Boise State football offseason recap: Where Broncos improved and where they didn’t

Coming off a 12-2 campaign in 2024 that included a College Football Playoff berth, Boise State dipped to a 9-5 record last year while capturing a third straight Mountain West title.

The Broncos, who are now in the Pac-12, had a relatively quiet offseason with 18 transfer portal departures and 19 portal additions from the Division I, Division II, Division III and junior college levels. Most of head coach Spencer Danielson’s staff returned, including offensive coordinator Nate Potter and defensive coordinator Erik Chinander.

With fall camp set to begin on Monday, here is an area where the Broncos clearly improved during the offseason and an area where concerns remain.

Improved: Attention to detail

Danielson’s laid-back, encouraging practice style worked to perfection in 2024 as the Broncos rode star tailback Ashton Jeanty to the program’s first CFP appearance.

The atmosphere stayed the same last year, but the results were different.

Boise State played with questionable effort and discipline at times and finished the season in a tie for 99th nationally in penalties committed per game (6.9). In their five losses, the Broncos turned the ball over 15 times while creating just one takeaway.

Danielson regularly took the blame after losses and made sure to attack the discipline issues during spring practice.

“My natural personality is positive, high energy, no bad days, no mountain is too high to climb, let’s freaking go! That’s who I am,” Danielson said in the spring. “But as the leader of this program, I know if there’s details that are missed and there’s an edge that is missed, we’ll be caught. … And that happened last season at points, and I cannot let it happen again.”

Increased attention to detail and competitiveness were highlighted throughout spring practice. Danielson’s message was received loud and clear by the team.

Still a question: Downfield passing game

As previously covered this offseason, Boise State’s downfield passing game was largely nonexistent in 2025.

The Broncos connected on just three passing plays of 50 or more yards in 14 games last season. One of the plays was a screen pass to Dylan Riley that went for a 75-yard touchdown.

Instead of scouring the transfer portal for an upgrade, Boise State decided to bring back quarterback Maddux Madsen for his third year as the full-time starter. Madsen’s career stats are above-average (61 percent completion percentage, 6,586 yards, 61 total touchdowns, 18 interceptions), but the undersized quarterback’s play slipped in 2025 during an injury-ravaged season.

Madsen will be playing with a largely unproven group of wide receivers and an offensive line with multiple question marks.

Boise State’s running game should continue to dominate in 2026, but the passing offense remains a giant question mark heading into fall camp.

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