Boise State hires familiar face as QB coach, will try to recruit competition for Madsen
Boise State football announced the return of Zak Hill to the coaching staff on Thursday morning.
Hill will be the Broncos’ new pass-game coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He partly fills the hole left by Dirk Koetter, who was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2024 before retiring last week. Koetter is staying on as an adviser.
Hill was the Broncos’ offensive coordinator from 2017-19 before taking the same position at Arizona State in 2020. On Thursday, Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson said he briefly spoke to Hill last February about the open offensive coordinator position that Koetter eventually filled.
“He’s got a really good reputation, even outside these walls, in being one of the best quarterback developers in the nation,” Danielson said of Hill.
In Hill’s first season as sole offensive coordinator in 2017 — he spent 2016 as the Broncos’ co-offensive coordinator and QB coach — he helped guide quarterback Brett Rypien to his second straight season making first-team All-Mountain West, and wide receiver Cedrick Wilson that year set the program’s single-season receiving yards record (1,511). Rypien was then named the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year in 2018.
Post-Boise State, he worked with Jayden Daniels at Arizona State — Daniels eventually won the Heisman Trophy after transferring to LSU — and was an offensive assistant with the Seattle Seahawks in 2024.
Hill will get a chance to continue developing Boise State starter Maddux Madsen, who will be a redshirt junior next season. Madsen finished the 2024 season with 3,018 passing yards and 23 passing touchdowns while throwing just six interceptions. Three of those came in the second half of the Fiesta Bowl.
He also had 221 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns, and the 5-foot-10 QB looks set to remain as the starter in 2025.
“(Madsen) is going to take another big step this year,” Danielson said. “Maddux Madsen’s best football is in front of him. I really do believe he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the country.”
But that doesn’t mean the Boise State staff isn’t looking to bring in some competition.
Following the departure of redshirt freshman Malachi Nelson in the transfer portal, Boise State’s realistic quarterback room options are Madsen and redshirt freshman Max Cutforth.
Danielson said Cutforth, originally a walk-on, was awarded a scholarship in the past week. Freshman walk-on QB Caleb Annett will remain with the team, while Meridian High School quarterback Zeke Martinez will also join as a walk-on.
“I believe in our quarterbacks we have currently here in this building,” Danielson said. “But we are going to continue to go out and find the best fit that fits here.”
There are some concerns about Hill’s ability to recruit over the next two years.
In 2022, he resigned from his position with Arizona State following an NCAA investigation that found Hill guilty of recruiting violations during the NCAA-mandated COVID-19 dead period. A dead period is when coaches may not communicate with recruits or their parents in person.
As a result of the investigation, the NCAA Committee on Infractions gave Hill a three-year show-cause penalty, which prevented him from any recruiting activity in 2024 and any off-campus recruiting in 2025 and ‘26.
Danielson said the coaching staff “has a plan” for Hill’s recruiting obstacles, but he did not provide specifics.
