Presented by BLAZ’N DIAGNOSTICS.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014.
Saturday night you got your last look at Matt Miller and Shane Williams-Rhodes until August. In the Blue & Orange Game, Williams-Rhodes had nine catches for 81 yards, including a 59-yarder on a shovel pass that set up the first touchdown. Miller had zero receptions. Is that a cause for concern? Uh, no. The duo combined for 165 catches last season—a school-record 88 from Miller and 77 from Williams-Rhodes, who missed the final two games of the season. Miller’s dynamic spring outside Saturday’s game has been well-documented, while Williams-Rhodes saw a lot more action than anyone thought he would the past five weeks coming off that ankle injury in the San Diego State game last November. SWR also rushed for 34 yards and a TD Saturday.
If Miller picks up August 28 where he left off last season, look out. He had 41 catches for 636 yards and 10 touchdowns in the last five games and is second on Boise State’s career receptions list with 216, just 13 short of Austin Pettis’ Boise State career record. Miller put a capper on 2013 with 11 receptions for 206 yards and an 85-yard touchdown in the Hawaii Bowl loss to Oregon State. The senior from Helena, MT, is tabbed as one of the nation’s top 15 wide receivers in 2014 by Sporting News. Writes SN’s Ken Bradley: “It’s simple: Miller’s a tough matchup. He has height (6-3) to go up and get the ball at its highest point and he has the speed to stretch defenses. In his last five games, he caught at least six passes, had at least 80 yards (three games of more than 100) and had 10 of his 12 TDs. Momentum for 2014? Yes, we sure think so.”
Boise State’s Jay Ajayi is also in the Sporting News top 15 among running backs. Bradley writes: “A name you might not be familiar with, Ajayi is the third-best returning rusher (in the country) in 2014. He gained 1,425 yards and scored 18 times last season for the Broncos. He averaged 5.7 yards per rush and added 22 receptions for 222 yards. He topped 100 yards six times in 2013 and had at least 90 in three more games. With Chris Petersen no longer running the show at Boise, there would be cause for concern for the Broncos’ offense, but expect Ajayi to continue being the backbone of the offense with former Petersen assistant Bryan Harsin stepping in as head coach.” No argument there, although the synopsis may not give Harsin enough credit for finding unique ways to use Ajayi moving forward.
Followup on Boise State’s sixth annual Gridiron Social last Friday—one of the 350 former players attending kept a typically low profile. I ran into one-time quarterback Jim McMillan in the Bleymaier Football Center (he was as awed as anybody by the place). The ever-humble McMillan says he’s still a bit embarrassed that his No. 12 jersey is the only one the Broncos have ever retired, especially since Kellen Moore’s hasn’t and probably won’t be. “Can we un-do that?” McMillan asked with a grin.
McMillan has only met Moore once. The two had their photo taken a couple years ago, and if you’re an aficionado of Boise State history, it’s a keeper. While looking over Moore’s huge mosaic in the football complex, McMillan asked how Kellen’s stay in Detroit was going. Ironically, it was the Lions who drafted McMillan in the 14th round in 1975 (back when the NFL Draft went 17 rounds). He wasn’t there long. McMillan said when he reported to Detroit he weighed in with all the other rookies. “I tipped the scales at 163 pounds,” he exclaimed. From there he went to the CFL, where he played one season for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. McMillan then joined his former BSU coach, Tony Knap, on Knap’s new staff at UNLV in 1976. After a year there he returned to the Treasure Valley to begin a career as a high school teacher and coach.
Hopefully Bryan Harsin isn’t beyond stealing an idea from the guy who succeeded him at Arkansas State, because this could work here. New Red Wolves coach Blake Anderson auctioned off a chance to coach ASU in its spring game—headset, play-calling and all—on eBay. It was announced yesterday that the winning bid was $11,700, made by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Nick Bhardwaj, a San Jose State dropout who has no ties to Arkansas State. He just wanted to experience it. Any doubt that Boise State could raise more than ASU did with such a promotion?
Just in time for Boise State basketball season tickets to go on sale comes word that incoming recruit David Wacker has been named the Texas 5A Player of the Year. Wacker’s a 6-9 forward from Judson High in Converse. He led his team, coach by his dad Mike, to a 37-2 record and the state championship game by averaging 11.4 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 3.3 blocked shots per game.
Willie Cauley-Stein, the 7-foot center who smothered Boise State with nine blocked shots in Kentucky’s 70-55 win over the Broncos in December, has decided to return to Kentucky for his junior year. Cauley-Stein has 166 blocks in his two seasons, already sixth in UK history. He missed the Wildcats’ final three NCAA Tournament games, including the loss to UConn in the national championship game, due to an ankle injury. One note out of the Mountain West: UNLV’s leading scorer this season, Bryce Dejean-Jones, has announced he is transferring to Iowa State for his final year of eligibility. Not to worry at UNLV, which has a stout recruiting class to unveil next season.
The Idaho Steelheads take the ECHL Rookie of the Year into the Kelly Cup Playoffs this Friday. William Rapuzzi became the first Steelhead ever to win the honor yesterday after leading all ECHL rookies this season in assists, power-play assists, and power-play points. Rapuzzi, a 24-year-old forward from Anchorage, AK, had been named to the league’s All-Rookie team last week. He and the Steelheads will be on home ice this weekend for Games 1 and 2 of the first round against the Colorado Eagles.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by HARMON TRAVEL…the art of travel—perfected.
April 15, 1985: In Las Vegas, two of the greatest fighters of the era meet when middleweight champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler defends his title against WBC light-middleweight champ Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns. After a ferocious first round in which both boxers landed tremendous punches, Hagler took charge. In the third round, he floored Hearns with three vicious rights, prompting the referee to stop the bout.
(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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