Boise State has two receivers seeing bulk of passes. Will Broncos get others involved?

For the third time in as many years, Boise State football entered the 2024 season with no clear indication of how its receiving corps would shake out.

Ahead of Saturday’s home opener, there’s still a lot to learn.

The Broncos had a clear-cut No. 1 receiver in 2021 in senior Khalil Shakir, who was selected in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills. Shakir either had big games or drew attention from the other players, allowing them space to shine.

Since then, there have been players who have flashed potential, only to have something stand in the way.

Latrell Caples was the team’s leading receiver in 2022 in a run-heavy offense, and ahead of the 2023 season seemed poised to break out, only to have a torn Achilles tendon end that year before it began.

The Broncos then turned to emerging receiver Eric McAlister, but he left the team scrambling when he departed with four games remaining in the regular season, and eventually entered the transfer portal.

Heading into 2024, Caples returned as part of a deep group, with a lot of speculation as to which players would emerge. The thought was the Broncos could best be served by using that depth week to week, but so far that hasn’t really happened.

Caples, now a redshirt senior, has 10 receptions for 132 yards. Fifth-year wide receiver Cam Camper, a transfer from Indiana, has been strong in his first two games as a Bronco, going for 151 yards and a TD off eight receptions.

“I think (Caples and Camper) have had a good start to their season, but I think they still haven’t reached their full potential,” wide receivers coach Matt Miller said Thursday.

If the duo has more to give, that’s excellent news for the Broncos. But what will happen with the rest of the group? Prince Strachan, Chris Marshall and Austin Bolt figured to play pretty key roles in the passing attack, but they have combined for six catches for 36 yards.

As a whole, receivers other than Camper and Caples have 10 receptions for 66 yards.

Over the bye week, a big emphasis for the wide receivers was forcing separation from defenders, the coaches said. Against a Portland State defense allowing 586 yards per game — second-worst at the FCS level — it could be a chance for the wideouts to make progress.

Right now, the Broncos’ next-best receiver after Camper and Caples is freshman running back Sire Gaines, who has 44 yards and a touchdown on three receptions.

“I take 100% fault for this, too, because I think I’ve got to coach better,” Miller said. “I’ve got to be bringing a better scheme to the table for our entire offense so those guys can go execute.”

That’s not to say the receivers haven’t contributed in other ways. The Boise State staff has emphasized their blocking as a big reason why a run-first offense is thriving on the ground.

It also might be unrealistic to expect the Broncos — or any college team — to have more than two high-flying receivers. Since 2020, Boise State has finished just one season (2021) with more than two receivers hauling in at least 30 catches.

This also, of course, is an offense built around Ashton Jeanty, a strong offensive line and a potent rushing attack. But if one of the top two receivers were to go down with an injury, or a team like UNLV — which has the nation’s 35th-best rushing defense — was able to lock down Jeanty, the Broncos will need receivers to step up.

Miller said a lot of what’s led to a lopsided distribution in the passing game has been the defensive coverage and progression reads.

“All I need is for those guys to go play fast every single snap that they’re in the game, and good things are going to happen,” Miller said.

Marshall is a former five-star recruit who then went to community college before finding his way to Boise State. Bolt and Strachan both showed flashes late last year of having deep-ball potential. All three guys are at least 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, so physicality is not a problem.

Miller said there’s so much that determines where the ball ends up during a game, it’s best for every receiver to stay alert, play “fast and physically,” and leave things to “the football gods.”

“It’s an organic game. It’s fluid,” Miller said. “It could be a protection breakdown where the quarterback’s got to move in the pocket and now the No. 1 progression goes to the third guy in the progression because of the pocket breakdown.

“It could be a coverage where they take something that now the No. 1 guy is eliminated from that progression read for the quarterback. A lot of those things go into play in terms of our pass game, and we’ve all got to improve upon it.”