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Thursday, October 30, 2014. Boise State’s Halloween horrors occurred more than a month early, on September 27. Were it not for the upset loss that night at Air Force, BSU would be knocking at the door of the Top 25 and might even be in it. But the Broncos have to live with the haunted night in Colorado Springs. In the meantime, they watch Colorado State bubbling under in the polls. Has everybody forgotten that in September Boise State put up 676 yards on the CSU defense, the fifth-most in Bronco history? Well, the Rams haven’t, because unless BSU loses another game, their loss on the blue turf eliminates any chance they have at the Group of Five’s automatic access bowl spot. That berth can only go to a conference champion.
There are those who think Boise State still has an outside shot at the access bowl berth if it can win out. But that’s really putting the cart before the horse, just as it was going into the Air Force game. The Broncos, of course would have to count on losses by East Carolina and Marshall. ECU was the only non-power school to make the first College Football Playoff rankings this week. The Thundering Herd did not, due to their weak schedule. But you have to assume that as long as Marshall is undefeated, it’ll be next in line. Boise State needs to worry about New Mexico (where it almost blew a 25-0 lead two years ago), then San Diego State (which has beaten the Broncos twice in a row), Wyoming (on November 22 at 7,200 feet) and Utah State (with one of the Mountain West’s best defenses).
A check of Mountain West stats during the Boise State bye week shows the Broncos are leading the conference in scoring at 34.9 points a game and total offense at 504 yards per outing. They’re also averaging a league-leading 24.9 first downs. The defensive numbers are out of whack, though. Boise State is allowing an average of 360 yards a game, fourth in the MW, but is eighth in scoring defense at 27.5 points. Other notables: the Broncos are first in interceptions with 14, and second-to-last in kickoff returns with an 18.6-yard average.
The question for Portland State when it hosts Idaho State Saturday night: can the Vikings keep pace with the Bengals? PSU is averaging just 22½ points per game, while ISU is putting up over 42 and rolling up a massive average of 580 yards. Bengals quarterback Justin Arias is leading the FCS nationally in passing yards, touchdown passes and completions and is poised to give Portland State a heap of trouble. Idaho State has won three straight games for the first time since 2003, which is also the last year it had a winning season. One other ISU note: Cal has been added to its non-conference schedule in 2018. The Bengals and Bears will play in Berkeley September 18.
Former Boise State star Billy Winn has missed the past three games with a quad injury, but he’s slated to be back on Cleveland’s injury-decimated defensive line Sunday against Tampa Bay. Winn, who has 57 career tackles, three sacks and an interception, returned to practice last week but wasn’t far enough along to play in last Sunday’s win over Oakland. One of Winn’s assignments will be to tackle former Bronco compadre Doug Martin.
The Idaho Steelheads had feasted on fast starts going into last night’s game against Stockton in CenturyLink Arena, outscoring opponents 5-1 in the first period. Last night saw a reversal, as the Steelheads peaked in the third period of a 3-0 victory over the Thunder. Idaho didn’t score until Jason Bast tallied 4½ minutes into the second stanza. Bast added another goal in the third—he now has five in five games. Goalie Olivier Roy, working against his former team, recorded his first shutout as a Steelie and is now third in the ECHL with a 0.90 goals-against average. The Steelheads are off to a 4-1 start and will face Stockton again Friday and Saturday.
Part of the allure of Boise State basketball exhibition games are the live auditions by Bronco newcomers. There will be numerous such unveilings Saturday night against La Verne in Taco Bell Arena. One guy who should settle in quickly is forward James Webb III, the North Idaho College product who redshirted last year. “The first thing that excites me is, he’s only a sophomore,” coach Leon Rice said. Webb is a jump-out-of-the-gym kind of JC transfer. “He can make those plays where somebody drives by him and he comes back and blocks the shot,” said Rice.
Graham DeLaet tweeted last weekend about his 29-hour (door-to-door) flight that went from Phoenix to Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur. Now DeLaet is there and on the course today in the CIMB Classic. This is the former Boise State star's first PGA Tour event since the season opener three weeks ago. DeLaet withdrew from the Shriners tournament in Las Vegas due to back problems and did not enter the McGladrey Classic last weekend. He finished tied for 39th in the opener, the Frys.com Open.
The Boise State football team tied for the 18th-highest Graduation Success Rate among FBS schools on the NCAA’s 2014 list announced yesterday. That’s down from eighth a year ago, but it’s still the Broncos’ third-straight year above 80 percent. Among other BSU athletic programs, the highlight was the women’s golf team, which tied for the lead in the Mountain West with a 100 percent Graduation Success Rate (that’s obviously tied for first in the nation as well). The golfers have achieved nine straight perfect GSRs.
This isn’t local, but let’s make it that way. Pablo Sandoval, San Francisco’s offensive sparkplug as the Giants won their third World Series in five years, played in Boise’s Memorial Stadium in 2005 as a member of the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes. So there. A number of other Giants came through the Northwest League, too. When you go to a Hawks game, you never know who you’re watching. One footnote: when Kansas City tied the score 2-2 in the second inning last night and the Giants made their first pitching change (before the historic entrance of Madison Bumgarner), I put on my new glow-in-the-dark “SF” T-shirt. Just sayin’.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by GROUND FX…the Treasure Valley mulch experts!
October 30, 1974, 40 years ago today: The “Rumble In the Jungle” pits world heavyweight champion George Foreman against challenger Muhammad Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire. Ali, trying to regain the title stripped from him in 1967, employed his “rope-a-dope” strategy for the first time, wearing down the younger and stronger Foreman by forcing him to throw punch after punch without connecting. Ali finally knocked down Foreman in the eighth round, and when the champ barely made it back to his feet, the fight was stopped.
(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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