Boise State numerical roster countdown 2016: Day 34, Robert Mahone

34 is the atomic number of selenium. In a wacky coincidence, it's also the number of days before Boise State football kicks off. In honor of this, today we'll be highlighting a newbie to the program—Robert Mahone

#34, Robert Mahone, True Freshman, RB

Stats

Height: 5'11"

Weight: 190 lbs

High School: Prosper High School, Prosper, TX

How'd he get to the Blue™?

Mahone was rated just a two-star recruit by two of the three major recruiting outlets, but based on his offer list, I think it's fair to say that they didn't really get around to evaluating the speedy Texan. Mahone played safety his first two seasons of prep ball and only moved over to running back as a junior...but I'd say it was the right move, as he ran for 868 yards and 12 scores his first season in the backfield. As a senior, Mahone gained 1,172 yards and scored 16 touchdowns for the Eagles. Maybe more impressively, Mahone's senior totals were the product of just 125 carries...good for a 9.3 YPC clip. A two-year team captain, Mahone was named to the All-District 10-5A first team as both a junior and senior and garnered at least 11 D1 offers—among them: boise state (obvs), Arkansas State, Colorado State, Houston, Louisiana-Lafayette, Missouri State, Montana State, New Mexico, SMU, "Stone Cold" Stephen F. Austin, and UTSA. Mahone's senior highlights are below—wherein he makes many a tackler a "would-be" tackler.

Nickname

"Mahoney"

Police Academy's finest

Look-a-like

Psych actor Dulé Hill

Career Highlights

Two-time team captain for Prosper Eagles. Named to All-District 10-5A first team as a senior in 2015. Named to All-District 10-5A first team as a junior in 2014.

2016 Prospectus

The Broncos have certainly had plenty of talent in the backfield for more than a decade, but haven't had the relentless "1-2 punch" at running back for a little while. Entering fall camp, the Broncos will have 5 scholarship RBs on the roster and 7 total, so I don't think I'm being overly optimistic when I suggest an effective 1-2 punch should be forthcoming. We know that junior Jeremy McNichols is going to be the Broncos feature back, but with experienced depth returning in the forms of Devan Demas, Cory Young, and Ryan Wolpin and freshly-arrived talent in the forms of Mahone and Mattison—it's hard to imagine a scenario where the Broncos don't have fresh legs in the backfield at all times. Remember, McNichols got his bell rung last season and had to sit out the Utah State game...a game that "sorta" got away from us. It's just not feasible to expect a running back to carry such a heavy workload and stay 100% healthy through the course of a season...the Broncos need a feature-back-in-waiting, and I just know that one is lurking on the current roster.

Boise State is bound to have a high-powered passing attack this fall, and a punishing running game is only going to open that up even more. Mahone's "one cut and gone" running style isn't something we haven't seen before, but he's got the size to go along with it as well (rumor has it he arrived in the 210 lb. range). I think the Bronco running game is going to be in very good shape for the foreseeable future and the addition of Mahone is a definite step toward dominance.

Is he on Twitter?

Off twitter till fall ✌ ️

— 1K.. (@RobertMahone4) July 7, 2016

Yes, but he might be twitter-silent for a little bit.

Completely made up fact

Mahone was so prolific at scoring touchdowns because his mother would stand in the back of the end zone waving a box of Corn Pops cereal. He's gotta have his pops™.