Boise State’s 7 biggest position battles entering the Oregon opener

Broncos held second fall camp scrimmage on Saturday

Boise State Broncos quarterback Max Cutforth. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson gave an update on seven key position battles following Saturday’s scrimmage. 

Along with the positions listed below, the Broncos also have fierce competition for roles at wide receiver and defensive back. 

Here are the latest position battle updates from Danielson.

Backup quarterback 

“It’s going to be Max Cutforth. Max Cutforth has really solidified himself as the No. 2 … and is doing some really good things. Cash (Herrera) is very talented, just needs to continue to be consistent, needs to operate the offense at a higher level to be the backup quarterback. He’s very talented and his future is really, really bright here, but it’s going to be Maddux (Madsen) No. 1 and Max No. 2.”

Center

“They’ve been competing, Jason (Steele) and (Stewart Taufa) have gone back and forth. Even in (Saturday’s) scrimmage … we’d flip-flop. Right now, that’s a position of competition.”

Right tackle

“We’re still working through that, too. Obviously (Daylon Metoyer) and (Jacob Tracy) have been competing this fall camp. (Metoyer) did some really good things today, and we’ll kind of see where it is and continue to go.”

Defensive tackle

“That’s a point of emphasis right now to figure out who are those five, who are those six? Right now in front of you, I think David Latu and Mikaio Edward are our starters. I think they’ve done a really good job this fall camp. Both play at a high level, still some consistency that needs to improve. After that, there’s some guys that did some good stuff, just too inconsistent. … Right now, I like (Latu and Edwards), but we obviously know we’re going to rotate a lot, especially at that position, and we’ve got to figure it out.”

Linebacker

“Jake Ripp has been sidelined with a hamstring. He’s going to be back this week, so it’ll be good. Logan Brantley is back, he’s been doing some really good things. That’s still a position to see ‘OK, how is that going to work out?’ … Boen Phelps, love where he’s at. He’s going to be one of our best players on defense. But who is the (middle linebacker), and who is going to be the guy who can rotate?”

Kicker

“It’s a competition right now. Canaan Moore is getting the (first-team) reps right now, and he’s doing a solid job. We’re going to compete for all positions in our specialists room and we’ll name whoever that’s going to be going into game week. Next week though, we’re going to continue to compete and are on purpose shuffling some things around because we’ve got to perform at a higher level and be more consistent than we have been in the specialists room. Especially, really, just at field goal kicker. That’s the biggest one.”

Kick and punt returners

“Dylan Riley has done a really good job on kickoff return, so right now I feel confident in him being our starting kickoff return. Who is the backup kickoff return? It’s still in question. Punt return-wise, Jeremyah Lane has done a really good job. We brought him here to be a punt returner. He has not been named the punt returning starter, we will name that here shortly, but he did a really good job today in the scrimmage.”