Boise State Broncos (1-0 SU, 0-1 ATS) vs. BYU Cougars (1-0 SU, 1-0 ATS)
College Football Week 2
Date/Time: Saturday, September 12, 2015 at 10:15PM EST
Where: LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo, Utah
TV: ESPN 2
By Loot, NCAA Football Handicapper, Lootmeister.com
Point Spread: BSU -2.5/BYU +2.5
Over/Under Total: 55
The Boise State Broncos make the trip to Provo to face the BYU Cougars at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday. Each team won their first game of the season. Boise State opened at home last Thursday with a 16-13 win over Washington. BYU, meanwhile, scored one of the more pulsating opening wins in years, when a hail-Mary pass found its mark with time running out to give BYU a 33-28 road win over Nebraska. It was the kind of win that can galvanize a team, but alas, not all news was good for the Cougars as they head into this matchup.
During the game, Brigham Young University lost Taysom Hill, their starting quarterback. It's a mighty blow to the team, but one they're used to, with this being the third time they've lost their star QB for the year. And without Hill, they still managed to stage the miraculous comeback, when fill-in quarterback Tanner Mangum connected with Mitch Mathews on an unlikely connection to win the game. The BYU sidelines went nuts. And coach Bronco Mendenhall used it as a galvanizing moment with a lot of emotion, knowing this bunch may need to play over their head as they move forward without Hill.
STOP WASTING YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY! STOP LAYING -110 ODDS! START LAYING ONLY -105 TODAY AT THE WEB'S BEST SPORTSBOOK: 5DIMES
Mangum was playing in his first organized game since 2012. Just two months off of his LDS mission, he was thrown into the lion's den in Lincoln, helping Brigham Young break Nebraska's 29-year home-opener win streak. He looked a bit unsteady and rickety at times, but came through when needed. And as he moves forward, he will benefit from a really good passing game, packed with big-bodied receivers like Mathews that use the whole field and make it difficult for opposing defenses. After 3 wins last year over teams from power five conferences, they got another one this year, as the program looks to take that next step up the ranks. Mangum was actually a highly-recruited quarterback out of high school.
It's a little difficult to determine how to process BYU's win on Saturday. Just the sheer emotion of it had to do something positive for this team. But it came at such a cost. Hill is gone for the year. Key defenders were pulled out of the game with injuries, such as monster defensive end Travis Tuiloma, who would also be a big loss. And they're still without top back Jamaal Williams. But again, a team that has shown an ability to play through major personnel losses before can more easily do it again. One should be very hesitant in shoveling dirt on the Cougars at this point.
A win is a win, but Boise State's season-opening victory over Washington was a bit disappointing. Against a rebuilding Huskies team, they started well enough, getting off to a 16-0 halftime lead. The defense was playing really well, while the offense was deliberately moving the ball. But then they stagnated, not scoring any points for the duration of the game and fortunate that Washington didn't make more of it. Quarterback Ryan Finley was a lukewarm 16-for-26 with 129 yards and a pick. Running backs Jeremy McNichols and Kelsey Young were bottled up for most of the evening. In a way, it was a tale of two halves—one that made them look pretty good and one that painted them as a team that has a really long way to go.
Finley should get better behind center for the Broncos. He offered a glimpse of what could be to come, including a mobile set of legs, something Boise has lacked in recent years at the QB position. But his inability to get much of anything going in the second half against a Washington team that may not be very good was alarming. It was also disconcerting to see the defense increasingly melt as the game carried on into its late stages. After all, much of the offseason talk about Boise seemed to indicate that this would perhaps be the best Bronco team of the post-Kellen Moore era. And in that context, it was a far from convincing performance and they easily could have lost.
Brigham Young has a lot of moxie and had an infinitely more-promising opening week showing than Boise St. But without Williams and Hill, a huge part of the BYU offense is now out of commission. It's hard to see where they're going to get ground production from. And while Mangum showed he can commandeer this group capably, it's one thing to be unexpectedly thrown into action and thrive off of sheer adrenaline, but how will he be now that he has time to think about it? After all, Boise State's "D" is a pretty tough entrance exam for a quarterback who hasn't started a game in 3 years. A few months ago, he was in South America doing mission work for the church. And while it's a good story, I think the overall lack of versatility in their offense will cost them this week.
Loot's Pick to Cover the Point Spread: I'm betting on the Boise State University Broncos minus 2.5 points. Bet this game for FREE by taking advantage of a massive 100% sign-up bonus on your first deposit of $100 to $500 at GTBets!
