Boise State hosting Southern Mississippi

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Boise State hosting Southern Mississippi

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Tonight at Bronco Stadium, the home favorite Boise State Broncos(-10') take on the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles in what should be a very entertaining game.
Boise State lost their big play QB Jared Zabransky and have given the reins to a junior from Colorado named Taylor Tharp. In the two meaningful games that Boise has played so far this year,and eliminating the Weber State game, Tharp has been 44 of 77 through the air for 467 yards. They lost at Washington 10-24 in a game that saw Boise State have the best of it in all stats except net yds rushing. The failure in that game was due to the young QB throwing 3 int's. And when you consider that Ian Johnson, the top scorer on the ground in the NCAA in 2006, it makes you wonder about the paltry 81 yds that he gained on 20 carries in that game.Then they won at home over Wyoming, who always plays them tough 24-14. But here again Johnson had only 83 yds on 24 carries. The offensive line does not seem to be giving him the big holes that he became accustomed to last year.
Boise State has an outstanding record at home, and scored 42 or more points in the 6 games at home last year. This is a new year though and they are not lighting up the score board as they once did.
Southern Mississippi features Jeremy Young at QB, and have Damion Fletcher and Tory Harrison primarily carrying the ball. Fletcher last year gained 1388 yds on 276 carries for a 5.0 yards per carry and 11 TD. He did not get all the hype that Boise State's Johnson got, but what can you say about a guy that averaged 6.2 yards per carry and scored 25 TDs? Hard to compete with those numbers, but Fletcher can run the ball. Young, last year completed 161 of 281 attempts for 1769 yards with 12 TDs and 6 ints, for a 57.3 comp rate.
This year at Tennessee a 19-39 loss and at E Carolina a 28-21 win, Young is 37 of 64 for 491 yards. Not bad, but not setting the world on fire either. Fletcher managed 11 yds on 27 carries against a weaker E Carolina team, but against Tennessee he could only offer 48 yds on 9 carries.
Now the things of importance. Boise State held a pretty good Washington team to ziltch in the 2nd half. As a matter of fact neither team scored in the second half. Then, as I said Wyoming always plays Boise tough, but was held scoreless against the Broncos for the first three quarters. I think that shows me that Boise State has a decent defense and that will be the tale, and a sad tale it is, in this game tonight. And one can not expect that Ian Johnson will continue to perform at the stale pace of late. This guy will get his, you can bet on it. And Taylor Tharp is now adjusting to the Boise State system and will get better with each game that follows.
Bottom line is Boise State will continue its dominance over visiting teams in a real decent performance tonight. I like Boise State -10'.

"Everybody plays the fool sometimes.....there's no exception to the rule."
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