Boise State vs. Toledo Predictions: Will Kellen Moore's Heisman Hopes Crash?

Boise State enjoyed a nice, easy bye week to savor a statement victory over Georgia on the first Saturday of the season, but the Broncos better have readjusted their focus to this weekend’s road trip to Toledo.

The Rockets are no joke.

WR Eric Page, RB Adonis Thomas and QB Austin Dantin are a dangerous offensive trio.

Toledo gave Ohio State a scare last week and you can bet that Tim Beckman’s team will be looking to do the same thing to big bad Boise State this weekend.

As we saw in the Georgia game, though, the Broncos are absolutely loaded with difference-makers all over the field.

QB Kellen Moore isn’t the only player to watch on the Boise offense.

RB Doug Martin is one of the most underrated backs in the country, and even without guys like Titus Young and Austin Pettis, the Broncos appear to have enough new emerging playmakers to round out a solid receiving corps, especially if Geraldo Boldewijn returns.

The problem is, Moore, Martin and the rest of the Boise State offense could run over every opponent in the dominant fashion that we saw from them in 2010, and guess what, it wouldn’t matter.

Boise’s schedule is just perceived as too soft for Moore to ever win the Heisman Trophy.

Is that fair?

Absolutely not, but it’s the truth.

It’s going to be difficult for Moore to top the season he had last year and that campaign only got him fourth place in the Heisman voting.

Nobody in the south is going to vote for Moore, barely anybody in the east will vote for Moore. The fact is, he just doesn’t get the type of national respect he probably deserves.

If Moore was doing this at say, Oklahoma, would he be in first place?

Without a doubt.

If Landry Jones beats Florida State tomorrow night, he becomes the Heisman favorite, and if he wins out, there’s nothing Moore can do to catch him.

Jones’ five toughest opponents after Florida State: Missouri, Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Oklahoma State.

Moore’s five toughest opponents after Toledo: Tulsa, Nevada, Air Force, San Diego State and TCU.

Obviously, there’s bit of a difference in the level of competition.

Moore and Boise State could go out and level Toledo this week.

They could destroy Tulsa in Week 4.

And they could crush Nevada on October 1.

But guess what, that won’t get them the respect they’re seeking.

Moore had his chance to impress a national audience when he beat Georgia, but he’ll only get one more opportunity to have that kind of a stage again and that’s not until November 12 against TCU.

Until then, he’s second page news.

The Broncos are expected to win all of their games up until the TCU contest, and fans and voters don’t want expected.

They want come from behind victories, they want a dramatic individual performance in a crucial game.

They don’t want 57-14.

Kellen Moore could have another fantastic year but it’s going to be hard for him to get a national audience to pay attention.

The voters know Moore is up there in Idaho, slinging the ball around on the blue turf, but it’s sad to say that at this point, he’s kind of old news.

He’s great, but we’ve known that for three years.

It's time for some new flash.

We really liked what we saw from Cam Newton last year.

We’re really going to like what we see from Robert Griffin III this year.

The point is, we like new stars.

Moore’s great, but we’ve seen him do this whole dance before.

Beat the big boy in Week 1, beat another semi-quality opponent somewhere along the way and then throw and score all over everybody else.

We’ve moved on, I'm sorry.

The voters have new favorites and Moore is sliding down the pecking order.

Moore only needs to hope that Marcus Lattimore, Landry Jones, Andrew Luck, LaMichael James, Trent Richardson, Justin Blackmon, Brandon Weeden, Robert Griffin III, David Wilson and Darron Thomas all conveniently bow out of the Heisman race.

If that happens, he should celebrate.

Until then, though, Moore can only sit back and wish that the Heisman voters would actually give a Non-AQ kid a chance he deserves.