The man they call “Hurricane Hank” is the top-ranked Broncos athlete on this year’s preseason list of the Mountain West’s best.
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Takes a lickin’, keeps on tickin’.
Everyone knows that playing quarterback is one of the toughest jobs in all of sports. Not many within college football right now know how demanding it can be and shine, anyway, quite like Boise State’s Hank Bachmeier, who appears on our annual list of the Mountain West’s top players for the third straight summer.
And why not? Ever since he stepped onto the field at Doak Campbell Stadium as a true freshman in 2019, all Bachmeier has done is hang in to make plays. Though that toughness cost him time in his first two seasons at the helm — six games in 2019, two games in 2020 — he started all 12 games for Boise State last season and had perhaps his best overall season. He set new personal bests with a 62.8% completion rate, 3,080 passing yards, and 20 touchdowns against an interception rate of 1.9%, and he did that despite playing about two-thirds of the year with a meniscus injury which required off-season surgery.
If he can stay on the field and perform like that at less than 100%, imagine what he can do with a clean bill of health. Though the Broncos are retooling elsewhere on offense, Bachmeier may still not have scratched his ceiling and will be the central figure in the team’s quest for another conference championship.
More MW Top 50!
2022 Mountain West Football Top 50: #7, San Diego State DE Jonah Tavai
2022 Mountain West Football Top 50: #8, San Jose State DE Cade Hall
2022 Mountain West Football Top 50: #9, Wyoming RB Titus Swen
