Boise State’s special teams woes ‘kill’ their coach. He’s working on fixes
Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson said Thursday morning that the special teams issues for the Broncos “kill” the man who serves as those units’ coordinator, Stacy Collins.
The Broncos’ special teams have been under scrutiny going back to last season, when they gave up a lot of explosive plays, starting with the tough loss to Oregon, and threw away significant gains due to penalties. It led to plenty of attention being paid to those units at the end of the regular season and again during spring practice this year.
The latest gaffe came Saturday in the Broncos’ 41-25 win over New Mexico, when the Lobos’ Damon Bankston had a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. There also was a bobbled snap on a field-goal try, but that turned to gold when holder Oscar Doyle and blocker Troy Grizzle teamed up for a miraculous touchdown.
“Giving up a play like we did Saturday night kills him,” Danielson said of the kick return. “And it hurts my heart seeing someone I care about, who puts so much into something, for it not to go the way we want to. And so we’re actively working to find ways to get it better.”
Collins is no stranger to the college game, having coached exclusively in college football since way back in 1998. He first joined Boise State as the special teams coordinator in 2021, and then left to spend two seasons at Penn State. He returned to Boise in 2024.
Through six games this season, the Broncos rank in the triple digits with all four primary special teams units, out of 134 programs:
- Punt return - 105th (6 yards per return)
- Punt return defense - 128th (17.8 yards per return)
- Kickoff return - 127th (14.3 yards per return)
- Kickoff return defense - 132nd (37.5 yards per return)
Collins spoke to the media for the first time since Sept. 3 on Thursday about the struggles, and there was one key term spoken several times: consistency.
“We’ve got to be more consistent,” Collins said. “We’ve got to eliminate explosive plays, I think that’s the biggest thing.”
How does Boise State actually go about achieving that? Collins broke down several areas where he’d like to see improvement, and the kickoff return for a TD last weekend for New Mexico is a solid place to start.
Danielson said after the game that he thought the return happened because the Broncos thought the play would be blown dead for a touchback. However, that still doesn’t entirely explain how New Mexico’s Damon Bankston was able to take the ball about 30 yards across and down the field before cutting to the left sideline at the perfect time to outrun everyone in space.
“There are some fit issues off of (the play), they overloaded the field side,” Collins said. “... We’ve got to get our numbers right to the field side. We’ve got to make sure we’re avoiding off of blocks, make sure we’re setting edges the right way, and we’re putting the cap on it. And then we can’t miss tackles.”
Collins also addressed the team’s issues when it has punt and kick returns. The team made it a priority to be more explosive this year, but that has not materialized.
The Broncos were high on sixth-year transfer Malik Sherrod from Fresno State, who was expected to take the team’s return game to the next level. However, he’s returned just seven kickoffs for an average of 17.5 yards, with a season long of 23, and five punts for 30 yards, with a best of 16.
Collins said part of the issue with punt returns is a lack of returnable punts. However, on kick returns, he said the Broncos need to do a better job of creating seams in the coverage.
“I can sit here and say we’re close, and you can watch the tape and we’re close, but that doesn’t really matter,” Collins said. “We’ve got to be able to get that momentum.”
Boise State also has seen change in its kicking game. After the graduation of five-year starter Jonah Dalmas, redshirt junior transfer Colton Boomer entered the season as the presumptive starting kicker. He missed his first goal attempt of the season and also had an extra-point try blocked in the game against Eastern Washington.
That allowed for freshman Canaan Moore to take the field, and he also missed a field goal the same game.
Those misses came after a fall camp during which Boise State expressed concern about the kicking game and didn’t really have a true starter. It didn’t help that Boomer also was dealing with an injury.
Boomer has made all four field-goal tries since the Eastern Washington game, including a 50-yarder in the wind and rain against New Mexico last weekend.
“I think sometimes we all go through slumps, we all go through some hard times,” Collins said. “And I give Colton credit, he refocused himself.”
Boise State vs. UNLV
- When: 1:30 p.m. Saturday
- Where: Albertsons Stadium (33,000, turf)
- TV: FS1 (Dan Hellie, Petros Papadakis)
- Radio: KBOI 670 AM/KTIK 93.1 FM (Bob Behler, Pete Cavender)
- Records: Boise State 4-2, 2-0 Mountain West; UNLV 6-0, 2-0
- Series: Boise State leads the series 11-3
- Vegas betting line: Boise State by 12.5
- Weather: 64 degrees, sunny, 4% chance of rain
