‘We will attack’: Boise State rusher says sack numbers will remain high

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (Idaho Statesman) — Whenever an opposing team had to prepare for Boise State in 2024, it was always the same memo for the quarterback: Protect yourself.

The Broncos were one of the most prolific teams in getting the quarterback to the ground last season, leading the nation in sacks (55) and yardage lost on those sacks (375).

And despite Boise State losing elite sacker Ahmed Hassanein to the NFL last April, the Broncos don’t plan on winding down the pressure in 2025.

“One thing about Coach (Erik) Chinander is he doesn’t change how he does things,” redshirt junior edge Jayden Virgin-Morgan told the Idaho Statesman on Wednesday at Mountain West media days. “We will attack every team how we attack, how we need to. And Coach Chins is a very aggressive defense coordinator.”

That’s likely what fans want to hear coming from the player who’s expected to be the star of the show for Boise State on defense.

Virgin-Morgan led Boise State in sacks last season with 10, narrowly ahead of Hassanein’s 9.5. Naturally, there are concerns about how Boise State will replace Hassanein, who led the team with 12.5 sacks in 2023, and whose presence helped free up things for Virgin-Morgan and others.

After being named to the Mountain West preseason all-conference team on Wednesday, Virgin-Morgan expressed no concerns about the Broncos’ pass rush. In fact, he doesn’t expect it to be wholly different from last year.

Boise State played a lot of dime defense in 2024, with two extra defensive backs, but Chinander mentioned in the spring that the Broncos could look at a nickel defense to accommodate the number of quality defensive backs on the team.

Boise State would occasionally run a nickel defense in 2024, but typically to allow for more creative blitzing schemes.

“It’s been the same, I feel like we’re still running any package,” Virgin-Morgan said. “We’re still running some (of the same) packages.”

And just like Virgin-Morgan was an understudy to Hassanein, a similar relationship is already beginning to kindle between Virgin-Morgan and a couple of teammates, he said.

The junior said he’s been impressed with the rushing ability of junior defensive end Max Stege, who’s expected to replace Hassanein in the starting lineup. Virgin-Morgan also talked about redshirt senior edge Malakai Williams, a transfer from Idaho who finished 2024 with 6.5 sacks.

As prosperous as the Boise State pass rush was in 2024, Virgin-Morgan said he isn’t letting that success cloud his judgment in 2025. He said he has carried over from 2024 a piece of advice from Hassanein, who’s now with the Detroit Lions:

“You can build off of last season, but you can’t really let that linger and be like, ‘I had this many tackles, this many sacks last season. Why don’t I have that this season?’ If you’re looking into that, you’re gonna see people saying, ‘Oh, you had this last year. Why don’t you have it this year?’ Then that adds more stress.”