HONOLULU — There were no signs of jet lag for No. 24 Boise State on Saturday.
Behind the play of sophomore quarterback Brett Rypien, the Broncos (9-1, 8-1 Mountain West, No. 22 CFP) scored early and often on their way to a 52-16 rout of host Hawaii.
Rypien threw for 338 yards and four touchdowns as Boise State racked up a season-high 603 yards of total offense, 403 of them coming before halftime.
The Rainbow Warriors’ chances of a bowl game are bleak, but not completely dead. They needed to win their final three games to finish above .500, but there is still a possibility they could be invited to the Hawaii Bowl with a 6-7 record.
“We’ve had about a month here where we haven’t had a lot of positives and we better figure it out heading into the last two games,” Hawaii coach Nick Rolovich said.
Paul Harris ran for 145 yards and Rigoberto Sanchez made field goals of 24, 32 and 35 yards for the Rainbow Warriors (4-7, 3-4).
They managed just three first downs in the first half. They posted 200 of their 359 yards of total offense — and 12 first downs — after halftime.
Next, the Rainbow Warriors make their final road trip of the season to take on Fresno State. They are 13-7-1 in games there, including losses in their last two trips.
The Broncos jumped out to a commanding 28-0 lead early in the second quarter and went on to score touchdowns on six of their first seven possessions.
“I think we’re clicking a lot better than we have all year and you want to be playing your best football coming into the end of the year and I think we’re doing that,” said Rypien, who completed 18 of his 22 pass attempts before taking a seat for the final quarter.
Boise State coach Bryan Harsin credited his team’s week of preparation ahead of its longest road trip of the season.
“Overall, just the way that the coaches and the players prepared themselves for Hawaii, I was very excited about that, and I think that’s got to carry over into these next two games that we play because it’s all about the process for us,” Harsin said.
Rypien threw touchdown passes of 35 yards to Thomas Sperbeck and 6 yards to Alec Dhaenens in the first half and added scoring strikes of 35 yards to Cedric Wilson and 44 yards to Sperbeck in the second. He also ran in a touchdown from four yards out to send the Broncos into halftime with a 35-3 lead.
“I think we had a good plan coming in and I think we had a great week of practice and that helped a lot,” said Rypien. “We just came out and started fast, like we usually do, but the big thing for us was to play a good four quarters — well for the starters, three quarters tonight — but I thought we fought hard every single play.”
Boise State entered the game ranked 18th nationally in red zone offense and continued that trend Saturday, finding the end zone on all four of its trips inside the 20.
Jeremy Nichols, the nation’s leading scorer, ran for 153 yards on 16 carries and scored on runs of 36 and 5 yards. Wilson had game highs of seven receptions and 141 yards and Sperbeck, the school’s all-time leader in receiving yardage, added five grabs for 114 yards.
In addition to its offensive success, Boise State managed two defensive takeaways for the first time this season.
The Broncos entered the game ranked 118th (of 128 FBS teams) in turnover margin, but won the turnover battle Saturday. Safety Chanceller James had an interception in the second quarter and linebacker Joe Martarano forced a fumble in the third quarter that was recovered by teammate Durrant Miles. They did not turn over the ball on offense.
