Iâm not sold on Bryan Harsin and this Boise State team that was supposed to take off this year looks very average again compared to the teams Chris Peterson had. They have a co-offensive coordiatnors which it does not take a genius to know that having two people in one leadership role is challenging. You donât have two managers when you go into work on Monday do you? No and there is a reason for that. Defensively Boise State has been excellent against the run, but they were the last two years going into this game and New Mexico put up 700 rushing yards and upset Boise State as a 30.5 point under dog.
Marcel Yates is now the defensive coordinator at Arizona so perhaps he just was not good at coaching up thekids against the triple option, but the last 8 games Boise State has faced the triple option (New Mexico & Air Force) they are 0-8 ATS. Enter Andy Avalos who was helping Yates as the linebacker coach the last few years. So it was basically his job to teach these linebackers who to stay in their gaps and defend this triple option. He did an awful job and I donât anticipate anything changing here because of it. Avalos is very young, graduated in 2004 and lacks the experience to make a difference in this one, and Bryan Harsin has been a head coach just 4 short years and is an offensive minded guy.
Speaking of the offense Boise is not where everyone thought they would be. They have faced 1 top 50 defense in Utah State and only scored 21 points. Brett Rypien was supposed to be a dark horse Heisman candidate by someoneâs calculation and heâs got just 6 TDâs 3 INTâs with a 58.6% completion rate. Sure Boise State may have this game circled for revenge although doubtful. They had revenge against Utah State last week at home and did not cover the spread winning 21-10.
