After ‘critical errors’ last week, how is Boise State’s Madsen prepping for San Jose State?

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — As soon as the lights shut off and the cameras stop rolling at Albertsons Stadium on a Saturday night, Maddux Madsen’s mind is off football.

Boise State’s redshirt sophomore quarterback will sometimes go to sleep that night thinking about the game and holding onto the emotions that come with it — for example, this past weekend following Boise State’s 28-21 win over Nevada, it was mostly frustration.

Then he’ll wake up Sunday morning, remember Boise State won, and move on. But not before a day to decompress.

Before preparations begin for the next game, Sundays are for chilling. He won’t watch any NFL games — football is “what I do every day of my life nowadays,” Madsen said — but instead, he’ll just relax in bed, scrolling his phone or watching movies.

Perhaps he’ll watch a soccer game if his girlfriend, a midfielder for BYU, is in action.

Come Sunday night, he may start thinking about football again, but the real work begins on Monday morning.

The first team meetings of the week don’t typically occur until Monday afternoon, but Madsen will be in the film room inside the Bleymaier Football Center first thing in the morning.

After a big win, the process of decompressing and resetting himself may not be as important — who wouldn’t want to revel in a four-touchdown game, such as Madsen had against San Diego State a few weeks back?

However, following a game like Nevada, that process is more critical. The Broncos may have won, but in his post-game press conference, Madsen said it was “probably the worst game I’ve played” for Boise State.

Madsen threw for 119 yards, a touchdown and an interception on 9-for-20 passing. He also had two interceptions overturned, the first for defensive pass interference and the second was ruled an incomplete pass. After watching the film on Monday, he slightly tempered that statement, instead saying there were “big-time, critical errors.”

Offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter was much less critical of Madsen earlier this week, saying he wasn’t surprised by his quarterback’s point of view but that Madsen “did a lot of good things that game,” highlighting his running.

By the time Madsen spoke to reporters on Wednesday, he’d long moved on from the emotions of the Nevada game, instead focusing on what he can do better against San Jose State this weekend. No. 13 Boise State (8-1, 5-0 Mountain West) travels to San Jose State (6-3, 3-2) for a 5 p.m. Mountain Time kickoff on Saturday.

“Moving forward, how can I focus on taking care of the ball like I have all year and kind of getting better in that aspect?” Madsen said. “Especially this next game, they’ve got a good defense that likes to take the ball away.”

Including the interception against Nevada, Madsen has thrown just three interceptions all year. Meanwhile, San Jose State has the second-most interceptions in the nation with 16.

Madsen is keen to forget past errors because he believes fixing a physical problem, such as throwing form or footwork, is easier than mental issues.

He’ll use tactics he learned from his high school baseball days to help calm himself down if he starts getting too worked up.

“I’m a big believer in chilling myself out with breaths when it comes to that stuff,” Madsen said. “I catch myself if I get too worked up about something by taking deep breaths, and then it’s kind of a reset. I try to separate myself from what I’ve done and focus on something completely different.”

Madsen will face a different challenge against San Jose State as he has in recent weeks. Teams have repeatedly stacked the box with seven or eight players to stop star running back Ashton Jeanty, opening up the passing game for Madsen. He enjoyed 209 and 307 yard passing nights against UNLV and San Diego State, respectively.

But both Madsen and Koetter noted this week that San Jose State often drops back as many as eight players — while that may be good news for Bronco running backs, it’ll mean tighter throwing windows for Madsen.

“Those guys literally will just throw their bodies, and they like to be physical and get after it,” Madsen said. “They’re a really good defense, and we’re up for a challenge, but our offense has a lot of confidence.”

When: 5 p.m. Mountain time Saturday

Where: CEFCU Stadium (30,456, AstroTurf)

TV: CBS Sports Network Radio: KBOI 670 AM and KBOI 93.1 FM/Sirius XM Ch. 162 or 201 (Bob Behler, Pete Cavender)

Records: Boise State 8-1, 5-0; San Jose State 6-3, 3-2

Series: Boise State leads the series 15-1

Vegas line: Boise State by 13.5 points

Weather: High of 64, low of 43, humidity 70%, clear skies, 4% chance of rain