run on the Broncos' first drive. He finished with 86 total yards.
Tharp likes Young on the deep routes because of the freshman's speed. He threw to Young on the touchdown play every time the Broncos ran it in practice.
"He has such good speed getting by a guy," Tharp said. "I knew if I just gave him a chance and laid it out there, he could run under it."
Redshirt freshman tailback Jeremy Avery added spectacular runs of 50 and 25 yards in which he showcased his shiftiness in traffic and speed in the open field. He finished with 105 yards and two touchdowns in his first college game.
True freshman tailback D.J. Harper got plenty of action, too. He scored on his first college carry — a 10-yard run — and had 42 yards.
"Both of them are only going to get better," Petersen said. "They're going to help our running game. They're going to help Ian Johnson be a better back as well. To be able to mix those guys, that should be a strength of our offense without a doubt."
But Young, Avery and Harper were just the beginning of the freshman parade.
True freshman Austin Pettis added a fourth-down catch, redshirt freshman defensive end Ryan Winterswyk made a team-high eight tackles, redshirt freshman safety Jeron Johnson made seven tackles and forced a fumble and redshirt freshmen Jason Robinson (safety) and Derrell Acrey (linebacker) started.
"The veterans, they're big supporters for us," Young said. "They really coach us up. They take us under their wings a lot. We don't feel like just freshmen. We feel like we're a family."
The veterans — aka "mentors" — delivered, too.
Junior wide receiver Vinny Perretta scored on a 5-yard run on third-and-goal and sophomore wide receiver Jeremy Childs contributed five catches for 61 yards. Both are first-year starters.
And Johnson was his usual patient, crafty, occasionally explosive self. The highlight of his night was a 54-yard touchdown run on which he took a pitch going left, darted through a gaping hole created by fullback/tight end Richie Brockel and dashed untouched down the left sideline.
"I had a huge block from Richie Brockel," Johnson said. "He pretty much pummeled the guy against him. As soon as I saw him lining up for the block, I said, ‘He's going to get it and I'm going to run as fast as I can and hopefully nobody can catch me.' "
As usual, the offense overshadowed a terrific performance by the Broncos defense. BSU forced six straight Weber State three-and-outs to start the game. In fact, the Wildcats had seven punts and two lost fumbles in the first half.
"Oh yeah, I forgot there was defense on the field," said Tadman, who also returned a punt 65 yards. "… The first team shut 'em out. We dominated them."
The Broncos left satisfied.
They did not leave content.
"We're where we want to be right now," Petersen said. "… We know we've got a different animal next week and have to be even cleaner than we were (Thursday).
