Boise State at Hawaii 11/21/20 - College Football Picks & Predictions

The Boise State Broncos travel to the island to take on the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors; Boise outside of being trashed by BYU has dominated in their other three games. Coming off a decisive 52-21 win at home over the Colorado State the Broncos moved to 3-1 on the year. Hawaii fell 34-10 on the road to San Diego State last week and fell to 2-2 on the season. 

Boise State is averaging just 377.5 yards per game ranking 9th in the Mountain West but was missing starting quarterback Hank Bachmeier for two key games. Bachmeier in his two starts is completing 64.3% of his passes for 4 touchdowns and 470 yards, he has yet to have turned the ball over. Boise State benefited from a plethora of special teams plays against Colorado State with three touchdowns off of blocked punts and another defensive touchdown on a fumble recovery. 

The Broncos offense has dealt with a ton of injuries at quarterback and has struggled to get anything going in the run game, especially in their loss against BYU. On the season junior Andrew Van Buren leads the team with 164 yards and five touchdowns but is averaging just 3.4 yards per carry on the year. Against Colorado State, he averaged just 2.2 yards per carry but found the endzone twice and against BYU he carried the ball 16 times for just 45 yards.

Hawaii is dealt with the difficulty of replacing a star quarterback and replacing him with sophomore Chevan Cordeiro. Cordeiro has struggled in his four first games as a starter, throwing four interceptions and five touchdowns. He has totaled 958 yards through the air and thrown for 5 touchdowns while completing 60% of his passes. In Hawaii’s two losses, he has completed 45% of his passes and thrown for just 319 yards. 

Hawaii has been gashed on defense this season, especially in the run game allowing 251.5 rushing yards and 414.3 total yards per contest. Coming in with the worst rush defenses in the Mountain West will be an area Boise State will try to exploit, although they haven’t had a ton of success running the ball this season. Boise State is allowing 393.8 yards per game and allowing 28.8 points per game, those statistics are skewed from a 51 point and nearly 600 yard game from #9 and one of the best offenses in college football in BYU.