Maddux Madsen beats out Malachi Nelson to win Boise State starting quarterback job

Boise State conducted a compelling quarterback battle in fall camp, but the competition is over and redshirt sophomore quarterback Maddux Madsen has beaten out former five-star-plus prospect Malachi Nelson for the gig.

That news comes courtesy of a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Nelson transferred in from USC this offseason and was thought to be a strong candidate to win the job.

Instead, Madsen, who served as the primary backup to Taylen Green last season, won the gig. Madsen threw for 1,191 yards and nine touchdowns last season, while tossing only three interceptions. He also ran for 120 yards and two scores.

Green transferred to Arkansas this offseason, opening the door to Maddux Madsen and Malachi Nelson in the competition.

Nelson arrived at USC as a freshman in 2023, playing only sparingly behind Caleb Williams. He threw three passes, completing one of them for no yards.

Prior to enrolling at USC, Malachi Nelson was ranked as a five-star-plus prospect, the No. 11 overall recruit in the country in the 2023 recruiting class. He checked in as the No. 5 quarterback in the class and the No. 2 overall player from the state of California, hailing from Los Alamitos (CA) Los Alamitos.

Ohio State names Will Howard the starter

Boise State’s decision to tap Maddux Madsen over Malachi Nelson for the starting job wasn’t the only such decision made this week. In fact, several programs announced new starting quarterbacks.

The Ohio State Buckeyes and head coach Ryan Day have named Will Howard the team’s starting quarterback to open the 2024 season.

It was a decision that Day explained at a press conference following practice on Thursday.

“Will Howard will start the first game against Akron,” Ryan Day said. “He is our starting quarterback. I think that Chip [Kelly] has done a great job of rolling the quarterbacks from the first day of spring all the way to now. I think we’re 12 or 13 practices in here. So, we’re talking 27, 28 practices and when you take the aggregate of all the numbers, Will graded out significantly ahead of the other guys.”

Howard came to Ohio State as a transfer from Kansas State this offseason. He spent four seasons there and played in 34 career games, and he chose to transfer shortly after last season’s starting quarterback, Kyle McCord, left Ohio State in the Transfer Portal.

In his time at Kansas State, Howard had a career completion percentage of 58.8 for 5,786 yards and 48 touchdowns to 25 interceptions. He also ran for 921 yards and 19 touchdowns.