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Friday, September 5, 2014.
The past two years, Boise State was able to follow its high-profile openers (both losses) with relative breathers, beating Tennessee-Martin 63-14 last season and Miami (Ohio) 39-12 in 2012. This season, the Broncos have to follow their loss to Ole Miss with their Mountain West opener against one of the conference’s fastest-rising squads. When Colorado State hired Alabama offensive coordinator Jim McElwain in late 2011, they wanted a cup of that Crimson Tide national championship tea. McElwain has changed the mindset at CSU, and the last two games have been the most significant—the 48-45 win over Washington State in the New Mexico Bowl that featured a miracle fourth quarter rally, and last week’s 31-17 takedown of rival Colorado. The Rams lost by 50 points to Boise State three years ago—and by 12 last season while rolling up 626 yards.
Colorado State appears to have the one-two rushing punch that Boise State could use. Both Dee Hart and Treyous Jarrells topped the 100-yard mark against the Buffaloes. Bronco coach Bryan Harsin’s assessment of their performances was ironic. “Their O-line, they’re in a groove,” Harsin said. “Their backs are playing off them—they’re seeing the creases.” Well, the offensive line CSU will send out on the blue tomorrow night has a combined four career starts, the fewest among all FBS O-lines, after an injury to senior tackle Ty Sambrailo in the CU game.
There's one key skill position weapon Colorado State will be missing on the blue turf tomorrow night. Preseason All-Mountain West tight end Kivon Cartwright will miss the game with a recurring foot injury. Cartwright caught one pass for 22 yards on CSU's first touchdown drive in the win over Colorado last week and has 59 receptions for 857 yards and nine touchdowns in his career.
Colorado State seems to be concerned about its secondary. The numbers last week at Invesco Field weren’t terrible—Colorado’s Sefu Liufau was 24-of-39 for 241 yards and two touchdowns. But it’s virtually the same secondary that Boise State’s Grant Hedrick torched for 305 yards and five TDs last year in Fort Collins. In that game, however, Hedrick completed passes to five different wide receivers. Last week at Ole Miss it was two, Matt Miller and Shane Williams-Rhodes. The Broncos need that No. 3 wideout (not to mention Nos. 4 and 5). When will it materialize? “It’ll happen naturally,” Harsin said. “It’s just a matter of time before other guys get out there and make plays.”
Field position will be the game within the game Saturday night, as CSUlooks at methodically working its running game to gain an advantage in that department. Boise State will need sophomore Sean Wale’s help. Wale had just one good boot in his debut as the Broncos’ mainstay punter, a 49-yarder, but the other four were wobbly pop-ups, and he averaged just 33.8 yards per punt for the game. Wale did punt 21 times last season and averaged 41.5 yards with a long of 63, so he does have it in him.
Nearly 24 years after his dad had the biggest game of his career at Mackay Stadium, Connor Halliday takes the field in Reno tonight to lead Washington State against Nevada on ESPN. His dad, Duane was a Boise State quarterback in 1990 when he came off the bench and threw for 382 yards in the classic 59-52 triple-overtime Wolf Pack win over the Broncos in the semifinals of the Division I-AA Playoffs. It was the elder Halliday’s shining moment—he had thrown only 10 passes during the regular season. On the other hand, Connor Halliday’s arm may fall off before too long. He regularly throws 60 passes in a game and set an NCAA record for passing attempts with 89 last year at Oregon. In last week’s loss to Rutgers, Halliday was 40-of-56 for 532 yards and five touchdowns.
The most visible position on a football team is quarterback, so that’s where eyes will turn first when the College of Idaho takes the field tomorrow for the first time in 37 years. Junior college transfer Teejay Gordon will get the start, with sophomore Jake Hennessey out of Mountain Home High waiting in the wings. “I think we have a good situation at quarterback,” said coach Mike Moroski on Idaho SportsTalk yesterday. “Everything starts in our offense with the decision-maker.” The season begins tomorrow the same way the last one in 1977 ended, with a game against Pacific University.
Matt Linehan’s college football debut will come in a much less intimidating environment than it would have last week. Linehan will be the first man in at quarterback when Idaho finally opens the season tomorrow at Louisiana-Monroe, a game that also serves as the Vandals’ first Sun Belt game in 10 years. Linehan isn’t expected to go the whole way, though, as coach Paul Petrino plans to play sophomore Chad Chalich as well. “I look at it as we have two quarterbacks right now,” said Petrino on Idaho SportsTalk. “Whoever’s playing the best will play the most.” The atmosphere in Monroe may not be intimidating, but the hosts could be—ULM is coming off a 17-10 upset at Wake Forest.
This will be the last chance we have to talk about Kellen Moore for awhile. His name disappears once the NFL regular season starts, and it’s here this weekend. As Detroit’s No. 3 quarterback, Moore again becomes Matthew Stafford’s trusted advisor. The Lions have a new offensive system under new coach Jim Caldwell, and Moore knows it as well as anyone on the roster. So his value on the sideline increases this year. “We’re probably more New Orleans a little bit,” Moore said on Idaho SportsTalk this spring. He said he watched “a lot of Drew Brees, who I can relate to in many ways.” Kellen remains multilingual in football-ese. “Pretty much a new language for the offense, which is kind of interesting,” he said. “It’s very much like being thrown into French class after you’ve now just mastered Spanish.”
A couple Idaho Steelheads nuggets: the team will hold its annual preseason “Season-Ticket Holder Only” game on Friday, October 10, versus the Utah Grizzlies. The regular season starts a week later in West Valley City against those same Grizzlies. And the Steelheads will serve as the opponent when the Bakersfield Condors wear special "Puffy Shirt" jerseys on November 16 in honor of the 25th Anniversary year of the first Seinfeld episode. The specialty jerseys are part of an entire Seinfeld-themed game night event. The Steelies were also the opponent when Bakersfield hosted “Charlie Sheen Night” at the height of the actor’s bizarre series of shenanigans 3½ years ago.
Two other notes: Graham DeLaet is tied for fourth after the first round of the BMW Championship, the third leg of the PGA Tour’s FedExCup Playoffs. The former Boise State star shot a two-under 68 on the Cherry Hills Country Club course outside Denver and is just one stroke behind leaders Rory McIlroy and Jordan Speith. And it’s rivalry weekend for Boise State women’s soccer, as the Broncos take on Idaho today in Moscow and return to Boise for their home opener Sunday against Idaho State. The Broncos are 1-1-2, while the Vandals are 0-4 and the Bengals are 0-2. This will be the first time Boise State has played at Idaho in women’s soccer in five years. BSU leads the series 9-4-1.
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September 5, 1994, 20 years ago today: During what ends up as their final season in Los Angeles, the visiting Raiders get steamrolled 44-14 by the 49ers at Candlestick Park. In that game, Jerry Rice scored three touchdowns to pass Jim Brown as the NFL career leader in TD’s. Rice, the greatest wide receiver of all-time, would play eight more seasons and would end up with 207 touchdowns in his 20-year career.
(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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