Week 13: Boise State at Hawaii

The Broncos and Warriors will battle for the WAC title, a top-15 ranking and perhaps a Bowl Championship Series berth in what has been billed as the biggest league game in WAC history.

Boise State has won nine straight games overall, 17 straight WAC games and five straight WAC titles.

Hawaii has won 11 straight games overall and 14 straight WAC games.

The Broncos are 6-0 against the Warriors in WAC play — including two wins by a total of 10 points the past two years.

“The struggle has just been to get here, to get to this point,” Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan said. “Everyone has been wanting to play Boise with the last two years — how crazy those games have been, how well we’ve done and come away with losses. We’re dying to play Boise. To be here finally, it’s a relief.”

Brennan will start for Hawaii after missing all but two snaps against Nevada to recover from a mild concussion. He is poised to break the Division I-A records for passing touchdowns and touchdowns responsible for in a career (he just needs one TD for both).

He has missed two and a half games with injuries but still has 28 touchdown passes. He should be 100 percent this week.

“(Brennan) could have played last week, too,” Jones said. “They cleared him to play. I just thought he had too much at stake.”

The Warriors will try to solve the Broncos’ WAC-leading defense, which ranks 10th in the nation in total defense and 14th in pass defense. The Broncos employ a bend-but-don’t-break strategy against the Warriors, relying on turnovers to stop Brennan.

The Broncos also count on their offense and special teams putting up enough points to outscore the Warriors if it’s a shootout. The Broncos have scored at least 40 points in each of the past five meetings.

The Broncos’ special teams have victimized Hawaii often in recent years, too.

“We’re going to have to play very well in all phases,” Hawaii coach June Jones said. “We haven’t done that the last couple years and they have snuck away with wins. We have to figure out a way to play the whole game and end up having one more point.”

While the focus will be on the Broncos’ ability to stop the Warriors, the reverse matchup also is intriguing.

Boise State has scored at least 34 points in eight straight games as senior quarterback Taylor Tharp has played with rare precision. He completes 69.1 percent of his passes — and that number would be much higher if not for a slow start. Young wideouts Jeremy Childs (sophomore) and Titus Young and Austin Pettis (both true freshmen) have carved up defenses that are focused on stopping the Broncos’ powerful ground attack.

Tailback Ian Johnson has 15 touchdowns this season — and 40 in 21 starts the past two years — and freshman Jeremy Avery returns from injury to provide a quick-hitting changeup.

The Hawaii defense, meanwhile, leads the WAC in sacks (34), takeaways (25) and touchdowns (five). The Warriors also are second in total defense under new coordinator Greg McMackin.

“With their new coach this year, they’re a lot more sound,” Tharp said. “In years past, they kind of had that relentless, reckless mentality. … That’s definitely going to be one of the toughest defenses we’ve faced all year.”

Boise State by 3