BOISE, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — The Boise State Broncos football team wrapped their 15 allocated spring practices with the annual spring game on Saturday afternoon, and even though the season is still four and a half months away you could feel the excitement in the air from players, fans and coaches.
The excitement started well before the game as Ashton Jeanty’s Heisman campaign kicked off with some shirts for fans which read “Hei2man.” Some of these fans entered the stadium immediately as the gates were open just to get a glimpse of these Broncos, who were also just as excited to see the fans.
“It feels great [to be back]. When I was walking out, I was like man I miss gameday so much. But it felt good out there seeing Bronco nation out there. Music going, we on the Blue. It just gets you fired up; it gets you fired up and ready to go,” said sophomore wide receiver Prince Strachan.
The offense did come out ready to go as USC transfer and quarterback Malachi Nelson came out slinging as he led two touchdowns drives after entering the game, however from there the defense took over with five straight stops in the first half in addition to winning the lockout game in the third quarter to put the game all but out of reach.
“The beautiful thing about football is that it’s black and white. You are what you put on film. Not what you tweet about, not who you want to be, you are what you put on film and there was a lot of good stuff on either side of the ball,” said Boise State first-year head coach Spencer Danielson.
The defense really shined in the spring game outside of a few big plays by the offense early with a multitude of three and outs and sacks to gather most of their points, but maybe their biggest play of the game was an interception by Gabe Hunter, which was returned for 33 yards.
The offense looked best when being run by Malachi Nelson despite him only being on campus for four and a half months. Nelson finished with the top quarterback statline going 9-16 for 137 yards and touchdown.
Redshirt junior quarterback Colt Fulton had a solid afternoon as well going 7-12 for 50 yards and no turnovers. With spring practices now complete the Broncos shift focus to summer and keeping healthy.
“It feels like it was a successful spring, nobody really got too banged up out there and everybody is just smiling faces and I feel like we got better this spring as a team and as a unit. Competition was high and that’s all we can ask for,” said redshirt junior linebacker Andrew Simpson.
Injuries did stay away during spring practice, however after scoring a touchdown in the first quarter of the spring game Ashton Jeanty came up holding his hamstring, but Coach Danielson said after the game it was just a tweak and they held him out the rest of the day as a precaution, but there were plenty of reinforcements in a game like today.
“In a spring game like this everyone plays. I want everybody to have film so when I meet with them next week, it’s very clear. This is where you are, this is where we need to grow you too. From seniors who have been here to guys that just got on campus a couple of months ago,” Danielson said.
Team Orange ended up taking the 2024 Boise State spring game over Team White 47-29 and there is still an entire summer for the offensive and defensive players to get ready and improve ahead of the first game on August 31.
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2024-04-21 05:03:00
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