PROVO — The No. 20 Boise State Broncos are headed to LaVell Edwards stadium Saturday night and Cougar fans are nervous, excited and antsy to get this game going.

Boise is coming off a lackluster win against Washington in Boise last week. The Broncos appeared to control the game early, but they let former coach Chris Peterson and the Huskies creep back into it. The Huskies' last-second field goal attempt fell short and Boise walked away with the win.

BYU headed to Nebraska and battled the Cornhuskers in a game for the ages. Back-up QB Tanner Mangum threw a last-second Hail Mary to Mitch Matthews to win in dramatic fashion. Cougar fans are high on the miraculous win, but the defense showed a lot of holes, the offense was hit and miss at times and the Cougars lost Heisman hopeful Taysom Hill for the season. Yes, fans are excited to see what a very competent Mangum can do, but he doesn't have the experience or the mobility of Hill.

Saturday will mark the sixth meeting between the Broncos and the Cougars and the fourth in the last four years.

Boise has won four of the prior five meetings with the Cougars. BYU's only win came in Provo when the Cougars thumped the Broncos in 2013. Guess who was BYU's QB that year. That's right, Taysom Hill. He threw for 339 yards and three TD's and added another 69 yards and one TD on the ground. Can Mangum get that kind of production?

Let's take a look at last year's matchup and see what stands out for Saturday's game.

QB play

Neither team has their returning starter for Saturday's game, which could be a big deal for both sides.

As mentioned before, the last time Hill played the Broncos he had a career day. Last year Christian Stewart took over at QB for the Boise game and managed 259 yards and a TD and a QB rating of 22.9 while completing just 23 of 38 passes.

The QB for Boise last year was Grant Hedrick and he had a field day.

Hedrick threw for 410 yards, four TD's and ended up with a QB rating of 95.5.

Neither of last year's quarterbacks will be on the field Saturday night, and the new QBs have a lot to prove. Mangum had a solid day when he came in for Hill, but he's never started a college game. Boise's Ryan Finely was only 16 of 26 last week against the Huskies, throwing for 129 yards and one interception.

It's clear both teams will miss their former quarterbacks.

Boise receiver Thomas Sperbeck

BYU's defensive backs undoubtedly know the name Thomas Sperbeck. The Boise State receiver had 148 yards against the Cougars last year and the junior is back this year.

Sperbeck had a superb day against the Cougars as the Broncos crushed BYU, 55-30.

The defensive backfield for BYU had a rough time against the Broncos last year just like they did against the Cornhuskers last week. The defensive backs have their work cut out as they try to keep up with Sperbeck and fellow receivers Holden Huff and Kelsey Young.

The second quarter

For the past two years, the BYU-Boise State games have been relative blowouts; one for each team. If you look at the box score, however, you'll notice that the blowouts really happened in the second quarter of each game.

In 2013 BYU was up 7-0 headed into the second. In the second quarter Boise managed to score three points while the Cougars put up 17. In the third, Boise and BYU both had 10 points and in the fourth the Broncos outscored the Cougars seven to three.

The 2014 game had a similar story, but the roles were reversed.

The first quarter belonged to the Broncos as they outscored the Cougars 10-0. A 10-point deficit isn't insurmountable, but the second quarter was rough on BYU. Stewart and the Cougars put 16 points on the board, but the defense gave up 31 points. From there both BYU and Boise scored seven points each in the third and fourth quarters.

If history repeats itself for a third year then pay close attention to the second quarter, it could be the difference between a close battle and an utter blowout.

Conclusion

This is a big game for both teams. The Broncos have a legitimate shot at an undefeated season and BYU will likely be their biggest obstacle. For BYU, the first four weeks are brutal. It got an underdog win against Nebraska, but starting the year with two wins would defy the expectations of most observers and set the Cougars on a course for what could be a very special season.

Three of the previous games between BYU and Boise were lopsided, two in favor or Boise and one for BYU. The other two meetings were decided by one point, both of those games going to the Broncos.

Expect something more along the one-point games for Saturday as opposed to the blowouts over the last two years.

The Cougars and the Broncos kick off at 8:15 MDT in Provo.

John has been writing about movies, news, sports and pretty much anything awesome for more than five years. John is the co-host of the Flix Junkies podcast and will always entertain you with his stories.

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