Boise State football coach Bryan Harsin faces delicate, high-stakes decision at QB
Boise State football coach Bryan Harsin likely will only consider one factor when deciding which quarterback to start Saturday in the Mountain West championship game against Hawaii.
Who gives the Broncos the best chance to win the trophy?
And that’s all he should consider.
But it’s not that simple — not even close.
Harsin’s decision could affect whether the No. 20 Broncos (11-1) get to play in a New Year’s Six bowl for the first time in five years, and it could affect what happens in an intriguing offseason for the Broncos’ quarterback room.
Those are huge stakes that complicate an already-tricky decision.
Harsin could stick with senior Jaylon Henderson, who four weeks ago was the third-string quarterback getting few practice snaps. Henderson has led the Broncos to three straight wins and played efficiently, but he also has missed some wide-open receivers. He’s the hot hand — and that’s a tempting choice.
Harsin could go with sophomore Chase Cord, who began the season as the backup and started against BYU and Wyoming. That seems unlikely given that those were, arguably, the two worst offensive showings of the season (although, in fairness, those were two of the better defenses the Broncos have faced).
Or he could return to true freshman Hank Bachmeier, who started seven of the first eight games and is 7-0 in his college career. The last time he started, the Broncos scored 52 points and he has wins over bowl teams Florida State, Marshall and Air Force. Henderson and Cord have beaten one bowl team each, while all three threw touchdown passes in the regular-season win against Hawaii, when Bachmeier left early in the second quarter.
There are two additional wrinkles with Bachmeier, who missed the BYU loss with a hip pointer sustained against Hawaii and hasn’t played since an apparent shoulder injury against San Jose State.
The Broncos’ only chance of getting into the Cotton Bowl is to beat Hawaii (2 p.m., Albertsons Stadium, ESPN) and have Cincinnati beat Memphis in the American Athletic Conference championship game (1:30 p.m., Dec. 7, ABC). If that happens, there will be arguments from some — it’s already started — that 11-2 Cincinnati would be more deserving than a potential 12-1 Boise State.
The Broncos’ best counter to that: They lost to BYU on the road by three points without their starting quarterback, a factor that College Football Playoff selection committee chairman Rob Mullens mentioned Tuesday during his weekly teleconference with the media.
But if the Broncos choose not to start Bachmeier in the most important game of the year, that argument fizzles. At best, they could say they played the wrong backup quarterback at BYU — and they’re not going to get any sympathy for that.
The other factor is 2020. If Bachmeier finishes the season as the starter, that certainly makes it less likely that Cord returns. But if Henderson starts the championship game and the bowl game, Harsin can tell Bachmeier and Cord that they’ll compete for the starting job all over again during the 2020 offseason — which might allow the Broncos to keep the only two scholarship quarterbacks slated for the 2020 roster.
This whole debate is predicated on the idea that all three quarterbacks are healthy, which Harsin said was the case Friday after the 31-24 win against Colorado State. Each of them could have played against the Rams, he said.
The fact that only Henderson did — even when the Broncos’ offense stumbled for much of the second half (four punts, one TD) — suggested that Harsin is committed to Henderson.
That could change after another week of practice.
Or not, given that a week of game planning doesn’t leave much time for a quarterback competition.
Harsin, in his postgame comments, said he wouldn’t be concerned about using Bachmeier (out the last four games) or Cord (out the last three games) — but he didn’t sound like a guy ready to make a change.
“I know that’s always going to be the question,” Harsin said, “but right now, Jaylon’s been playing well, and Hank’s ready to play and those guys are ready to play. It could have been a situation tonight where we put one of those guys in there. I don’t feel like it’s a cold quarterback. I don’t feel that way about that position. Maybe I would have in other years, but this year I don’t because all the guys have played. It’s just a different group and a different set of circumstances this season at the quarterback position.
“I’m very proud of Jaylon. ... Jaylon’s done a good job, and I feel good with Jaylon and I feel like he’ll prepare himself. And I feel good about Hank and Chase, and those guys will be ready to go, too.”
So who will it be on Saturday? Henderson seems like the safe bet — with Bachmeier on call.
Chadd Cripe is the Idaho Statesman’s assistant editor and sports columnist. Contact him at ccripe@idahostatesman.com and follow @chaddcripe on Twitter.
This story was originally published November 30, 2019 at 11:47 AM.
