Boise State scored on each of its first three possessions in the Pac-12 opener, Dylan Riley from 5 yards, Riley again from 33, Maddux Madsen to Matt Wagner for 11, and had a 21-0 lead before Utah State did much of anything. Then Bronco Mendenhall went to the plan he had made before kickoff and sent McCae Hillstead onto the field on the Aggies' third drive, his first snaps since the Idaho State opener. Hillstead's pass was tipped, Jake Ripp returned it 21 yards for a touchdown, and it was 28-7 with 1:53 left in the half. The 37-18 loss dropped Utah State to 0-1 in Pac-12 play.
That rotation was supposed to be the week Aggie fans finally saw whether Hillstead, who had not played since the Idaho State opener, could run Robert Anae's offense. Instead, Hillstead's series ended with a tipped pass that Boise State intercepted and returned for a touchdown. Grady Brosterhous, meanwhile, went 12-of-18 for 129 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. It was the same clean, unspectacular football he has played all month. Mendenhall had already said after the Troy win that Brosterhous would remain the starter with Hillstead "available and battling" for reps. Boise was the chance to revisit that, and it argued the other way. The quarterback room is settled, and it is settled on the guy who does not give the ball away.
The other thing worth keeping from Boise is Javen Jacobs. Two weeks ago against Troy he carried 14 times for 84 yards and scored Utah State's first rushing touchdown of the season, which tells you how little the ground game had offered before that. At Boise he ran 10 times for 139 yards, his first career 100-yard game, and caught a 1-yard touchdown from Brosterhous. For the first time this year the Aggies have a back who can turn a first-down call into 30 yards, and that is the single most useful thing they can carry into Friday.
What has not improved is the defense. Utah State gave up 429 total yards to Boise State, 185 on the ground, 244 through the air. The Aggies did it without captain linebacker Harrison Taggart, their leading tackler, who left the Utah game two weeks ago in an ambulance with a neck injury and was one of seven players held out at Boise with no return timetable reported. He traveled anyway and called the pregame coin toss, which is not the same as filling a run fit. Mendenhall's own read on the day was blunt. "I haven't cracked that code. Frustrated and disappointed that, especially in a game that's contested and close, the emphasis is clearly not taking root."
Washington State, Friday night, Maverik Stadium
Utah State hosts Washington State on Friday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. MT on The CW Network. The model gives the Aggies a 44.5% chance at home, which is as close to a coin flip as this schedule offers them.
Two things make it matter more than a 1-4 team hosting a 1-4 team usually would. The five-game opening run, Idaho State, at Washington, at Utah, Troy, at Boise State, is finally done, and Washington State is the first of the remaining Pac-12 opponents to come to Logan. And the Cougars have never actually been here in the lifetime of anyone in the student section. Their only previous trip to Logan was a 46-6 win on Sept. 23, 1950, and because the inaugural Pac-12 round robin puts every member on the schedule once, this is the first time the two programs have met as conference opponents at all.
Washington State arrives in roughly the same condition Utah State is in, and arguably worse on offense. The Cougars lost their conference opener 26-6 at home to Fresno State, managing 182 total yards and 30 rushing yards without an offensive touchdown. Kirby Moore said afterward that a quarterback change is among the things his staff has to "re-evaluate" after Caden Pinnick's worst performance of the season, without committing to benching him. So Utah State gets the clearer situation at quarterback and the healthier identity on offense; what it does not get is any guarantee its defense will look different against a bad offense than it did against a good one. A team that just surrendered 429 yards to Boise State is exactly the sort of opponent a stalled passing game gets right against.
Pac-12 title talk is not the point in October. What is actually on the table Friday is a first Pac-12 win, at home, in a game the Aggies are good enough to lose by giving it away. Which is precisely what their head coach is worried about. Watch the first quarter. Boise State was up 21-0 before Utah State's offense had a possession worth describing; if Jacobs is getting 6 yards a crack and the defense makes Washington State punt twice early, this looks very different.
Full week details are in the interactive guide, and the forecasting approach is explained in the methodology.