Postgame quotes that matter from Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson following near-upset of No. 2 Oregon

‘There’s no moral victories. We’ve got to be better,’ Danielson said

Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson, left, and Oregon head coach Dan Lanning. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Boise State kicked off the 2026 season on Saturday with a 34-27 near-upset of No. 2 Oregon at Autzen Stadium. 

The Broncos held a 10-point first-half lead and entered halftime up 17-14, but the Ducks made enough plays down the stretch to earn the win. 

“My heart hurts,” Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson said in his postgame radio interview. “Proud of how we battled, wasn’t enough. There’s no moral victories. We’ve got to be better.”

Here are the highlights from Danielson’s postgame comments. 

On what Danielson learned from Week 1

“Our team will battle, man. I’m so proud of them doing it. We obviously have to tighten things up, we have to clean some things up. We have to be better as a staff—starting with me—but our team will absolutely fight and battle, and I’m very proud of that.”

On Boise State’s best, worst areas against Oregon

“I think we were able to establish a run game at a lot of points in the game. Obviously we always want to be able to run the ball for more, but we were able to get some good drives going by running the football. I think (quarterback Maddux Madsen) was able to hit some explosive plays. But we also just had too many negatives on our end. We have to clean up some of the pass game. There’s just too many negatives that put us in third-and-longs, and obviously third-and-long and fourth-and-10 to end the game is not a situation you want to be in in a two-minute drive. We just have to tighten some of those things up.

“Defensively, I think we tackled really well. That last big-time score, we missed a tackle. But take that away, I think we’ve grown in our tackling. But we’ve got to tighten up some of the perimeter game, some of our fits. We gave up too many yards tonight.”

On end-of-half clock management 

“We made the stop on defense, wanted to get a shot at a two-minute drive. Especially against Oregon, we know we needed to be on the attack. Every game is different. … Then we got pinned on the (7-yard line), and we weren’t able to get a first down and burn the clock. In that situation, we wanted to be aggressive. We didn’t execute the right way, and I take full responsibility. It ended up turning into seven points for them going into half.”

On Group of 6 representation for the College Football Playoff 

“Hopefully, people watched this game. And not just our game, others around. It’s great for college football, man. You put the ball down and it’s 11-on-11. It doesn’t matter the logo. Who is going to play harder for longer? That’s what makes college football awesome. We lost tonight, but it’s a game that I think everybody watching knows was toe-to-toe. And I think what makes college football great is you create opportunities to have these types of matchups.”