Boise State ready for ‘bloody knuckle fight’ in what is likely Nevada’s final game here

Boise State and Nevada fans have seen some crazy games between the rivals.

There was a 69-67 victory for Boise State in 2007 in quadruple overtime. There was Nevada’s 34-31 overtime win over the then-No. 4 Broncos in 2010, ruining an undefeated season and snapping a 10-game winning streak for BSU in the series. Those games are rather famous.

But how about these? In 1990, in the old Division I-AA days, the Wolf Pack scored a 59-52 playoff win in triple overtime in the semifinals, advancing to the national championship game. Playing in Reno in 2014, Boise State eked out a 51-46 victory in a game that featured seven turnovers and nearly 1,100 yards of offense.

Will Saturday night’s game between No. 12 Boise State (7-1, 4-0 Mountain West) and Nevada (3-7, 0-4) be a battle to remember? Who knows. But one thing is known: The Wolf Pack no longer will be regular visitors to the blue turf at Albertsons Stadium. In fact, they might never step foot there again.

With Boise State set to move to the Pac-12 in July 2026, while Nevada remains behind in the Mountain West, the final chapters of a rivalry dating to 1971 are being written.

“It’s a huge deal to us,” Boise State coach Spencer Danielson said Thursday.

The matchup has historically favored the Broncos, who lead the series 31-14, but it was Nevada that walked out of Albertsons Stadium with a win the last time they played here. The Wolf Pack’s 41-31 victory in 2021 has been referred to several times this week around the team.

“Last time Nevada came to The Blue, they beat us up,” said Danielson, who was the defensive coordinator then. “It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, my gosh, they found a way to sneak out with a victory.’ They beat us up on The Blue.”

Boise State led 21-20 at halftime in that game but turned the ball over three times in the second half to lose it.

So the Broncos have plenty of motivation this week, but so does Nevada. First-year head coach Jeff Choate has special memories of Idaho’s capital city, having spent six years on Boise State’s staff, from 2006-11, in various coaching roles: special teams, running backs, linebackers.

Saturday night will be a bit of a homecoming for him.

“The Nevada Wolf Pack have gotten better, and they’re only going to continue to improve with him at the helm,” Danielson said.

Boise State looks for more home domination

Boise State’s first-year coach has to say that, of course, but the truth is that Choate has his work cut out this year. Coming off a 2-10 season, Nevada has been inconsistent on both sides of the ball. The Wolf Pack have lost three straight games and four of their past five, and the combined record of the three teams they’ve beaten is 8-18.

Boise State enters the game as a 24-point favorite, and the Broncos have been rather ridiculous at home, winning by an average of 31.5 points and scoring at a clip of 54.7 per game. But they are ready to get Nevada’s best shot in front of a capacity crowd — every home game this season is a sellout.

“It seems that every game is almost like a rivalry game,” redshirt junior linebacker Marco Notarainni said. “I know we’ve got a big target on our back. We’ve had a big target on our back every game, every season I’ve been here.”

Of Nevada’s 14 wins in the series, three have come in Boise. Notarainni was a freshman for Boise State’s 2021 home loss and was injured when BSU sailed to a 41-3 win in Reno in 2022. This time around, Notarainni will be responsible for helping to contain Nevada redshirt junior quarterback Brendon Lewis.

Lewis won the starting job in fall camp and is a threat with his legs as well as his arm. He has thrown for 1,542 yards and 11 touchdowns, and rushed for 660 yards and seven scores. He’s yet another dual-threat QB faced by the Broncos this season, along with Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel, UNLV’s Hajj-Malik Williams and Washington State’s John Mateer.

“I think playing a running quarterback is always difficult,” Notarainni said. “You always have to scheme it up a certain way, which (defensive coordinator Erik Chinander) has experience with, and we’ve had experience with this season. Their quarterback is super athletic, and he can throw the ball really well.”

Boise State wide receivers coach Matt Miller, who joined the staff in 2020, was around for the 2021 defeat. He said Thursday that he expects the game to be a “bloody knuckle fight for four quarters.”

“They’re a physical team, we’re a physical team. They’ve got good players, we’ve got good players,” Miller said. “And that’s year in, year out, in the series playing against Nevada.”

Boise State vs. Nevada

When: 6 p.m. Mountain time Saturday

Where: Albertsons Stadium (36,363, Turf)

TV: FOX

Radio: KBOI 670 AM and KBOI 93.1 FM/Sirius XM Ch. 162 or 201 (Bob Behler, Pete Cavender)

Records: Boise State 7-1, 4-0; Nevada 3-7, 0-4

Series: Boise State leads the series 31-14

Vegas line: Boise State by 24 points

Weather: High of 54, low of 36, humidity 65%, cloudy, 6% chance of rain