An amazing Boise State defense suffocated a Nevada team that had put 34 points on the board against Texas Tech the week before, Doug Martin bulled his way for 126 yards and two touchdowns and #4 Boise State stopped the Wolf Pack 30-10 Saturday night in Bronco Stadium.
So overpowering was the Bronco defense that when the teams left the field for the first half, Nevada had eight yards passing and 42 rushing and hadn’t crossed midfield. Nevada finished with 241 yards of offense, but 53 of those came on a touchdown pass from reserve quarterback Mason Magleby to Richard Matthews with 36 seconds in the game. This Nevada team came into the game 15th in the country in total offense, including the aforementioned performance against Texas Tech on the road. The high-powered pistol offense of ingenious Nevada coach Chris Ault averaged 483 yards of total offense. The Boise State defense held Nevada to just 2-of-14 on third-down conversions and logged a season-high 12 tackles for loss. Even better, all tackles for loss were by a different Bronco player as it was a complete defensive effort.
Defensive end Shea McClellin paced Boise State with six tackles, one of those tackles for loss and the only sack. McClellin passed Bronco great Korey Hall with his 17th career sack and is now #12 all-time. J.C. Percy added his first career interception Saturday night for the Broncos. Safety George Iloka had four stops against the Pack to pass two players who went on to professional careers (Chris Carr and Stefan Reid) and now has 189 career tackles to rank #44 all-time at Boise State. Iloka is just one tackle behind another pro player, Michel Bourgeau, who logged 190 career stops from 1980-1983. Bourgeau is now the head of the popular Varsity B Club at Boise State. Iloka is now #11 among defensive backs at Boise State and needs 11 more tackles to tie #10 Phil Bartle (1983-1986).
Martin toted the ball 21 times for a season-best 126 yards, and would have been well over 200 yards had a 92-yard touchdown not been called back by a phantom holding call. Martin found the going tough early as Nevada joined the list of opponents who keyed on him, but eventually his determined running wore them down and he was able to pick up big chunks of yardage on a consistent basis.
Martin’s first touchdown put Boise State up 20-0 in the first half. Then he broke the game open with a dash down the left sideline of 43 yards in the third quarter that extended the lead to 27-0. Martin passed Jeremy Avery and tied Jared Zabransky with his 31st career rushing touchdown and now stands #6 all-time at Boise State.
"It feels real nice," said Martin, who recorded his 11th career 100-yard game. "We struggled with the run game the past two games and I think we picked it up today. I think we just focused on the details more."
Martin also passed two legendary Broncos--“Rocket” Rodney Webster (3,665 all-purpose yards from 1980-1983) and John “Super Needle” Smith (3,549 from 1972-1975) to reach the Top 10 in career all-purpose yards (Martin is now 9th) with 3,673. Martin also now ranks #15 all-time in career scoring at Boise State, passing Austin Pettis (190), Todd Belcastro (189) and Don Hutt and Jared Zabransky (188 points each.
D.J. Harper gained 36 yards on the ground, enabling the hard-working Bronco back to move into 18th place all-time at Boise State. Harper passed two tough runners—Larry Smith and Abe Brown, who gained 1,199 and 1,189 yards respectively in 1968 and 1969.
Quarterback Kellen Moore was 19-33 for 142 yards and two scores. The Broncos got on the scoreboard first midway through the first quarter on a 21-yard pass from Moore to D.J. Harper. Moore’s second touchdown pass, a three-yard bullet to freshman Matt Miller, gave him 113 in his career and enabled him to move past Colt McCoy of Texas for #8 in NCAA history. Moore has tossed 14 this season in four games, already #25 on the Boise State single-season list. Kellen became the 16th quarterback in college football history to pass for 12,000 yards in his career—he now has 12,004 and passed Marshall QB Byron Leftwich (11,903) with his effort against Nevada.
Moore now stands second only to McCoy for wins as a starting quarterback—the brilliant Bronco signal-caller is now 42-2 at Boise State. McCoy holds the NCAA record of 45-8.
Once again, Mitch Burroughs led the Bronco receivers with five catches for 34 yards while freshman Matt Miller had five receptions for 27 yards. Miller passed Derek Schouman (17 in 2003) and Kyle Efaw (17 in 2008) for receptions by a freshman and now has 20 on the season, #7 at Boise State.
The Bronco special teams also got in the act as punt returner Mitch Burroughs consistently gave his team field position in averaging 23 yards per return and Dan Goodale nailed his first field goal attempt of the year, a 31-yarder in the first half.
Nevada starting quarterback Tyler Lantrip was 5-16 for 50 yards and an interception before Magleby came on to hit four-of-four for 73 yards and the touchdown. Matthews paced the Pack with four receptions for 84 yards.
Nevada had spoiled Boise State’s perfect season and a strong bid for a national championship last year in Reno but it was not to be this year. However, the Broncos know that each remaining opponent could be this year’s Nevada.
Boise State travels to face rival Fresno State Friday night in a nationally-televised game on ESPN. The Bulldogs played well against SEC opponent Mississippi before falling 38-28.
