Boise State vs University of Hawaii

#14 Boise State University (-12.5) vs University of Hawai’i

Date: Saturday, October 12, 2019

Time: 8:15MT

Stadium: Albertson’s “Bronco” Stadium (36,382)

TV: ESPN 2

Know Thy Enemy

In 1923 when the Hawaii fighting “Deans” upset the mighty Beavers of Oregon State in the last game of the season, a rainbow arched over the stadium. Local newspaper writers nicknamed the UH teams the “Rainbows” and the tradition was born that Hawaii could not lose if the rainbow appeared. University of Hawaii is now known as the Rainbow Warriors and they are the next foe to come to The Blue and face the undefeated Broncos. Hawaii (4-1, 1-0), under the direction of head coach Nick Rolovich, who is in his fourth season has brought new energy and life, with his “Live Aloha, Play Warrior,” mentality to a once proud program. Rolovich, a former quarterback for the ‘Bows, has brought a true resurgence of the once iconic Run-and-Shoot style offense made famous by Norm Chow. Rolovich has his team really humming this season, partly due to the play of his starting quarterback Cole McDonald. McDonald is the leader of an offensive attack that is averaging over 70 plays per game, with 43 of those plays being passing attempts. McDonald is in the top three in the country in passing yards and passing touchdowns. Throwing the ball at the rate of 43 attempts per game does come with some risk, as McDonald is also leading the nation in interceptions thrown with nine. McDonald has plenty of targets to throw to as well, with 12 different Rainbow Warriors catching a pass on the season. Cedric Byrd, JoJo Ward, Jared Smart, and Jason-Matthew Sharh are the four main receivers who have all caught over 27 passes on the year. Cedric Byrd seems to be McDonald go-to target with his 40 catches and 9 touchdowns on the season.

Hawaii’s defense has been the weakness of the Warriors in 2019, but after holding Nevada to only 3 points, they look like they might have turned the corner. Defensive Coordinator Cory Batoon returns nine starters to his defense in 2019. The defensive line has good size and a lot of experience, and defensive end Kaimana Padello is a star. The linebacking unit brings back Solomon Matautia and the secondary returns a bunch of starters including a pair of safeties and excellent defensive backs.

Boise State and Hawaii have played 15 times in school history. Boise State leads the series 12-3 and have won six games in a row. Coach Harsin is 2-0 against the Warriors with an average score of 53-8. The Broncos have never lost to Hawaii when playing in Boise.

What Happened Last Year in 2016

Due to the rotating schedule, Boise State and Hawaii have not met on the gridiron since 2016.

In early November, the No.24 Boise State Broncos traveled to the Islands to take on the Rainbow Warriors. There was no sign of jet lag as the Broncos scored early and often en route to a 52-16 victory. The Broncos were led by sophomore quarterback Brett Rypien with his 338 yards passing and four touchdowns. Boise State jumped out to a commanding 28-0 lead in the second quarter and a 35-3 lead at the break. The Broncos would end up scoring touchdowns on 6 of their first 7 possessions. Boise State’s running back Jeremy McNichols also had a productive game, rushing for 153 yards and two touchdowns.

Boise State’s defense was led by linebacker Tanner Vallejo with eight Tackles. Safety Chancellor James had an interception and defensive end Durant Miles recovered a fumble. The Broncos held Hawaii to just 16 points, which was their third lowest output on the season and their lowest output at home.

Players to Watch

Hawai’i

Rs.JR., Cole McDonald, QB #6

“C-Money” is the key cog that makes the Hawaii offense go. When he plays well, Hawaii wins, when he doesn’t, they lose. In the first five games McDonald has passed for 17 touchdowns and nine interceptions. In the first three games of the season, McDonald threw for 7 interceptions, but since then has only thrown one. Last week against Nevada McDonald was 25 of 30 with four touchdowns and zero interceptions. The Broncos will need to pressure the quarterback and not allow him to sit back in the pocket and pick apart the defense.

SR., Cedric Byrd II, WR #6

The Senior from Los Angeles has been catching passes for the Rainbow Warriors the past two seasons. Cedric is on an offensive rampage this season with this 40 receptions for close to 500 yards and 9 touchdowns. Byrd scored three touchdowns last week against Nevada and has two games this season with three or more touchdown receptions. Byrd has caught at least six passes in every game this season, with a season high of 14 catches in the first game of the season against Arizona. Needless to say, Byrd is McDonald’s top target. Look for Boise State to make sure Byrd is accounted for this week.

Rs.SR., Jason-Matthew Sharsh, WR #3

If Byrd wasn’t enough, the Warriors have yet another receiver who is just as good as Byrd. Jason-Matthew Sharsh, a Senior out of Honolulu, has been one of the Warriors top three receivers this year. Sharsh had a huge game against Nevada, catching 9 passes for 123 yards and a touchdown. A lot of receivers will catch passes this week for the ‘Bows, but Sharsh and Byrd will be the Broncos top priorities.

Boise State

JR., Benton Wickersham, MLB #25

Wickersham was thrust into a starting role just a week ago against UNLV and all he did was produce. Wickersham, a junior from Elko, Nevada, lead the team last week with seven tackles. The former walk-on is just another in the long line of Broncos players that came to Boise State with hopes of getting playing time to then become a star and fan favorite. This week Wickersham will be called upon to make solo tackles and defend against crossing receivers, which is a key component of the Warrior offense.

JR., Kekaula Kaniho, Nickel #28

Kaniho, a native of Hawaii, has some extra motivation coming into Saturday’s matchup. Growing up just an hour from campus, Kaniho’s family has always been fans of the Rainbow Warriors. Kaniho has been a playmaker his entire career at Boise State as well as in high school. This year Kaniho has made 22 tackles, 7 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, forced one fumble, and has intercepted a pass.  Kaniho was asked who his family would be rooting for this week and he said, “They will definitely be rooting for Hawaii to win, but for me to do well personally.”

FR., George Holani, RB # 24

 Holani, a freshman from Bellflower, California, has quietly been having a very productive year for the Broncos. Holani is averaging 5.3 yards per carry and has had three games this season where he has rushed for over 70 yards, with his season high of 103 yards coming against Marshall. The one thing that Holani has yet to do this season is to find the end zone. Look for Holani to finally hit pay dirt this week against Hawaii.

Focus Position Group: Defensive Secondary

Corners and Safeties love playing teams that pass the ball. They also love to play man-to-man, and win the one-on-one battles. This week the secondary will need to be up to the challenge of stopping a team that loves to pass the ball an average of 43 times per game which is top 5 in the country. Hawaii also likes to line up in multiple receiver sets and will feature four or five receivers at one time. With formations like that Boise State’s defenders will be forced to play one-on-one against Rainbow Warrior receivers. The secondary should be at full strength this week with Coach Harsin saying safety DeAndre Pierce will be back in action this week.

Rev's Route to a Bronco Win

1. Second Quarter Scoring

In Hawaii’s four wins on the season they have scored at least 14 points in the second quarter of each game. In their one loss they only scored 7. Last week against Nevada they exploded for 24 points in the second quarter. Boise State will need to not let Hawaii get settled in that second quarter. Boise State has only allowed 27 points all season in the second quarter and has never allowed more than 10 points in that quarter. Boise State has only trailed once this season at halftime.

2. Keep the Laundry In the Locker Room

Last week Boise State committed 10 penalties for over 130 yards. One of those penalties took points directly off the board on a John Hightower kickoff return for touchdown that was called back for a holding call. Many others were due to undisciplined, selfish play. Boise State was able to overcome these penalties largely due to the fact that their opponent was unable to take advantage of them. This week will not be the case with a quality team in Hawaii. Boise State will need to clean up some of their mistakes and not shoot themselves in the foot.

Let’s face it, Boise State hasn’t been able to really establish a traditional running attack this season. There have been flashes of production, but not in the way that shows they control the line of scrimmage. Last week the Broncos tried running the ball in some non-traditional ways, with end around and jet sweeps to their receivers for more outside run plays. Each week opponents are looking to stop the run at all costs and force the true freshman quarterback to beat them. To this point Bachmeier has answered the bell. Boise State will need to continue to be creative in play calling to allow the offense to move the ball down the field without relying on Bachmeier to do it all, even if it seems like he could.

Editorial Note:

At the beginning of the season, few thought the 2019 homecoming game would be as intriguing as it has turned out to be. Hawaii is starting 4-1 for the second consecutive year and is leading the Mountain West in scoring. Hawaii’s run-and-shoot offense seems impossible to stop with receivers running routes based on the defense. However, there is always a way to stop an offense and the way to stop Hawaii is with a good pass rush. Boise State has proven to have one of if not the best pass rusher in all of the Mountain West with Curtis Weaver. Weaver broke the all-time Mountain West career sack record (29.5) with his three sacks last week. Weaver now is just 2.5 shy of becoming the second all-time leader in sacks in Boise State history and still is in the hunt of breaking Chris Wing’s single season record of 20.0 sacks with at least 7 and as many as 9 games left in the season. All that to say, this game seems scary on paper, but with the history of the Warriors lack of success on the main land I think the Broncos take care of business

McDonald throws two picks, the Broncos get 5 sacks and Boise State cruises to a cool 6-0

Boise State 38, Hawaii 24