Boise State’s first season in the rebuilt Pac-12 will lean heavily on a familiar face under center: Maddux Madsen.
The Broncos have already rolled through the rest of the players in this series, from Sire Gaines and Max Stege to Jayden Virgin-Morgan. That leaves Madsen, the senior quarterback who may end up shaping the entire tone of Boise State’s transition into its new league home.
At 5-foot-10 and 207 pounds, Madsen has built a résumé that looks strong on paper. He is 20-6 as a starter for Boise State and has completed 507 of 834 passes, good for 61 percent, for 6,586 yards.
His career total of 61 touchdowns breaks down into 50 passing scores and 11 rushing touchdowns, with 18 interceptions mixed in. The numbers tell the story of a quarterback who has usually handled Mountain West opponents, but has had a much harder time when the competition rises.
That split showed up again last season. After a strong sophomore year, Madsen entered 2025 as the clear starter, but the opener at South Florida went badly, and a lower leg injury then knocked him out for the final three regular-season games.
He did return for the Mountain West championship game and delivered a huge performance against UNLV, accounting for four total touchdowns in a lopsided win. But the injury flared up again eight days later in the LA Bowl, where he finished 7 of 16 for 51 yards with two interceptions.
For the season, Madsen’s line was respectable but not eye-catching: 176 completions on 302 attempts, 2,334 yards, 18 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He had been named the 2025 MWC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, yet he did not land on any all-MWC team.
Now he enters his third season as Boise State’s full-time starter and brings the most experience of any quarterback in the new Pac-12, with 26 career starts. Against Mountain West teams, he has been a winner, going 14-1 and helping the Broncos capture a pair of conference titles.
Against Power Four opponents, though, the production has not matched the results. In four career starts against that level of competition, he has thrown two touchdowns and nine interceptions, and Boise State has lost all four.
That gap matters even more now because Boise State’s 2026 non-conference slate is no joke, with Memphis coming to Boise and road trips to Oregon and MAC favorite Western Michigan. The Broncos need Madsen to be sharper against better defenses if they want to navigate that schedule and make a real run.
He remains a divisive figure among the fan base, but Week 1 could go a long way toward changing that. If Madsen and Boise State can hold their own at Autzen Stadium, the path to a College Football Playoff bid starts to look real.
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Danielsons rise has been built on results and a clear identity, with Boise State piling up success against Mountain West foes, collecting conference titles and reaching the College Football Playoff in 2024. For a program that expects to be in the mix again, that kind of rsum matters, and it also sets a high bar for a league trying to establish itself with a fresh lineup of teams and coaches. [Read more 🡒]