{"id":874623,"date":"2026-04-25T22:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T22:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/874623\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T22:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T22:03:20","slug":"three-instant-takeaways-from-boise-states-2026-spring-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/874623\/","title":{"rendered":"Three instant takeaways from Boise State\u2019s 2026 spring game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boise State<\/a> held its annual spring game on a sunny Saturday at Albertsons Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Using a modified scoring system, the Blue team secured a 33-25 victory over the Orange team.<\/p>\n

Returning quarterback Maddux Madsen and true freshman wideout Rasean Jones were among the standouts for the Broncos, who will open the 2026 season on Saturday, Sept. 5 at Oregon.<\/p>\n

Several Broncos did not suit up for Saturday\u2019s spring game, including running back Dylan Riley, wide receiver Cam Bates and defensive back Jaden Mickey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are three takeaways from Boise State\u2019s spring game. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Broncos go deep, receivers make plays\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Broncos\u2019 downfield passing game was largely nonexistent <\/a>last season, and Madsen wasted no time showing off his improved deep ball on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the first drive of the game, Madsen connected with Qumonte Williams Jr. for a 62-yard touchdown off a flea-flicker from running back Sire Gaines. The defense was fooled by the trick play, and Madsen delivered a perfect ball to a wide-open Williams Jr.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-5 Williams Jr. appeared in all 14 games as a true freshman last season but didn\u2019t record a catch. Williams Jr. is slated for a much larger role in the offense this year as the Broncos lost their top four pass-catchers from 2025.<\/p>\n

Late in the opening half, Jones made a tremendous play on a back-shoulder throw from Madsen for an 18-yard touchdown. Jones has been a spring practice star<\/a> for the Broncos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Max Cutforth also connected with tight end Matt Wagner for a 32-yard gain and had a nice deep ball throw to AJ Jones that could\u2019ve been caught.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boise State\u2019s passing game appears to have taken a big step forward since last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boise State has its Kage Casey replacement\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kage Casey\u2014the Broncos\u2019 starting left tackle the last three seasons\u2014was selected in the fourth round <\/a>of the NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Left tackle is one of the most important positions in football, and Boise State appears to have a quality replacement for Casey in senior Tyler Ethridge.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-3, 308-pound Ethridge transferred to Boise State in January from Division II Colorado State-Pueblo. Ethridge looked comfortable at left tackle during the spring game and even caught a 12-yard screen pass touchdown from Cutforth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boise State appears to have struck gold in the transfer portal with Ethridge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rebuilt secondary holds its own\u00a0<\/p>\n

The shorthanded Boise State secondary surrendered a few big plays, but several defensive backs also flashed their ball skills on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cornerbacks Franklyn Johnson Jr. and JeRico Washington Jr., a Kennesaw State transfer, looked good in coverage while Cam Jamerson and Timothy Mitchell both notched highlight pass breakups. Jamerson is a TCU transfer; Mitchell is a third-year sophomore.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Freshman linebacker Ty Tanner added a late pick-six to cap a solid all-around day for the Boise State defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New defensive backs coach Terrence Brown has the secondary playing well entering the summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boise State held its annual spring game on a sunny Saturday at Albertsons Stadium.\u00a0 Using a modified scoring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2062],"tags":[232,231,258,2426,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-874623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-broncos","9":"tag-denver","10":"tag-denver-broncos","11":"tag-denverbroncos","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116467611612474029","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}