Boise State Broncos

Record last season: 9-4

Three things to remember from last season:

TRIPLE OPTION! PANIC! Boise had no clue how to stop the triple-option last season and as a result, they fell to both Air Force and New Mexico (both teams, by the way, have been a constant pain in their ass since the Broncos joined the conference). Outside of a revenge loss to Utah State and a Tanner Mangum heart-breaking Hail-Mary loss to BYU, the Broncos destroyed teams offensively and held their own on the defense.

Brett Rypien burned a redshirt…and did pretty well! It was a constant argument last preseason: should the true freshman start or is Ryan Finley the guy? Well, Finley went down with a nasty injury and so Harsin made the ultimate decision to start Rypien. It worked out very well for the Broncos, and now they hope he won’t leave early.

This offense was pretty darn good: Rypien, Jeremy McNichols, Thomas Sperbeck and Shane Williams-Rhodes were all part of an extremely potent offense that put up 40+ seven times last season. They could score at will and often times looked like the “Boise of old.”

Three questions going forward:

Another NY6 bowl in the making? There’s some questions that need to be answered, especially on defense, but if the Broncos continue their trend of reloading, this should be a team that will contend for the MWC title and possibly yet another New Year’s Bowl.

How many coaches can Boise lose before the benefit of the doubt leaves them? This is a question that Bronco fans never want to hear, but given the fact that Boise State has lost/replaced at least one coordinator/coach every year for the last 10 years, it would be nearly impossible to keep that string of good luck up, right? Oh wait…

Can they solve the triple-option nightmare? They absolutely have to, because if they don’t, the Broncos might not go to a MWC championship game for a long time…which of course is perfectly fine for the rest of the conference.

2016 season prediction: 12-0 (8-0 MWC)

Is it a bold prediction? You decide, but with a favorable non-conference that’s decently strong (Washington State, Oregon State, BYU, UL Lafayette), it’s easy to see why the Broncos should have no issues with conference play. This will set up nicely for a great championship game, and if we truly get our wish, we can see a championship game of two undefeated teams!