Boise State senior tight end Richie Brockel was in the training room at Bronco Stadium on Saturday when he heard the public-address announcer tell the crowd that sophomore Kyle Efaw had scored a touchdown.

Brockel took the ice pack off his injured foot, grabbed his crutches and hopped as fast as he could to the Broncos sideline.

"I almost ate it," Brockel said.

Brockel didn't want to miss out on what became a team celebration. Efaw, a Capital High graduate, scored his first college touchdown on his 38th career catch - ending a running joke among the tight ends because Efaw had been tackled near the goal line or let a pass slip through his fingers in the end zone several times.

The Broncos swarmed Efaw immediately after his 11-yard touchdown catch on a halfback pass from tailback Matt Kaiserman, Efaw's roommate.

"It was pretty sweet," Efaw said. "Other people were a little more excited than I was. I'm kind of excited so they don't have to give me crap about it all the time. I guess it took a trick play to finally get me a touchdown."

Efaw is a different sort of tight end for the Broncos - quiet and unassuming.

He gets teased for that as much as for his touchdown-less streak. The Broncos tight ends are known for their boisterous personalities and hi-jinks.

Efaw is the guy who asks coaches if they really want to put him in a critical position, like when they told him he would be the receiver on the halfback pass.

"He puts a lot of pressure on himself to perform well," tight ends coach Chris Strausser said. "It kind of shows in how he carries himself. ... For whatever reason, that's his personality around us."

That personality cloaks what has been a terrific season for Efaw. He's tied for third on the team with 21 catches and he's second with a 13.8-yard average going into Friday night's game at Utah State.

He's on pace for the most catches by a Broncos tight end since Jeb Putzier made 44 grabs in 2001.

"He's done a nice job on the play action that we have, setting himself up and getting open," offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin said. "He's a good route runner."

More importantly, Efaw (6-foot-4, 234 pounds) is becoming an effective blocker in the run game - a development that has given him the most plays of any tight end the past three weeks.

He's still undersized - he was about 190 pounds in high school - so he doesn't block defensive linemen on a regular basis. Instead, the Broncos use him in space on linebackers and safeties.

"That's what makes him more threatening in the pass game," Harsin said. "He's out there, he's setting the edge and we're getting decent runs behind him."

Efaw's favorite block this year was a cut-block on a Louisiana Tech linebacker on tailback Jeremy Avery's game-clinching, 44-yard touchdown run.

"I was really pumped up on that because it kind of blew the game open," Efaw said. "I don't usually get fired up, but I kind of got fired up on that one. ... Jeremy ran right by me."

Moments like that, Efaw said, might be more gratifying then reaching the end zone.

"That kind of makes me feel more like a tight end, when I do stuff like that," he said. "I guess I know what Tommy (Gallarda) and Richie feel like all the time."

And now he knows what it's like to score a touchdown, too.

Whether it's a big block or a key catch, coaches say Efaw should get used to those feelings. He's got plenty more to come.

"Down the road," coach Chris Petersen said, "he's going to be the complete and total package."