Unable to deliver in the rain, Boise State falls 17-7 to San Diego State
Yes, it rained — very hard at times.
And yes, it made the field a little soggy and slippery.
And yes, Boise State had backup quarterback Max Cutforth, a redshirt sophomore and former walk-on, making his first collegiate start.
But what the Broncos and San Diego State served up Saturday night at Snapdragon Stadium — with first place in the Mountain West on the line — was something straight out of Woody Hayes’ dreams.
And it was pretty much a nightmare for Boise State.
In a game that featured 49 combined passing yards from the teams before the Broncos went into hurry-up desperation mode on their final possession, the Aztecs (8-2, 5-1) ground out a 17-7 victory to seize control of the conference race.
Boise State (6-4, 4-2) lost its second straight game and fell into a second-place logjam in the Mountain West with Hawaii (7-3, 4-2), New Mexico (7-3, 4-2), UNLV (8-2, 4-2) and Fresno State (7-3, 4-2).
The Broncos punted the first four times they had the ball and on their first three drives of the second half. On their final possession they opened up the offense out of necessity, and Cutforth threw for 72 yards against a prevent defense. Colton Boomer then missed a 41-yard field-goal try that could have made it 17-10 and set up an onside kick opportunity.
Instead, the Aztecs took three knees, ran out the clock and celebrated a win in which they scored 17 points — and had 17 passing yards.
“We knew going in this was going to be an absolute slugfest,” BSU coach Spencer Danielson said. “ ... We’ve got to be more explosive on offense. We’ve got to score more points.”
San Diego State got the victory on the legs of running backs Lucky Sutton and Christian Washington, who provided enough offense to stake the Aztecs to a 14-7 halftime lead that was really all the scoring they’d need.
Sutton finished with 150 yards rushing on 25 carries, and Washington provided the explosive plays, finishing with 98 yards on just nine runs. Washington had runs of 41 and 26 yards in the first half, and Sutton had a 27-yard run, as they led touchdown drives of 80 and 71 yards in the second quarter.
Quarterback Jayden Denegal rushed for both of San Diego State’s TDs, on carries of 1 and 8 yards. The Aztecs were content to run the ball and dare the Broncos to stop them — they finished with 277 yards on 46 carries — and Denegal wound up completing just 6 of 10 passes for 17 yards. He had minus-5 yards passing at halftime.
Rain came down in sheets much of the first half, and for a while, it looked as if the teams might set a new record for punts in a game. There were a whopping seven of them in the first quarter — four for the Broncos and three for the Aztecs.
Boise State finally got a scoring drive together in the second quarter behind Sire Gaines and Dylan Riley, who ignited a 14-play, 75-yard TD drive in the second quarter that was capped by Riley’s 9-yard touchdown run and tied the game at 7-7.
Gaines had 65 yards on nine carries in the first half, and Riley 57 yards on 15 carries, but they got bottled up after halftime. Riley finished with 79 yards and Gaines 78.
”We need to run the football. San Diego State threw for 25 yards, and beat us 17-7,” Danielson said. “So we knew going in with those elements, throwing the football is tough. Obviously, we had to later in the game, it got a little bit drier late in the game, so we could.”
Starting in place of the injured Maddux Madsen, Cutforth finished 12-for-18 for 104 yards after throwing for only 13 yards in the first half. Prior to that final drive, he had just 32 yards while spending almost the entire game handing the ball off. The Broncos had 41 rushing attempts that gained 161 yards.
This story was originally published November 15, 2025 at 8:21 PM.
