Boise State starting quarterback Maddux Madsen set to return for Mountain West championship game against UNLV

Boise State starting quarterback Maddux Madsen will return to the lineup for Friday’s Mountain West championship game against UNLV, Broncos head coach Spencer Danielson said on Monday.

“He’s ready to roll, so he’ll be our starting quarterback on Friday,” Danielson said. “(Backup Max Cutforth) will be ready to roll as well, but Max will be the starter.”

Madsen suffered an unspecified lower leg injury on Nov. 1 against Fresno State and missed the final three games of the regular season.

Cutforth went 2-1 as the starter, including a breakthrough performance last weekend against Utah State. Cutforth completed 26 of 49 passes for 341 yards with two touchdowns and no turnovers and was voted MWC Offensive Player of the Week.

The Broncos trailed by 11 points in the third quarter against the Aggies but rallied for a 25-24 victory to keep their MWC championship game hopes alive.

Boise State (8-4, 6-2) has defeated UNLV (10-2, 6-2) in the last three MWC title games. Back in October, the Broncos routed UNLV 56-31 at Albertsons Stadium.

Here are the highlights from Danielson’s press conference.

On starting Madsen over Cutforth

“Max did a great job on Friday against Utah State, so proud of him. But Maddux is our starting quarterback. And if Maddux is healthy, Maddux is going to be rolling. I see it no different with other positions. Will we continue to pour into Max, and am I very proud of Max? Absolutely. But Maddux is our starting quarterback. He’s healthy and he practiced (on Monday), so he’s going to be our starter.”

On Madsen’s practice performance

“I thought he practiced good. I thought he was on time, I thought he did a good job leading our offense. And I thought as a whole, we had a good practice today.”

On UNLV, first-year head coach Dan Mullen

“I’ve got a ton of respect for coach Mullen and what he’s done. They’re the only team in our conference to have 10 wins, and they’ve gotten better week in and week out. They’re a team on the rise … and they’re playing really good football on both sides of the ball.”

On fifth matchup with UNLV in 24 months

“Every year is a new year. Obviously, this is Dan Mullen’s first year. We played them once before, they’re playing really, really good football. I don’t look too much into the past or the future. What I do know is we’re in a championship game, we’re playing arguably one of the best teams on the West Coast right now … and we’ve got our work cut out for us.”