BOISE — The No. 6 Boise State Broncos are feeling the effects of a full schedule.

Austin Pettis, the No.1 receiver and man who broke the single-season BSU touchdown record, fractured his lower leg on a failed 2-point conversion try against Nevada. He may return for the bowl game, and surgery may speed his recovery.

Junior linebacker Daron Mackey was lost for the season with a torn ACL, joining Richie Brockel and D.J. Harper on the inactive list. BSU head coach Chris Petersen chalked the injuries up to bad luck.

“We’re beat up,” Petersen said. “We’ve lost a lot of guys along the way.”

The Broncos (12-0, 7-0 Western Athletic Conference) face their final test of the season Saturday at Bronco Stadium against New Mexico State (3-9, 1-6 WAC).

The Aggies have lost five consecutive games, including a 13-10 killer against San Jose State last week, which tied the two teams for last place in the WAC.

This week provides other Broncos with an opportunity to step up and fill those holes. Kirby Moore has to become a featured receiver in Pettis’ place, and Chris Potter and Mitch Burroughs have to start catching more balls. Dan Paul seems to be filing in for Richie Brockel just fine — he scored three touchdowns last week.

On the defensive side, the deepest position was linebacker all season, but Mackey’s loss and a minor injury to Derrell Acrey break open the log-jam at the position. Look for J.C. Percy, Aaron Tevis and Hunter White to expand their roles. White will probably move to Mike backer. Also look for young Tommy Smith to slide into the rotation.

Nate Potter is also questionable at left tackle after getting poked in the eye early against Nevada. Matt Slater filled in nicely, and Potter’s injury isn’t significant.

BSU has a share of the WAC title. It must beat NMSU to own its seventh WAC title in eight years outright.

It’s assumed that BSU will beat NMSU, but Petersen isn’t buying it.

“At this point I don’t see it as a distraction,” Petersen said. “I see it as motivation, because it’s right here in front of us. We might have a chance to do something real big.”

R-E-A-L big. Bowl Championship Series big.

With Oklahoma’s win over Oklahoma State last weekend, the door flew wide open for the Broncos to assume a perch atop the NCAA mountain. There are currently no one-loss teams to leap ahead of the Broncos in the polls. Everybody else, except the top six, just kept losing. Many of the teams that could have stolen a BCS bid finished the season with three losses.

“There’s a lot of tremendous importance on this game, for everything we’ve been through,” Petersen said. “We need to go out and play really well. We’ve been through so much. We’re close, but we’re not there. Every single week teams get knocked off that you don’t think should. That’s college football.”

Notes: It’s also senior day for these Broncos: Kyle Wilson, Richie Brockel, Michael Choate, Garcia Day and Andy Silsby. They are all that remain from a senior class that earned a 47-4 record through the last four seasons. Three of those season include undefeated regular season records.

Dustin Lapray covers Boise State football for the Times-News.