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Monday, April 14, 2014.
It was the defense’s day at Boise State’s Blue & Orange Game Saturday. And if you had to narrow it down to one defensive guy, it would be Blake Renaud, coming off a somewhat disappointing and injury-affected 2013 season. Four of Renaud’s fellow linebackers weren’t on the field for the spring game. Ben Weaver and Travis Saxton missed all of spring football due to injury, and Tanner Vallejo and Tyler Gray were nicked up and sat out on Saturday. Renaud took advantage of extra reps and played with a purpose, leading the defense with six tackles. The senior was especially prominent on third down, putting a crunching hit on wide receiver D.J. Dean, sacking quarterback Ryan Finley, and dropping running back Derrick Thomas for a loss. Renaud totaled only 25 tackles last season after logging 46 in 2012.
Finley solidied his hold on Boise State’s backup quarterback job by going 10-of-12 for 128 yards and a touchdown Saturday night. It was quite a spring for a guy who coaches originally expected to be on the periphery of practices due to a shoulder injury suffered last fall. Even now, Finley is probably only about 80 percent. “For Ryan Finley to do what he did and not use his shoulder as a crutch and battle through it was really impressive,” said offensive coordinator Mike Sanford. Finley’s touchdown pass was his most impressive throw of the evening, albeit a short one. Devan Demas was at full gallop coming out of the backfield, and Finley led him perfectly in stride. Consequently, it was no contest. Demas motored 82 yards to the end zone.
The atmosphere was outstanding Saturday night at Bronco Stadium, with the lower deck completely full on the east side, and the lower and upper decks almost full on the west side. The attendance goal set by coach Bryan Harsin was 20,000, but the crowd was announced at 13,822. Sure looked like more than that, but the turnstiles tell the tale. Harsin was conscious of the need to thank the fans through play-calling, and the Statue of Liberty to Jay Ajayi in the first quarter brought the house down. I’m thinking Ian Johnson was there to enjoy it (he was one of the 350 former players attending Boise State’s sixth annual Gridiron Social Friday night).
It was revealed Friday during the practice-viewing portion of the Gridiron Social that the Broncos would wear helmet stickers with the number 70 during the Blue & Orange Game in honor of the late Randy Trautman. The stickers were supposedly to be worn for the spring game only. Perhaps the school will honor Trautman in some other way long-term. The Broncos played a well-produced video tribute to the former defensive behemoth before the game Saturday, and I salute them for that.
It’s looking like Teejay Gordon’s team as spring football has wrapped at the College of Idaho. At the Coyotes’ first spring game in 37 years Saturday, Gordon quarterbacked the Yotes on an 18-play 70-yard drive to open the morning, capping it with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Eagle’s Marcus Lenhardt. Later in the scrimmage, Gordon added a 20-yard TD on the ground. He was 10-of-19 for 80 yards and a touchdown through the air and ran for 35 yards and another score. Coach Mike Moroski had 55 players to work with for spring ball. He expects to double that number by the time fall camp arrives in August.
Idaho held another marathon scrimmage Friday in the Kibbie Dome. The Vandals didn’t run 190 plays like they did the week before—this time it was “only” 173 snaps. We’ll call that about 2½ games’ worth. The offense racked up 1,026 yards and 14 touchdowns on the defense, with Matt Linehan throwing for eight touchdowns and Chad Chalich three. Linehan is indeed competing for the starting quarterback’s job. Dezmon Epps snagged 17 of the 51 receptions in the scrimmage, covering 218 yards and four TDs. Epps had 79 catches last season, more than twice as many as any other Vandal.
Boise State basketball season tickets go on sale today. There are some new per-seat contributions that are sure to be debated, but another new feature is intriguing. I’m not sure how common it is elsewhere in the country, but the Broncos’ push to get recent graduates aboard is a good idea. People who earned their Boise State degrees in December of last year, plus those who get them next month, will receive $100 off the price of any season ticket. Graduation is a jolt for students who are sports fans. They go from getting into games free and sitting in cool Parquet-level seats behind one of the baskets in Taco Bell Arena to struggling to afford tickets as fresh-faced members of society.
The Idaho Steelheads needed either a sweep—or one win and an overtime or shootout loss—in Utah over the weekend to secure the No. 3 Western Conference seed in the Kelly Cup Playoffs. A 3-2 loss to the Grizzlies Friday mooted that, and now it’ll be No. 4 seed Idaho versus No. 5 seed Colorado when the first round opens in CenturyLink Arena this Friday night. The Steelies won seven of nine games against the Eagles this season. The Steelheads did wrap up the regular season with a 3-2 shootout win at Utah Saturday night, as Jason Bast and Justin Mercier each tallied in regulation and again in the shootout. Goalie Pat Nagle got the win in the finale.
Graham DeLaet had one simple tweet after missing the cut Friday at his first Masters: “Still the best week of my life.” Last Thursday wasn’t the best day, what with that 8-over 80. But the former Boise State star, the first Bronco alum ever to play at Augusta, rallied Friday with an even-par 72 that included five birdies. It was the first time since last October DeLaet has failed to make a cut.
Three former Boise Hawks were among the notables over the weekend. Cubs catcher Welington Castillo launched a three-run homer in the 11th inning to beat the Cardinals 6-3 Friday night. Also Friday, San Diego’s Andrew Cashner pitched one of the two best games of his career, a one-hitter with 11 strikeouts, as the Padres shut out Detroit, 6-0. Cashner also one-hit Pittsburgh last September. San Diego is the only major league team to never register a no-hitter. And Josh Donaldson has his mojo back, homering in the first inning Friday and the ninth yesterday as the A’s took two out of three games from the Mariners at Safeco Field.
The Boise State men’s tennis team logged three more victories at the Appleton Center over the weekend to improve to 23-4 on the season. What we didn’t know is that Greg Patton had won his 400th match as Bronco head coach the week before. So Patton now has 403 wins against 149 losses at BSU. On Friday, the Broncos won 5-2 over UC Irvine, the school at which Patton was named NCAA Coach of the Year in 1987. On Saturday, Boise State blanked Idaho 5-0 before embarking on a slugfest against San Diego State. The match against the Aztecs wasn’t decided until Garrett Patton won a third-set tiebreaker, securing a 4-3 victory. The G-Man, Greg Patton’s son, had rallied from a 5-3 deficit in the third set.
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April 14, 1910: William Howard Taft begins the presidential tradition of throwing out the first ball on Opening Day in Washington. Taft watches as Walter Johnson—who five years earlier was playing semi-pro ball in Weiser—pitches a one-hit shutout to lead the Washington Senators past the Philadelphia A’s, 3-0. Four years ago, President Obama marked the 100th anniversary of Taft’s ceremonial toss by throwing out the first pitch for the Washington Nationals’ 11-1 Opening Day loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.
(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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