Bouncing back big, Boise State routs Eastern Washington. ‘It felt good.’
The blue turf, the bright orange-and-blue uniforms, an overmatched red-and-white-clad opponent, some gray Idaho wildfire smoke in the air — it all led to Boise State painting a much different picture in the second week of the college football season.
Coming off an embarrassing opening-game loss at South Florida — which led to coach Spencer Danielson’s questioning of the team’s effort — the Broncos brought a fever-pitched energy to Friday night’s home opener against FCS foe Eastern Washington and rolled to a 51-14 victory.
Boise State (1-1) needed only 24 plays to put together its first five touchdown drives, and then had a 12-play, 90-yard TD march on its sixth. The Broncos used big play after big play to amass a silly-sounding 637 yards of offense and consistently thrill the Albertsons Stadium crowd of 32,887 — officially the ninth home sellout in a row.
“Bronco Nation, which we all knew they would, showed up and showed out tonight,” Danielson said after the win. “I mean, that atmosphere in that stadium was electric, and I know it’ll continue to even build as we go through the season.”
If the offense continues to be electric, the fans might get overexcited. The strong output Friday night involved a variety of players and highlights, and included five passing plays of at least 20 yards and six runs of at least 20.
- Quarterback Maddux Madsen accounted for 342 total yards and three touchdowns, and completed 16-of-26 passes for 307 yards.
- Wide receiver Ben Ford had a 60-yard TD catch and a 6-yard scoring reception.
- Running backs Sire Gaines and Malik Sherrod each scored in the first quarter and broke off impressive runs, and combined for 140 yards on the ground.
- WR Cameron Bates had a 20-yard TD on an end around.
- WR Chris Marshall had 132 yards on just four catches, and an impressive 81 of those yards came after the catch.
- Backup RB Dylan Riley had a 77-yard TD run to cap the scoring, giving him 123 yards on just six carries.
The Broncos began the game with a statement: running plays of 46, 9 and 20 yards that gave them a 6-0 lead with barely a minute played. (The extra point was blocked.) Gaines was responsible for the big first run, and Sherrod the next two, which included a great cutback to juke a defender on the scoring play.
Eastern Washington’s first drive ended when defensive back Jaden Mickey ripped the ball out of a receiver’s hands for a fumble recovery. Six plays later, Gaines scooted into the end zone from 8 yards out and it was 13-0.
The next score was a quick strike, with Madsen hitting Ford on the 60-yard connection, making it 20-0 before the first quarter was over and leaving Boise State’s Big Sky opponent reeling.
Madsen later had an 11-yard TD run to counter the Eagles’ lone first-half scoring drive, which covered 72 yards in 10 plays. He then connected with Marshall on a 37-yard gain on the first play of the Broncos’ final drive of the half, which ended with a 35-yard field goal from true freshman Canaan Moore that made the score 30-7.
Boise State wanted to get its rushing attack rolling one week after gaining just 122 yards and averaging 3.2 yards per carry in the loss to USF. The Broncos ran for 155 first-half yards on 18 carries against the Eagles (0-2), and finished the game with 328 yards and an average of 8.4 per run.
In addition to Riley’s output, Gaines had 98 yards on 14 carries, and Sherrod had 42 yards on just seven rushes.
Defensively, Boise State forced two turnovers and had seven tackles for loss, and allowed points on only two of 14 possessions.
“It felt good getting back to doing what we do best — you know, playing as a team, as one unit, not offense and defense, just one unit, a team,” said safety Ty Benefield, who led the Broncos with nine tackles, including three for losses.
This story was originally published September 5, 2025 at 6:38 PM.
