Last year’s championship disappointment pushes Boise State as title game returns
There’s an image Boise State STUD end Curtis Weaver can’t shake from a loss to Fresno State in last season’s Mountain West football championship game.
The snow, which had been falling for most of the game, had long since begun collecting on the blue turf in Albertsons Stadium. After Fresno State’s Ronnie Rivers plowed into the end zone in overtime to secure the Bulldogs’ 19-16 win, Weaver fell to the turf, his facemask buried in his hands. As Fresno State’s bench cleared to celebrate the upset, teammates helped him off the field.
It’s no accident that Weaver can’t get those images out of his head. He saved photos from that night and made a habit of studying them this season to remind him of the ultimate goal.
“I know the day. I know all that, where I was and everything,” Weaver said after Friday’s win at Colorado State. “That was a big thing in the back of my mind this season, getting back to that game. We’re going to be extremely motivated.”
On Monday, Boise State coach Bryan Harsin called winning a conference championship “the ultimate goal for every team.” With Hawaii in town on Saturday for the 2019 Mountain West championship game (2 p.m., ESPN), the Broncos have a chance to do just that and leave last season’s title loss in the past.
“The end of that game sticks with all of us,” senior tight end Garrett Collingham said. “We have that chip on our shoulder and we’re going to go out there and do everything we can to protect the Blue one last time.”
Last fall, Boise State hosted Fresno State in the regular season and had to score 21 unanswered points in the second half to win, 24-17. Wide receiver Khalil Shakir played the hero and hauled in a 49-yard touchdown for the go-ahead score with 9:22 to play.
In that game, the Bulldogs and Broncos combined for 838 yards of offense. In the championship game almost a month later, the rain and snow left little offense to be had by either team. A similar scenario could play out this weekend.
On Oct. 12, Hawaii came to Albertsons Stadium and posted 325 passing yards and four touchdowns through the air — the most the Broncos have surrendered in a game this season — and still lost 59-37. But Saturday in Boise is looking like it’s going to be chilly and wet. The forecast shows a high of 48 degrees and a 60 percent chance of rain. Whatever the weather, though, the Broncos know they have to prepare once again to defend an explosive aerial attack.
“That’s the system they live in,” Boise State defensive coordinator Jeff Schmedding said Tuesday. “That’s what they believe in and they’re one of the top offenses in the nation because of it.”
Hawaii ranks No. 2 in the Mountain West with 332.5 passing yards a game, and the Rainbow Warriors boast three of the conference’s top five wide receivers in terms of receiving yards. Cedric Byrd leads the league with 91 receptions and ranks No. 3 with 1,049 yards. Jared Smart has 76 catches and ranks No. 4 with 915 yards, and JoJo Ward is just behind him with 906 yards. Ward leads the conference with 11 touchdown catches. Byrd is right behind him with 10.
Hawaii isn’t bringing the same offense to town that only managed 82 rushing yards back in October, though. Since then, the Warriors are averaging 170.8 rushing yards a game. In a three-game stretch against New Mexico, Fresno State and San Jose State, they racked up 664 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground.
Admittedly, Boise State fields a better run defense (No. 4 in the conference at 115.1 ypg) than those three teams, but a Hawaii team willing and able to pick up yards on the ground is a far cry from the Warriors’ 50 pass attempts back in October.
Starting quarterback Cole McDonald has been more willing to run of late, but a big part of that improvement in the Warriors’ rushing game can be attributed to backup quarterback Chevan Cordiero, who has played a larger role in the game plan in recent weeks. He started a 42-40 win at San Jose State and finished with 309 yards and three touchdowns through the air and 55 yards and two scores on the ground. He posted 59 yards on the ground against San Diego State, and he threw a pair of touchdowns last weekend against Army.
“Obviously, our first job is to stop the run. We need to make them one-dimensional to help our DBs out,” Boise State middle linebacker Benton Wickersham said. “And as the pass game goes on, we need to help them any way we can, whether it’s getting in passing windows or getting pressure on the quarterback.”
With the loss in the championship game and Boise State’s bowl game getting canceled by weather, safety Tyreque Jones said the end of last season left the Broncos with a sour taste heading into the offseason, and it has been their driving factor all year.
“We kind of feel like we went out cold, you know, empty,” Jones said. “We’ve been working hard since January. We’ve been working every day just so we can get back to this point and actually finish the right way.”
HAWAII AT NO. 19 BOISE STATE
What: Mountain West championship game
When: 2 p.m. Saturday
Where: Albertsons Stadium (36,387), Boise
TV: ESPN (Roy Philpott, Kelly Stouffer, Lauren Sisler)
Radio: KBOI 670 AM (Bob Behler, Pete Cavender)
Records: Boise State is 11-1 overall, 8-0 Mountain West; Hawaii is 9-4, 6-2.
Series: Boise State leads 13-3 (last meeting: Boise State won 59-37 on Oct. 12 in Albertsons Stadium)
Vegas line: Boise State by 14
Weather: High of 48 degrees, 60 percent chance of rain, 10 mph wind out of the southeast.
