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Thursday, September 4, 2014.
Boise State has to face down a new national perception right now, and you get the feeling some writers are just giddy at the thought of creating it one game into the 2014 season. A lot of them were probably among those discrediting the Broncos five years ago. It started with the AP game story from Atlanta last week, which noted Boise State was “coming off its worst season since 1998 and seems to have lost its BCS-busting swagger.” It had the Broncos “hardly looking like the powerhouse that former coach Chris Petersen built before bolting for Washington after last season.” That’s fair enough, I guess. But some of the pens get more acidic.
In another AP story, veteran writer Ralph Russo had this: “You could say that decisive loss to Oregon State at the Hawaii Bowl last December, just weeks after Petersen had left to take the Washington job, marked the end of an era for Boise State. If there were any doubts, the Broncos' 35-13 loss to Mississippi on Thursday night most certainly wiped them away.” Russo continued: “The Broncos became a national brand and a divisive force in college football. You either embraced Boise State and its cool blue turf and rooted for the Broncos to disrupt a system that seemed to be stacked against them or you despised the upstarts from who knows where, with their soft conference schedule and silly blue turf. Many of the latter type of fans came from SEC country.” That’s what is out there, sports fans.
Then you see Boise State at No. 4 this week on Dan Wolken’s “Misery Index” in USA Today. Wolken laid it on thick: “Remember when the Broncos used to be good? Remember when they showed up for those big season-opening games and routinely made major conference programs look foolish for scheduling them? The façade of being a nationally elite program is falling apart, and even if Bryan Harsin is great, it's impossible for him to look great in comparison to what Petersen accomplished. Boise may be a very good Mountain West program, but the Ole Miss game emphasized that is indeed all they're capable of being this year and probably beyond.” File that one in the “premature” category. Saturday’s game against Colorado State will be Boise State’s first chance to prove that the balance of power in the Mountain West has not shifted.
The tight end position showed promise for Boise State against Ole Miss last week, even though only one player at that spot made the box score. Redshirt freshman Jake Roh debuted with four catches for 34 yards, the most grabs by a tight end since Holden Huff had four at Hawaii in 2012. Speaking of Huff, he’ll be back from his one-game suspension Saturday, and that gives the tight end group a chance to take another step. Jake Hardee and Alec Dhaenens are likely contributors as well. And if you see No. 90 in there Saturday night, it’s another tight end cameo by offensive lineman Eli McCullough, the Rocky Mountain High grad. Maybe Grant Hedrick will throw to McCullough one of these weeks. Or months.
Colorado State has long dreamed of building a football stadium in the heart of the CSU campus. The Rams' current home, Hughes Stadium, is four miles from campus. They know how much the new facility would cost: $254 million. The university has until next month to privately raise $110 million of the funding (although it may be able to seek an extension if it shows major progress toward that goal). In late July, Colorado State athletic director Jack Graham told local business leaders in Fort Collins that the effort is going "very well." Then Graham was fired. Beat writer Kelly Lyell of the Coloradoan said yesterday on Idaho SportsTalk he thinks the plan will be put on hold for 2-3 years.
Utah State looks to get well—figuratively, not literally—when it hosts Idaho State Saturday in Logan. After all, star linebacker Kyler Fackrell is out for the season after an injury last Sunday night in USU’s 38-7 loss at Tennessee. But the Bengals are coming off a 56-14 opening day loss down the Wasatch Front at Utah and will have trouble with a more confident Chuckie Keeton. The Aggie quarterback was on his heels versus the Volunteers, throwing for only 144 yards and rushing for 12. There were some positives in Salt Lake City for ISU. While the Bengals are not known for their rushing prowess, former Mountain View High star Daniel McSurdy ran for 61 yards on just 11 carries.
The University of Florida announced yesterday that its game against Idaho that was halted by lightning after a long-awaited opening kickoff last Saturday will not be replayed. It’ll be declared “no contest,” leaving both schools with only 11 games on their regular-season schedules. The Vandals received two consolation prizes, though, as Florida will pay the full $975,000 fee—and Idaho will get another crack at the Gators with a game now scheduled in 2017. The Vandals’ new opener doubles as its conference opener Saturday at Louisiana-Monroe.
If the College of Idaho football team is going to surprise this season in its grand return to the gridiron, it’ll need an extremely young offensive line to jell. Four of the five starters on the Coyotes offensive line will be Idahoans, if you count Greg Dohmen from his years at Boise State (he’s actually from Red Bluff, CA). Dohmen, a fifth-year senior, is the only non-freshman in the group. The guards will be redshirt freshmen Dylan Garcia of Mountain View High and Andrew Galloway, a two-time 3A All-State pick out of Payette High. At tackle will be true freshmen Sam Ball from Capital High and Sam Zvirdys out of Tumwater, WA. Ball was a 5A All-State selection a year ago for the Eagles. The Yotes make their debut Saturday afternoon at Pacific University.
The NFL season starts tonight, as does Jeron Johnson’s fourth NFL season with the Seattle Seahawks. The former Boise State standout is one of those good undrafted free agent stories, having made it in 2011 as a specials team mainstay and increasing his defensive snaps since then. Johnson is listed as the Seahawks’ backup strong safety behind Kam Chancellor after a solid preseason. He’ll be anxious to make up for lost time against the Green Bay Packers tonight—he missed the Super Bowl with a hamstring injury that had limited him to seven games last season and finally sidelined him for good in early December. Johnson is hungry.
Pitching wins championships. At least it won the Northwest League South Division playoffs for the Hillsboro Hops, who ended the Boise Hawks’ season last night with a 5-2 victory and a series sweep. After Justin Marra gave the Hawks a 2-1 lead with a two-run homer in the second inning, the Hops chipped away at Boise’s pitching staff, and the Hops hurlers wouldn’t let the Hawks answer. Hillsboro got a seven-inning start from Markus Solbach, and two relievers wrapped it up. Boise could manage just six hits, and only Rashad Crawford could get two. The Hops move on to the Northwest League Championship Series against Vancouver or Spokane, and the Hawks’ NWL title drought will last another year—there’s been no league crown since 2004.
The best former Boise Hawk story of the year has been that of Pittsburgh’s Josh Harrison. He’s gone from minor league player to Pirates utilityman to the Bucs’ starting third baseman and National League All-Star, threatening to win the National League batting title. He’s now a fixture in Pittsburgh’s leadoff spot and is second in the NL with a .310 average. Harrison has also hit 13 home runs and has 46 RBI, plus 17 stolen bases. He’s a fan and clubhouse favorite, and man is he a bargain. Harrison’s salary is reported to be a modest (by big league standards) $513,000.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by ZAMZOW’S…nobody knows like Zamzow’s!
September 4, 1972: Swimmer Mark Spitz sets an Olympic record that would stand for 36 years, winning his seventh gold medal of the Summer Games in Munich. Spitz set world records in all seven events, four of them individual races and three of them relays. Though only 22 years old at the time, he then retired from competition. Fellow swimmer Michael Phelps broke Spitz’s mark with eight golds at Beijing in 2008.
(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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