UCLA Football Preview: Boise State's Danielson Hasn't Lost a Game Since Taking Over the Broncos
The Broncos look to be sound on special teams, too.
Having reset the UCLA football roster and depth chart for Saturday’s LA Bowl game, let’s turn our attention to the Boise State Broncos.
The Broncos started out the 2023 season under the guidance of Andy Avalos. By most measures, Avalos’ tenure at Boise State seems to have been positive. In his first season, he led the Broncos to a 7-5 mark and he followed that with a 10-4 season which included a second place finish in the Mountain West last year.
This season, Boise State began the season by getting thrashed by Washington, the undefeated Pac-12 champs and a CFP team. After that loss, the Broncos went 5-4 under Avalos. Those four losses were by a grand total of just 13 points.
They lost to Central Florida by two, 18-16. After wins over North Dakota and San Diego State, the Broncos lost to Memphis by three, 35-32. Following a win over San José State, Boise State lost to Colorado State by a point, 31-30. A 32-7 win over Wyoming was followed by a 37-30 loss to Fresno State. After the Broncos crushed New Mexico by a score of 42-14, Avalos was fired.
It’s a story UCLA Athletic Director Martin Jarmond should familiarize himself with. If a 5-5 record is good enough for Boise State’s AD to fire his head coach, how is that Chip Kelly still has a job in Westwood? But I digress.
Spencer Danielson was appointed as the interim head coach and, three wins and a Mountain West championship later, he had the interim tag removed, making him the 12th head coach in Boise State’s history as a four-year institution.
As a first-time head coach, Danielson, who is just 35 years old, is undefeated since taking over for Avalos. Prior to becoming head coach, he worked up the ranks with the Broncos. He joined the coaching staff as a graduate assistant in 2017 after spending four years as a coach at Azusa Pacific. He became the “STUD ends” coach in 2018 and was promoted to co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach the following season. In 2021, he was promoted again. This time, he became the team’s defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach until being named the interim head coach on November 12th.
Danielson brings with a team which has been scoring an average of 38.7 points per game while the defense has been allowing just 16.3 points per game. Since taking over as head coach, he has continued to call the defense for the Broncos, but just today, the school announced that defensive line coach Erik Chinander will be promoted to defensive coordinator after Saturday’s game.
The Broncos’ offensive coordinator is Bush Hamdan. Hamdan played quarterback at Boise State from 2004 to 2008 under Chris Petersen. He went into coaching immediately after his playing career was over and bounced around until re-joining Petersen at Washington as an offensive quality control analyst in 2015. He was promoted to wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator the following year and he was hired as the quarterbacks coach for the Atlanta Falcons for the 2017 season. in 2018, he returned to the Huskies as the team’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, but was fired after Petersen stepped down at the end of the 2019 season. In 2020, he was hired by Eli Drinkwitz as Missouri’s wide receivers and quarterbacks coach. He left Missouri to become Boise State’s offensive coordinator last December and it was announced that he will be retained by Danielson for next season.
That seems to be well-deserved considering that the Broncos have scored at least 27 points in their last eleven games and were only held below 20 points in the first two games of the season.
Let’s look at the Broncos’ special teams.
Special Teams
Senior kicker Jonah Dalmas will handle the kicking duties for the Broncos on Saturday. Dalmas has been a very good college kicker this season. He’s 21-of-24 (87.5%) on field goal attempts and he’s made 47-of-48 PATs. He’s also kicked off 83 times with 41 of his kickoffs going for touchbacks. He averages 61.3 yards per kickoff and only two of his kickoffs have gone out of bounds.
Meanwhile, punter James Ferguson-Reynolds has performed well too. The native of Australia has punted 51 times with 26 of his punts going for more than 50 yards and he is averaging 49.6 yards per punt this season. Only eight of his punts have gone for touchbacks and just five have been fair catches. His longest punt of the year went for 71 yards and 22 of his punts have landed inside the 20-yard line.
Redshirt sophomore running back Kaden Dudley has been the Broncos’ primary kickoff returner this season. He’s returned 20 kickoffs for an average of 20.25 yards. His longest return went for 49 yards. Cole Wright, Chase Penry and Troy Wilkey have all returned two kickoffs each.
Sixth-year receiver Stefan Cobbs has returned half of Boise State’s eight punt returns this season. His longest punt return went for just 14 yards and that’s the Broncos’ season long punt return as a team, but Cobbs won’t play because he was lost for the season with a leg injury he suffered against Fresno State. Instead, look for George Holani, Chase Penry or Cole Wright to be returning UCLA’s punts. Holani’s lone punt return went for just eight yards while Penry’s longest went for seven and Wright’s only return was a fair catch.
Go Bruins!!!
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"After the Broncos crushed New Mexico by a score of 42-14, Avalos was fired."
Fire Jarmond and hire the Bronco's AD.
Wait. Joe said that Chipster is the Bruin head coach. Is this the April Fool's edition of The Mighty Bruin? In what multiverse is he still the head coach?