With a handful of college football games taking place on Thursday night in Week 1, there was only one Top 25 team. That team was Boise State, taking on South Florida in Tampa at Raymond James Stadium. Unfortunately, the Boise State football team lost to South Florida, 34-7, in the Broncos' first game without superstar running back Ashton Jeanty.
While Boise State scored the first touchdown of the game, the Broncos were held scoreless after that and were no contest against the Bulls. Boise State quarterback Maddux Madsen threw for 225 yards with one touchdown, but three turnovers were a tough pill to swallow. Madsen had one and running backs Malik Sherrod and Sire Gaines each lost a fumble.
After the game, Boise State coach Spencer Danielson talked about those turnovers and gave a perfect analysis, via the Associated Press.
“Whoever wins the turnover margin and wins the explosive battle, it’s like 98% of the time you win the game — college or NFL,” Danielson said. “We were not explosive enough on offense. We’ve got to look and see why. ”
Turnovers always hurt a team, and three of them on the same night were too much for the Broncos to overcome.
Moreover, Danielson was honest about the complete performance of his team.
“We're way better than we played tonight,” Danielson said. “We got beat in all three phases.”
In 2024, Boise State won the Mountain West Conference, went 12-2, and made the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history, so there was a lot of buzz coming into this season, even without Jeanty.
But this Week 1 upset was not what anybody expected, especially with such a lopsided score. The good news is Boise State has an easier game coming up against Eastern Washington followed by Air Force and Appalachian State before a massive showdown against Notre Dame in South Bend.
