Boise State coach Spencer Danielson has named Maddux Madsen the starting quarterback for the season opener at Georgia Southern on August 31st.
Madsen beat out former five-star prospect and USC transfer Malachi Nelson, who arrived in January with plenty of excitement and anticipation but couldn’t do enough to win the job.
Offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter has long been a fan of Madsen, who was a freshman in 2022 when Koetter took over midway through the season after the firing of Tim Plough.
Koetter said prior to fall camp that Madsen was opening camp atop the depth chart – and he apparently did enough to keep his spot heading into the season.
Danielson told the media after Saturday’s second scrimmage that a decision would be made in the next few days. That decision came Sunday.
“I wanted to use the whole body of work, the whole fall camp – everything we do, the stats,” Danielson said. “The whole focus is who is going to help us win game one?”
Madsen appeared in nine games last season and passed for 1,191 yards and nine touchdowns to go along with three interceptions. Twice he was named Mountain West Freshman of the Week.
The 5-foot-10, 201 pound Madsen was a former 3-star prospect out of American Fork High School in Utah when he committed to Boise State in July of 2021.
Madsen, a redshirt sophomore, continued to earn more playing time as a freshman in 2023 before supplanting Taylen Green as the starter against New Mexico late in the year. But he suffered a season-ending knee injury late in the second quarter and Green became the starter again before transferring to Arkansas after the season.
Nelson made big headlines when he visited Boise State – a large group of fans caught wind of his arrival time and greeted him at the airport – and the hyped quarterback committed a few days later.
He originally committed to Oklahoma as the No.1 overall player in the 2023 class by ESPN, but flipped to USC to follow coach Lincoln Riley. He dealt with an injury for much of last season and played behind Caleb Williams before entering the transfer portal last December.
Adding Nelson was one of many offseason wins for Danielson and the Broncos, and many expected him to win the quarterback job by the start of the season.
But his adjustment to a pro style offense, new terminology and a new program amounted to too big of a task to pass Nelson by game one.
It would seem likely Nelson will play at some point this season as he continues to improve, but coaches apparently felt Madsen was the best choice to win on the road in week one.
“We’re not going to be in a two quarterback situation,” Danielson said Saturday. “Whoever the starter is as we go through it will be the starter. Now if they don’t play well and they are making bad decisions, we’ll make changes.
“Obviously we have two really good quarterbacks. I love Maddux. I love Malachi. They are great kids, they work their tails off, their teammates love them. That’s why we’re in this situation and it’s a blessing to be in this situation. We’re going to go in with a starter and then we’ll adapt and adjust from there.”
This is a breaking news story and will be updated…
