Burned in the Florida sun: Boise State routed by USF in season opener
What a difference a year makes.
Boise State scored 56 points and had 651 yards of offense in its season-opening win over Georgia Southern in 2024.
This year’s trip to the Southeast to start what the Broncos hope will be another stellar year was nothing short of a disaster against South Florida on Thursday evening.
Boise State scored a touchdown in the first quarter and then was blanked. The Broncos lost three fumbles, committed eight penalties, gave up a TD on a fake punt, got burned by big plays and had eight straight drives end without any points.
It all added up to a 34-7 loss to USF that put the Broncos (0-1) behind the 8-ball very early in the chase for another College Football Playoff berth.
“Pretty much everything went wrong,” said tight end Matt Lauter, who entered the season figuring to be a key part of the offense and had four catches for 35 yards.
Boise State played an uneven first half in Tampa, fumbling twice and committing a huge penalty that gave life to a South Florida touchdown drive. The result, however, was only a 10-7 deficit.
In the second half, things fell apart. USF scored touchdowns on three straight possessions, starting with a 45-yard fake punt for a TD, with third-string QB Locklan Hewlett throwing a strike to wide receiver Keshaun Singleton.
Starting quarterback Byrum Brown had a 15-yard rushing touchdown, his second of the game, to cap a 77-yard drive, and Cartevious Norton ran 8 yards for a score to make it 31-7 early in the fourth quarter.
The three game-tilting scoring drives coincided with Boise State turning the ball over on downs three straight times, including when it passed up a field-goal try that could have made the score 17-10, and when it was still inside its own territory late in the third quarter.
For good measure, the Broncos turned the ball over on downs their next drive as well.
“I take full responsibility for how tonight went, for how our guys played, for how they operated and executed in critical moments, and that’s on me,” head coach Spencer Danielson said. “I gotta go back to look at how we can learn and grow from this.”
A year after amassing those 651 yards — granted, Heisman Trophy runner-up Ashton Jeanty rushed for 267 — the Broncos had 378 total yards against the Bulls (1-0). Quarterback Maddux Madsen completed 25-of-46 passes for 225 yards, including a 6-yard scoring strike to Chris Marshall, and Jeanty-less BSU rushed for 122 yards on 38 carries — barely 3 yards per run.
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Running backs Malik Sherrod (27 yards on 11 carries) and Sire Gaines (44 yards on 9 carries) each lost a fumble to end promising possessions in the first half. Sherrod’s came after he caught a pass at the USF 39-yard line on the opening drive of the game, and Gaines’ came on a running play at the USF 16 late in the second quarter.
On three USF drives in the first half, Boise State’s defense dominated, holding the Bulls’ fast-paced offense to minus-3 yards on 10 plays. The other two drives ended with a 52-yard Nico Gramatica field goal and a 23-yard TD run by dual-threat QB Brown, who scrambled for the score after the pocket collapsed on a third-and-10 play.
That touchdown run capped an eight-play, 80-yard drive that should have been a three-and-out. On third down Brown was sacked, but Boise State’s Davon Banks got flagged for a roughing-the-passer penalty that gave the Bulls life.
Brown completed 16-of-24 passes for 210 yards and rushed 14 times for 43 yards. He burned the Broncos’ secondary with completions of 24 yards, 55 yards and 37 yards — twice. The Bulls had 245 yards of offense in the second half, after being held to 127 in the first.
“We got shut out in the second half ... and they put up a bunch of points,” Danielson said. “So hats off to them.”
Boise State played without junior running back Jambres “Breezy” Dubar, who missed much of 2024 with a lower-body injury and suffered a soft tissue injury during fall camp. He was practicing with the team last week and had a goal of playing the opener.
This story was originally published August 28, 2025 at 3:13 PM.
