No Jeanty, no party: Rushing attack struggles as ‘Broncos beat the Broncos’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Boise State rushed for only 122 yards in a 34–7 loss to South Florida.
- New backs Gaines and Sherrod combined for just 71 yards and key turnovers.
- Broncos converted only 2 of 6 fourth downs, showing Jeanty's absence impact.
The post-Ashton Jeanty hangover could require more aspirin than anticipated.
Boise State football fans got drunk off of 2,601 rushing yards, 30 touchdowns and constant highlights from Jeanty last year, watching him run over teams while leading the Broncos to a Mountain West championship and the College Football Playoff.
On Thursday night, No. 25 BSU (0-1) got a painful reminder of just how hard it will be to replace such production. The Broncos rushed for only 122 yards — 31 of that came from quarterback Maddux Madsen — in a 34-7 loss to South Florida at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
Considering that Jeanty’s worst game last year was 104 yards, the running back tally of 93 yards against the Bulls was a shock to the system. The fewest rushing yards the Broncos managed in 2024 were 108 against Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl. For regular season games, that number was 170 against San Jose State.
“I’m not pleased in any part of how we played tonight in any phase,” Boise State coach Spencer Danielson said. “... We keep talking about last year — last year’s old news.”
Redshirt freshman Sire Gaines and sixth-year transfer Malik Sherrod entered the season shouldering the burden of replacing Jeanty, and neither will be pleased with their opening game.
Gaines rushed for 44 yards on nine carries and Sherrod had 27 yards on 11 rushes. Each guy also lost a fumble to end a promising drive.
On the team’s opening possession, Sherrod was flanked out and caught a pass before being rocked by a pair of South Florida defenders. The play itself contained a questionable no-call on targeting, but Sherrod lost the ball inside the USF 40-yard line, halting a scoring chance.
Gaines’ fumble came on what was already a red zone opportunity late in the second quarter, at the USF 15, preventing the Broncos from taking the lead or at least forging a 10-10 tie.
“The Broncos beat the Broncos tonight,” redshirt senior tight end Matt Lauter said. “We were driving down multiple times and we had turnovers in the red zone where we could have easily scored points.”
The fumbles weren’t the only problem area. Boise State turned the ball over three times on downs — four if you include a fumble by Madsen that would have resulted in a turnover on downs had it not been recovered by the Bulls. Two of those plays came on 4th-and-3 or less, one on 4th-and-5 and the final on 4th-and-7.
In recent years, especially in 3rd- or 4th-and-short situations, Boise State could trot out Jeanty and feel comfortable. On Thursday night, the Broncos called for passing plays on three straight short-yardage instances.
“I believe in the plan we had going into the game. We used the film we had to create a really good plan in all three phases, and it wasn’t what we needed to use,” Danielson said. “So we’re going to look at and see maybe some things we’ve missed, starting with me, and make sure we put our guys in the right situation.”
The first of those turnovers on downs, a 4th-and-2 on the USF 23-yard line early in the second half, didn’t even seem necessary. Boise State trailed 17-7 at the time, a two-score game, meaning a field goal would have made it 17-10.
The Broncos went for it, and Madsen threw an incompletion toward Gaines. Four plays later, USF took a 24-7 lead and the floodgates opened.
“It’s a two-score game, and if you’re in striking distance, you’ve got to find a way to get touchdowns,” Danielson said of the decision to forgo a field-goal try. “For me, going into a game with a plan every single time, if we’re in that 4th-and-3 range, I want to be on the attack.”
Last year the Broncos were 15-for-22 on fourth-down attempts. They were 2-for-6 in the loss Thursday.
This story was originally published August 28, 2025 at 9:47 PM.
