Georgia's defense bottled up Antwaun Carter and Boise State's potent offense, allowing 292 total yards. AP

It quickly became evident, the way Boise State quarterback Jared Zabransky kept delivering footballs into the hands of Georgia defenders last Saturday night, that he was in the midst of a very public mental meltdown. In nine first-half posessions, the junior Maxwell-Award candidate turned the ball over six times -- throwing four interceptions and losing two fumbles -- and was so shaky at the end of the second quarter that he spent the rest of the night in the locker room suffering from dehydration and an injury that head coach Dan Hawkins refused to discuss in specifics, saying only, "I think his physical condition was adding to his mental condition." (After the game, a dazed Zabransky was spotted in the locker room with his arm and upper body wrapped in bandages.) The Bulldogs took advantage of the frazzled passer by scoring 24 points off of his giveaways en route to an easy 48-13 victory.

The blowout loss was a cruel blow to the 18th-ranked Broncos, who had come to Athens seeking much more than victory. They have gone 44-7 since Hawkins took over in 2001, led the country in scoring twice and finished ranked 16th or higher three years in a row. This summer, for the first time since moving up to Division I-A in 1996, Boise State began the season in the AP's Top-25. For all its success, however, the program hasn't been able to shake its reputation as a western oddity, an offensive juggernaut that dominates in the WAC and nowhere else. Players talked openly this summer about the validation to be gained from beating a traditional power like the 13th-ranked Bulldogs. "We feel we have something left to do," junior wideout Legedu Naanee said last week. "We can go anywhere and play anybody. We're not worried about this game because it's Georgia."

The Broncos should have known better. Entering the weekend, they had played only three road games against BCS-conference opponents (South Carolina, Arkansas and Oregon State) since '01 and had lost them all, scoring just 17 points per game, more than 27 below their average in all other games under Hawkins (44.8). Compare that to their dominance of the WAC over the same period, during which they've lost just two conference games. Boise State averages 46.6 points against WAC competition, a figure that jumps up to 50.3 on the neon-blue turf of Bronco Stadium, where the team has never lost a conference game. Indeed, Boise's only two wins against BCS-conference schools under Hawkins have come at home: against Iowa State in the '02 Humanitarian Bowl, and last fall against Oregon State. Senior left tackle Daryn Colledge presumably spoke for all the Broncos after the game when he told a gathering of reporters, "I'm just ready to go home."

Even a return to Idaho, however, will provide no break. Boise State travels to Oregon State on Saturday, then has to host Bowling Green on Sept. 21. By the time the Broncos open their WAC schedule with a visit to Hawaii on Oct. 1, there's a very real chance they could be 0-3. Last season, Boise State finished the regular season 11-0 and nearly qualified for a berth in the BCS. There was rosy talk around training camp this summer about playing in the Rose Bowl, but after last Saturday's loss any sort of BCS date is out of the question. Instead, Hawkins must get his team to focus on merely surviving the next month. "Regardless of what happened in this game, I was going to tell them, 'Flush it,'" he said afterwards. "We have to move on."

The real MVP in Tallahassee

Seeing as how there were no points scored last night after the second quarter, my choice for MVP of the Miami-Florida State tilt is FSU punter Chris Hall. The senior punted eight times for an average of just 36.5 yards, but he was the key reason punt-returner Devin Hester was a non-factor. Hall's relatively low yards-per-kick average can be attributed to the fact that he was kicking away from Hester -- a few punts went out of bounds or were downed without being returned -- who muffed two balls and had only one return for three yards. Hall's most important kick of the night was his last, a 45-yard boomer early in the fourth quarter that was spotted at the Hurricanes' three-yard line. There were more than 12 minutes remaining in the game at the time, but it took Miami 19 plays and nearly 10 minutes to get into position to attempt a game-tying field goal, which failed after a bad snap. The Seminoles then ran out the clock.

Rugby infusion

Speaking of punting, am I the only one who noticed an unusual amount of rugby-style punts this weekend? The play looks like a fake, with the punter angling towards the sideline before kicking the ball. I know Navy ran it for the first three or four games last year, but I haven't seen it much since. The punter appear's to have the option of taking off if he sees the defense is dropping into a straight return instead of trying to block the kick. The play was good for a couple of first downs this weekend. Navy used it (of course) to pick up one against Maryland, and Bowling Green employed the play to good effect against Wisconsin.