Presented by ANGELL’S BAR & GRILL.
Monday, November 17, 2014.
I've only missed a handful of Boise State home football games since 1971, so I'm comfortable stating this as fact. The Boise State-San Diego State game was the coldest ever played in what is now Albertsons Stadium, eclipsing the Miami-Nevada game in the then-MPC Computers Bowl on New Year's Eve, 2006. None of the 1994 Division I-AA playoff games measure up. If you throw the 1980 playoff game against Grambling out there, I will say "au contraire." The temperature that day was 25 degrees—the fog and the hoarfrost on the trees just made it look colder. The kickoff temperature of 9 degrees Saturday night is a record by far, and it will likely stand for years, and even decades, to come.
The attendance of 27,478 for the 38-29 Boise State win was the lowest in 11 years at Albertsons Stadium, but it should come with an asterisk. When the number pops up in the future as a small crowd benchmark, everyone will know why. I'd estimate more than half of the fans were back in their seats after halftime, and most of those stayed until the bitterly-cold end. The thing about a crowd like that in conditions like that: they were the hard cores, and they brought as much energy as any other game. It was like they were all in it together, and they wanted to make up for those who weren’t there.
Now to the football. The Boise State offense was, like just about everything else, frozen during the first 1½ quarters Saturday night, while San Diego State was taking a blowtorch to the Bronco defense. Midway though the second quarter, when the Aztecs had taken a 20-0 lead, they had outgained the Broncos 206 yards to 37. Then things finally started cranking. In the last 2½ quarters, Boise State outscored SDSU 38-9 and held the Aztecs to 151 yards while rolling up 362 themselves. There was a point early in the third quarter, though, when the Broncos still looked to be stuck in neutral. They began the second half with a three-and-out and were facing another after a series was thwarted by a blown-up screen pass to Jeremy McNichols that lost four yards. That’s when Chris Santini’s 24-yard run on a fake punt changed the complexion of the game.
Boise State scored on that drive; then Cleshawn Page followed with his first career interception to set up the go-ahead touchdown. Still, the Broncos were nursing an icy two-point lead after San Diego State scored with 8½ minutes left in the game and failed on a two-point conversion. The Broncos got the ball at their own 30—and had the ball for more than 6½ minutes, forcing the Aztecs to start using their time-outs and scoring with 2:02 left. It was a 70-yard drive that took 14 plays, with Boise State converting four times on third down. Jay Ajayi carried eight times for 28 clock-chewing yards on the drive, and Grant Hedrick had three rushes for 26 yards and the decisive 13-yard touchdown. That was gut-check time.
The victory improved Boise State’s record on the blue turf to 98-4 since the beginning of the 1999 season and greatly increased the votes the Broncos received yesterday in the polls. They went from one point last week to 29 this week in the AP Poll and are third in line to get into the Top 25. In the Coaches Poll, Boise State now has 32 points and is fourth in line to crack the rankings. Both of the teams the Broncos lost to this season, Ole Miss and Air Force, are now 8-2. Also, Marshall has moved up to 18th in both polls, and Colorado State is 22nd in AP and 23rd on the Coaches list.
Senior Day was a downer of a day in the Kibbie Dome Saturday. Troy, which came in with a 2-8 record, doused the Vandals with a 34-17 defeat that sent their record to 1-9 with one game to play. With Chad Chalich apparently unable to go at quarterback, Matt Linehan played the whole game and was horribly off the mark, going just 14-of-36 for 269 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions. The one bright spot, as he has often been this season, was wide receiver Josh McCain, who notched his sixth 100-yard game of the season and became the first Idaho player with a 1,000-yard season since Max Komar in 2009. McCain’s 1,115 receiving yards are now sixth in the FBS. Pretty good for a guy who was playing quarterback a year ago.
With a season's worth of emotion and energy expended after a 37-year absence—and a roster understandably thin due to a preponderance of freshmen, the College of Idaho was thrown to the wolves Saturday. They were wearing Carroll College clothing, and the Saints seared the Coyotes 69-12 in Helena. The Yotes trailed only 14-12 after a 58-yard touchdown pass from Teejay Gordon to Marcus Lenhardt before the NAIA's second-ranked team scored a staggering 55 unanswered points. That was one of only two Lenhardt catches on the day—he ends the season with 43, five short of R.C. Owens' 1953 record. Fellow Eagle High grad Austin Diffey finished with 42 for the season after seven grabs for 56 yards on the frozen turf in Montana.
The Boise State men’s basketball team is 2-0 after sweeping San Diego and Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles. Time will tell if depth is going to be a hallmark of this Bronco squad, but it’s trending that way out of the gate. The 81-75 win over San Diego Friday featured Anthony Drmic and his 21 points and nine rebounds. The 77-69 victory over the Lions Saturday brought out Nick Duncan’s three-point shooting and Mikey Thompson’s creativity, with both players scoring 15 points. Derrick Marks worked his late-game magic in his season debut against LMU, with a key three-pointer and a 6-for-6 showing down the stretch at the free throw line. The most consistent of the newcomers was true freshman David Wacker, who combined for 21 points and nine rebounds in the wins. Next up for Boise State is tomorrow night’s home opener against Montana.
It might take awhile for new coach Dean Cooper to get the Utah Jazz system in place in Boise. The Idaho Stampede opened the season Friday night with an abysmal shooting performance in CenturyLink Arena. The Stampede shot just 33 percent from the field and went 5-of-29 from three-point range as they fell 96-88 to the Erie BayHawks. Those are bad numbers in the D-League. The Stamps improved Saturday, making 44 percent from the floor, but the threes were still elusive at 6-of-22. It was a bigger loss, too, with Erie rolling 114-95 thanks to a staggering 59-30 advantage on the boards. Kevin Murphy, the D-League’s top returning scorer, was tamed to the tune of 16 and 10 points in the two games.
Regulation didn’t do it for the Idaho Steelheads over the weekend in Bakersfield, but everything beyond that did. Friday night the Steelheads dropped the Condors 3-2 after goalie Olivier Roy kept Bakersfield skaters off the board during a shootout. Saturday night the Steelies got by the Condors 2-1 in overtime when Alex Belzile tallied 1:36 into overtime. It was a big weekend for Belzile, who had scored two goals in Friday’s win. And Saturday was a solid night for the Steelheads defense, which limited the Condors to just 17 shots in three-plus periods. Roy appreciated that, turning away 16 of them to pick up his ECHL-best eighth victory of the season. The Steelies return to CenturyLink Arena Wednesday night to open a three-game series against Ontario.
The Boise State cross country program is riding high. The Bronco women qualified for NCAA Division I Nationals Friday, tying for second and winning a tiebreaker with host Stanford at the NCAA West Regionals. Individually, Emma Bates finished second and Marisa Howard fifth. On the men’s side, Boise State’s Andrew Rafla earned an at-large berth at nationals, which will be held this Saturday in Terre Haute, IN. Also, the Boise State wrestling team split matches, beating Utah Valley and falling to Iowa State, the NNU women’s volleyball team is hosting the NCAA Division II West Regionals this Thursday through Saturday, the College of Idaho women’s volleyball team won the Cascade Conference title and is going to the NAIA Tournament, and the C of I men’s basketball team is now 7-0 after wins over Lewis-Clark State and Montana Tech.
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November 17, 2007: Boise State wins its ninth straight game in the Bronco-Vandal rivalry and its ninth straight game of the season in a 58-14 pounding of Idaho at Bronco Stadium. Senior quarterback Taylor Tharp threw for 282 yards and four touchdowns, and true freshman wide receiver Austin Pettis caught three TDs as BSU secured its seventh 10-win season in nine years. It would be the final home game in the career of eventual NFL first-round draft pick Ryan Clady. The 6-6, 319-pound left tackle scored a touchdown on a screen pass—only to have it called back by a penalty.
(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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