Boise State needed a spark at Hawaii. The Broncos turned to their special teams ace
Where does the Boise State football team turn when it needs a spark?
Its ace in the hole, of course.
Defending Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Year Avery Williams returned his second kickoff for a touchdown this season and set up two more scores Saturday as the Broncos went on the road and stretched their winning streak over Hawaii to nine straight games with a 40-32 victory.
“I thought special teams was the dagger tonight,” Boise State coach Bryan Harsin said. “I do think there’s belief on special teams that we can make plays and change the game.”
After Hawaii scored on its opening drive of the second half, Williams returned the ensuing kick 99 yards for a touchdown. He faked a throw across the field — mimicking a play the Broncos ran last week against Colorado State — and got a big block from freshman Kaonohi Kaniho, who is a Hawaii native and nickel Kekaula Kaniho’s younger brother.
Williams said he had the freedom to lateral the ball or keep it depending on how Hawaii covered the kick. He kept it and provided yet another spark for his team.
“We’re a big spark team and a big energy team, so any time we have a chance to gain the momentum, it’s just going to carry on and be better for our team,” Williams said.
The former walk-on has provided his team plenty of sparks. Last week against the Rams, he blocked two punts — both of which resulted in touchdowns. He also returned a kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown on Oct. 31 at Air Force. He was named Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Week after both performances.
Saturday’s kickoff return marked Williams’ eighth career special teams touchdown and gave the Broncos a 26-9 advantage. It also gave the team the lift it needed to overcome a sluggish start on offense and survive Hawaii’s rally in the second half.
“We needed something on special teams to open this game up a little bit, and that’s exactly what happened,” Harsin said.
Williams didn’t just affect the game on kickoffs. He also returned three punts for 72 yards — averaging 24 yards per return — and gifted Boise State with quality field position to set up two scoring drives.
In fact, the Broncos (4-1, 4-0 MW) couldn’t get much of anything going offensively in the first half until he broke free on a punt.
Williams — who returned two punts for touchdowns last season — returned one 34 yards to Hawaii’s 44-yard line late in the second quarter.
Two plays later, the Broncos scored their first touchdown of the night when wide receiver Khalil Shakir hauled in a pass between two defenders, slipped a tackle and scored on a 38-yard touchdown pass.
It wasn’t long after that play that Shakir went up to Williams on the sideline and said, “You’ve really got us on your back right now.”
“You never know what he’s going to do. He is really unpredictable, in a good way,” Shakir said. “He’ll catch the ball and you think he’s going to go one way and next thing you know, he’s out the back and 40 yards down the field. He’s so elusive and he’s so sneaky. His moves are amazing, and I always try to mirror my moves off of him.”
Freshman kicker Jonah Dalmas’ extra point was blocked following Shakir’s touchdown, leaving the Broncos with a 12-3 lead, but it didn’t take the team’s leading receiver long to find the end zone again after Boise State’s ensuing drive ended with a trick play.
Wide receiver CT Thomas took a handoff from inside the Rainbow Warriors’ 5-yard line on what looked like a standard sweep, but the lefty pulled up behind the line of scrimmage and lofted a 3-yard touchdown pass to Shakir in the back corner of the end zone to send the Broncos into halftime with a 19-3 lead.
Shakir said that play was installed just this week, and he called getting it right “a process.” He also graded Thomas’ throw a 10 on a 10-point scale, but he himself earned pretty high marks on Saturday.
Shakir finished with a career-high 11 receptions, eclipsing the 10 he hauled in against BYU, and finished with 130 receiving yards, falling just nine shy of tying the career-best 139 he posted against the Cougars. He also caught two touchdown passes in a game for the third time this season.
Shakir also converted a critical third down with a 32-yard reception as the Broncos were clinging to a one-possession lead on their final drive of the game.
“There’s a reason why he’s a captain,” Harsin said. “He’s got that mentality to work every single day and to be a leader and try to bring guys with him and try to improve everybody, and then he’s also a playmaker.”
Williams set up another scoring drive in the third quarter with a 36-yard punt return to Hawaii’s 26. The Broncos followed with two straight handoffs to Andrew Van Buren — who was standing in for an injured George Holani for the third game in a row.
Van Buren turned the second carry into an 11-yard touchdown. The junior scored on another 11-yard run to put the Broncos up 40-17 with a little more than 3 minutes left in the third quarter. He finished with 113 yards on 27 carries.
“You could see Andrew tonight get into a groove,” Harsin said. “He was hitting it downhill, and then he started to bounce a few runs.”
Boise State’s offense got a boost from the defense in the first half.
The Broncos limited Hawaii to 119 yards of offense before halftime, and the Rainbow Warriors — once known for their high-flying passing attack under former coach Nick Rolovich — managed just 50 yards through the air. They found a little life after halftime, though.
Hawaii (2-3, 2-3) racked up 275 yards of offense and scored 29 points in the second half — erasing much of what was a 33-9 deficit early in the third quarter and cutting Boise State’s lead to eight points with less than 5 minutes to play.
The Warriors opened the second half with a 13-play, 87-yard scoring drive that was capped by a 1-yard touchdown dive from Jacksonville University transfer Calvin Turner. The Rainbow Warriors’ two-point attempt was unsuccessful, but the Broncos’ lead was cut to 19-9.
Turner scored again on a 36-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Chevan Cordeiro (25-of-48, 253 yards, 3 TDs) to cut the Broncos’ lead to 33-17 with a little more than 5 minutes left in the third quarter. He also hauled in a 15-yard scoring strike from Cordeiro to cut the deficit to 40-24 early in the fourth.
Hawaii got a late contribution from leading receiver Jared Smart, who come into the game with a team-high 21 receptions but was held without a catch through three quarters. His second and final catch of the night went for a 4-yard touchdown, which — after a successful two-point conversion run by Turner — cut the Broncos’ lead to 40-32 with 4:52 to play.
Harsin said the Broncos’ defensive struggles in the second half simply came down to fundamentals.
“It’s just tackling,” he said. “We had guys in the right position, so we need to work on our tackling and improve in that area.”
Boise State ended up with the ball last, and on third-and-5 with less than 2 minutes to play, quarterback Hank Bachmeier (21-of-31, 278 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) picked up just enough yardage on a scramble to move the chains and allow his team to run out the clock.
Saturday’s win sets up a showdown between the Broncos and one of two other remaining undefeated teams in Mountain West play — San Jose State (4-0), which saw its game canceled this weekend because of COVID-19 contact tracing at Fresno State.
Nevada (5-0) is the other undefeated team in the conference, but the Broncos will only face the Wolf Pack if the teams meet in the Mountain West championship game on Dec. 19.
This story was originally published November 22, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
