No. 2 Oregon opens the season with title hopes and a familiar problem waiting at Autzen Stadium: Boise State is not the kind of Group of Six opponent you can breeze past.
The Broncos come to Eugene on Saturday with real history against the Ducks. Boise State owns a 3-1 edge in the series, and Oregon’s only win in the matchup came in a 37-34 game at Autzen Stadium on Sept.
7, 2024. That Oregon team finished 13-1 and won the Big Ten Conference championship.
Boise State is also arriving with momentum of its own. The Broncos are beginning a new run as members of the revamped Pac-12 Conference, joining original holdovers Oregon State and Washington State after three straight Mountain West Conference titles. They went 9-5 last season and closed it with a 38-21 victory over UNLV in the conference championship game.
Quarterback Maddux Madsen is the player Oregon has to account for first. The fifth-year quarterback completed 58.3% of his passes for 2,344 yards, 18 touchdowns and nine interceptions in 11 games last season, missing three others because of an ankle injury.
In 2024, he threw for 3,018 yards and 23 touchdowns with six interceptions in 14 games. Over four seasons, Madsen has also run for 423 yards and 11 touchdowns.
In Oregon’s 2024 win, he went 17 of 40 for 148 yards and one touchdown.
Boise State’s ground game looks different now that Ashton Jeanty is gone after a 2024 season in which the Heisman Trophy finalist piled up 2,601 rushing yards and 29 touchdowns, including 192 yards and three scores on 25 carries against Oregon. But Dylan Riley and Sire Gaines formed a strong one-two punch in 2025. Riley, a 5-10, 203-pound junior, rushed for 1,125 yards and 10 touchdowns, while Gaines, a 6-0, 220-pound junior, added 811 yards and eight touchdowns.
On defense, edge Jayden Virgin-Morgan is the name to know. The fifth-year player had six sacks and 13 tackles for loss last season to earn second-team All-Mountain West honors, and in 2024 he posted 10 sacks and 15.5 tackles for loss while making the first team. The 6-3, 257-pound defender is on the watch lists for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy and the Lombardi Award.
There are also a few notable ties in this matchup. Boise State defensive coordinator Erik Chinander coached outside linebackers at Oregon in 2014 and 2015, when the Ducks won the Pac-12 title and reached the College Football Playoff national championship game.
Boise State sophomore linebacker Mana Tuioti is the younger brother of Oregon outside linebacker Teitum Tuioti, and their father is Oregon defensive line coach Tony Tuioti. Mana Tuioti had six tackles in 14 appearances in 2025.
Boise State’s history against Oregon stretches back well before last year’s narrow Ducks win. The Broncos won the first three meetings, beating Oregon 37-32 at Autzen Stadium in 2008, then 19-8 in Boise in 2009 to spoil Chip Kelly’s head coaching debut, before winning 38-28 in the 2017 Las Vegas Bowl in Mario Cristobal’s first game as Oregon’s head coach.
Still, the threat level for this one is listed at 2, and that fits the matchup. Boise State has enough bite to make Oregon pay if the Ducks are sloppy, but this is a team built for bigger goals.
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Dillon Gabriels NFL Debut Just Hit A Frustrating Early Roadblock
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For Gabriel, the timing is especially frustrating because the injury arrived just as he was trying to finish camp on a high note and secure his place in Clevelands quarterback room. Rookie Taylen Green made the team as the third quarterback, leaving the Browns to navigate the early part of the season without Gabriel, who said the preseason brought plenty of challenges but also gave him encouragement from how he played before the setback. [Read more 🡒]