For Brett Rypien and Boise State, it was a night to replace some ugly memories

As he warmed up before Saturday night’s game at War Memorial Stadium, Boise State quarterback Brett Rypien stood on the exact same spot where “bad memories” lived.

The senior gave himself a little pep talk, to not let the reminder of the safety he took his last time in Laramie affect his current approach. His fumble out of the end zone gave Wyoming its winning points late in a 30-28 loss Oct. 29, 2016.

“I told myself, ‘You’re a different player than you were in 2016, this is a different team, and just go out and play like you know how to play,’ and I was able to do that,” Rypien said.

Behind another outstanding September performance, Rypien did show just how far he’s come, leading Boise State to a 34-14 win over Wyoming. He posted his fourth 300-yard game to start the season, completing 28-of-42 passes for 342 yards with two touchdowns.

Boise State coach Bryan Harsin said “we’ve seen the GIF, we’ve seen the video” of Wyoming defensive end Josiah Hall’s dance after the 2016 safety, a constant reminder of the last visit. But Rypien even repeated his confident words to himself to his coach pregame.

“I love that, he said that to me out there,” Harsin said. “There’s no secrets. ... As a competitor, you want to remember that, you want to try to go back out there and re-create something better.”

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Beating Wyoming (2-3, 0-1) on its home turf was not the only way Boise State (3-1, 1-0) was able to cure some ills in the Mountain West Conference opener.

Two weeks after having two punts blocked in a loss at Oklahoma State, the Broncos were on the other side of it, though the plays only netted three points.

Punter Tim Zaleski dropped the snap after Wyoming’s second drive, and Boise State cornerback Jalen Walker recovered at the Wyoming 22. The Broncos got nothing out of the drive as kicker Haden Hoggarth missed a 38-yard field goal. Hoggarth made a 30-yarder 35 seconds before halftime after receiver John Hightower blocked a Zaleski punt for a 24-0 halftime edge.

“It’s a great response, right?” Harsin said. “It didn’t go our way, we had that happen to us and we do the exact opposite. ... That is what I’m proud of, to see our team step up when we didn’t do well. We can point fingers or we can respond and come up with an answer.”

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The Broncos did a very good job of keeping drives alive, and shutting down the Cowboys’. Boise State was 11-of-20 on third down and converted its only fourth-down try, and held Wyoming to 2-of-11 on third down, 0-of-2 on fourth down. The Broncos racked up five sacks and outgained the Cowboys 506-295.

Wyoming scored on the first play of the third quarter, a 75-yard touchdown run, and had a 72-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. Those will surely make the film review tough with defensive coordinator Andy Avalos, but not as tough as it was before last week’s bye as tackling issues were evident in the 44-21 loss at Oklahoma State.

“I promise you, all bye week, all we did was tackling, we were not going to let (Avalos) down,” junior safety DeAndre Pierce said. “You’ve got to swallow your pride a lot. ... The eye in the sky doesn’t lie.”

That yardage advantage was thanks in big part to Rypien, who is 108-of-154 passing for 1,389 yards with 12 touchdowns this season. He has yet to throw an interception, and has thrown just one interception in his last 360 regular-season passes. He had seven passes for 20 or more yards Saturday.

“Brett Rypien played about as good as I’ve seen over the last four years,” Wyoming coach Craig Bohl said.

But again, the Broncos struggled to move the ball on the ground with any sort of regularity, picking up 161 yards on 46 carries, 55 yards coming in the fourth quarter. No run until the Broncos’ final attempt (a 22-yarder by freshman Andrew Van Buren) was longer than Alexander Mattison’s 13-yard touchdown on the first drive, capped with an impressive hurdle.

The offensive line, which yielded seven sacks against Oklahoma State, allowed two Saturday for a total loss of 3 yards.

“They did a great job protecting me in the pass game, but there are still some things we can be better at in the run game,” Rypien said.

The Broncos did not score a second-half touchdown until Rypien hit Hightower for a 41-yard touchdown with 6:29 remaining. Wyoming scored on its 72-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Vander Waal to James Price just 42 seconds later.

“We weren’t as great in the second as we wanted to be,” Harsin said. “... Offensively, we need to finish and play four quarters.”

In the week leading up to the game, senior wide receiver A.J. Richardson said there was some “tension” between the two schools, referring namely to the 2016 loss. Richardson, who had six catches for 113 yards and a touchdown Saturday, was happy to serve a little revenge and give Boise State its 12th win in 13 all-time contests against Wyoming.

“That’s huge ... to come back here and finish it out right, just to send a message — last time it didn’t go our way, so this year we wanted to set the tone and let them know we’re not here to play,” Richardson said.

This story was originally published September 29, 2018 at 11:32 PM.