Boise State coach Spencer Danielson isn’t all that impressed that his No. 22 Broncos are ranked for the first time this season.
Danielson still remembers his team getting shellacked last season and wants his players focused on defeating visiting Utah State when the teams meet Saturday night in their first Pac-12 contests in the rebuilt conference.
Boise State opened last season as the No. 25 team in the country and didn’t come close to living up to that billing as host South Florida thrashed the Broncos 34-7.
“I said, ‘The only rankings that matter are the rankings at the end of the season,’ ” Danielson said Monday of what he told his team. “The last time we were ranked, which was last season, it did not go well.”
What being ranked does is it puts the Broncos (3-1) in the pole position for the Group of Six spot in the College Football Playoff.
Danielson hears the chatter, but he refuses to get caught up in the off-the-field matters. Boise State is coming off a solid 32-7 road victory over Western Michigan and he wants to see more improvement.
“There’s a lot of outside noise, and it does not stinking matter,” Danielson said. “How do we work? How do we practice? How do we prep? And especially, we go into Pac-12 play now, man. We’ve got a great Utah State team coming to town.”
Utah State (1-3), which is coming off a 21-10 home victory over Troy, is just 3-59 on the road all-time against AP Top 25 teams.
The Aggies also haven’t fared well in the series against the Broncos. Boise State has won 22 of the past 23 meetings and holds a 25-5 edge.
Last season, Utah State had the visiting Broncos on the ropes with a 24-13 lead in the third quarter.
But Boise State scored 12 unanswered points to nab a one-point victory.
Utah State coach Bronco Mendenhall is leaving that close call in the rearview mirror. He said being in the Pac-12 is a big opportunity for the Aggies.
“One of the coolest things about being part of a conference is the goal for every team is to win the conference championship,” Mendenhall said Monday. “And really that starts Saturday.”
Quarterback Grady Brosterhous emerged with a strong second-half showing in which he completed 12 of 14 passes for 149 yards against Troy. He finished with career highs of 242 yards in the air and 89 on the ground.
Brosterhous has thrown for 635 yards and four touchdowns but has been picked off six times. He leads Utah State with 222 rushing yards.
“I think Grady just continues to get more confident and more poised, and performs at a higher level,” Mendenhall said. “His decision making is increasing and his accuracy has improved.”
Standout safety Brevin Hamblin intercepted a pass against Troy and had a season-best 12 tackles for his 11th career double-digit output. He leads Utah State with 31 tackles.
Boise State quarterback Maddux Madsen has passed for 814 yards, nine touchdowns and no interceptions. In his career, he has thrown just 18 interceptions on 945 passes and his .019 pick rate is third best in school history behind legend Kellen Moore (.017) and Brett Rypien (0.18).
Madsen also ranks sixth in program history with 59 passing touchdowns and seventh with 7,400 passing yards.
“We’re going to hold ‘Mad Dog’ to very high standards, as we should,” Danielson said. “But he’s a relentless competitor, he makes the throws, he leads our team.”
Broncos running back Dylan Riley has the third-most rushing yards (592) in the nation.
