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Wednesday, May 6, 2015.
It’s entirely too soon to be talking about this, but the scenarios provide good fodder. Mark Schlabach and Brett McMurphy of ESPN.com have come up with their early 2015 bowl projections. Schlabach has Boise State returning to the Fiesta Bowl to face Notre Dame. That would create a cool chess match between the Broncos and their former offensive coordinator, Mike Sanford, now with the Fighting Irish (although word is that Sanford won’t be calling plays at the outset this season). McMurphy projects the Broncos facing Stanford in the Las Vegas Bowl. In that case we’d have the Kelsey Young storyline. The former Cardinal running back is now a Bronco and could figure prominently in the Boise State running game this fall. By the way, McMurphy has Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, too—against Utah State.
If you needed any more proof that Chris Petersen has some defensive rebuilding ahead at Washington, the first and second rounds of the NFL Draft put that to rest. UW nose tackle Danny Shelton was taken fifth overall by Cleveland, cornerback Marcus Peters was the 18th overall selection, going to Kansas City, and linebacker Shaq Thompson was the 25th player drafted, going to Carolina. Then in the second round, linebacker Hau’Oli Kikaha was taken by New Orleans.
The Huskies will miss those guys when they face Boise State on the blue turf September 4. How did the quartet do in previous games against the Broncos? In the 2012 Las Vegas Bowl, a 28-26 Boise State victory, Thompson recorded eight tackles, Peters six and Shelton four. In the 2013 season opener in Seattle, a 38-6 Huskies win, Thompson logged nine stops, Peters seven, Shelton three with a blocked kick, and Kikaha two with a shared tackle-for-loss.
Former Boise State safety Jeremy Ioane underwent successful kidney transplant surgery yesterday in Salt Lake City. Both Ioane and his donor, his twin sister Jasmine, are doing well according to doctors. The siblings will remain in Salt Lake the next two months for monitoring. Ioane was diagnosed with IgA nephropathy after a kidney biopsy in the summer of 2012, but it wasn’t made public until Thanksgiving weekend last year. The outpouring of community support for Ioane since, both from Boise and from his homeland in Hawaii, has been remarkable
Can Titus Young have a life again? He has a chance now, exactly two years after he was first arrested for a series of bizarre incidents. Young, the one-time Boise State star, avoided prison time yesterday when he was sentenced to five years probation for assaulting his former attorney last July. He was also required to spend a year at the Crosby Center, a rehab and brain injury treatment center in Escondido, CA. The ex-Detroit Lion gets credit for 99 days already served at the Crosby Center, so he could be free next February. Young could have faced up to three years in state prison. The center’s director testified yesterday that Young suffers from a traumatic brain injury as the result of a concussion and was “over-medicated” at the time of the July attack—but that he had been an “ideal patient” and a “non-threat” the past three-plus months.
Eagle High grad Taylor Kelly has landed a rookie minicamp tryout with the Arizona Cardinals after going undrafted last weekend. The former Arizona State quarterback missed three games with a broken foot last fall, with the effects lingering the rest of the season. That may have put a dent in Kelly’s draft status. He was a three-year starter for the Sun Devils and set a new school career record for total offense with 10,223 yards. Kelly also ended up third all-time on the ASU list with 79 touchdown passes and 8,819 passing yards.
Gary Stevens and Firing Line are indeed headed to the Preakness a week from Saturday after their second-place finish in the Kentucky Derby last week. Firing Line’s assistant trainer, Carlos Santamaria, said Firing Line looked completely healthy in the days following the Run For The Roses. “He’s doing really well,” said Santamaria in the Baltimore Sun. “Even the first day after the race, he was in his stall always looking for something to eat. He never lost his appetite.”
Few hires have been ripped as much as Isiah Thomas as president and part-owner by the WNBA’s New York Liberty, and local hoops fans can understand. His destruction of the Continental Basketball Association in 2001 forced the Idaho Stampede to go on hiatus for one year while Stampede managing investor Bill Ilett and other CBA owners worked on saving the league. All Thomas did after that was win 34 percent of his games as coach of the New York Knicks, entangle himself in a sexual harassment case that cost Knicks ownership $11.6 million, and compile a 26-65 record as coach at Florida International. In a “not so fast” statement, the WNBA said, “New owners are approved by our WNBA Board of Governors, and this process has not yet begun.”
The 2015 season hasn’t started so swimmingly for former Boise Hawk Andrew Cashner. The San Diego righthander dropped to 1-5 last night after a 6-0 Padres loss in San Francisco. To be sure, Cashner is kind of a hard-luck guy. Last season he went 5-7 but posted a solid 2.55 ERA. This year the former TCU standout has a respectable 3.16 ERA despite the painful record. Cashner worked six innings versus the Giants and allowed six runs, four of them earned. In San Francisco they’re celebrating a five-game winning streak—and Willie Mays’ 84th birthday today.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by ZAMZOW’S…nobody knows like Zamzows!
May 6, 1998: Chicago Cubs rookie Kerry Wood ties Roger Clemens’ major league record—the one we talked about here last week—for most strikeouts in a game, fanning 20 batters in a complete game one-hitter, a 2-0 victory over the Houston Astros. Wood was named National League Rookie of the Year, but his career would be marred by 16 stints on the disabled list, and he would be moved to the bullpen in 2007 to try to preserve his arm. Wood, who also pitched for the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees, would finish his career with the Cubs, retiring early in the 2012 season.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment Sunday nights at 10:30PM on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on 93.1 The Ticket. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
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