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Thursday, December 11, 2014.
Boise State's past four bowl games have all been pre-Christmas affairs, which has put the crimp in recruiting. This week is always a crucial one on the recruiting trail, and with the Fiesta Bowl on New Year's Eve there's no overlap with practice. The Bronco staff has scattered to try to close on prospects. At the same time, it’s difficult to get all 15 of the allotted bowl practices in when those games are scheduled before Christmas. That won’t be a problem this year.
There are just 11 seniors headed to Glendale who’ll be leaving the Boise State program after the Fiesta Bowl. Presumably there’s an additional scholarship available since senior Travis Saxton was dismissed from the team in October. Keep that in mind as you follow the Broncos’ commitment count for the 2015 recruiting class. Currently there are 12 commits according to Scout.com, so there doesn’t seem to be room for a whole lot more. In addition to quarterback Brett Rypien, Boise State has verbals from three wide receivers, two offensive linemen, two safeties, one running back, one cornerback, one defensive end, and one linebacker.
Darian Thompson has become the first member of the Boise State secondary to be named to an All-America team since Kyle Wilson five years ago. Thompson made the CBSSports.com second team after making seven interceptions during the regular season, tied for third in the country. The junior safety also has 61 tackles. Thompson has 14 career picks—only Steve Forrey, Frank Robinson, Gabe Franklin, Darrin Lyle and Joe Larkin had more as Broncos. Idaho’s Austin Rehkow was also a CBSSports.com second teamer. Rehkow, a finalist for the Ray Guy Award, again led the nation in punting average at 47.8 yards per kick.
It appears that Gary Andersen will be looking across the field at Boise State when the Broncos visit Oregon State in 2016. In a move about as shocking as Mike Riley's jump to Nebraska, OSU has lured Andersen away from Wisconsin to replace Riley. Things were going fine with the Badgers, last week's 59-0 loss to Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game notwithstanding. Andersen was 19-7 at Wisconsin after having turned around the Utah State program. His last game with the Aggies was the 41-15 win over Toledo in the 2012 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.
Wisconsin experienced another loss yesterday when running back Melvin Gordon announced he'll leave early for the NFL Draft. The move was expected, so it doesn't bump Boise State's Jay Ajayi any further down the draft lists (if he foregoes his senior year as well). Most services have Ajayi rated the eighth-best prospect at running back. Six of the seven ahead of Ajayi are also juniors—the exception is senior Ameer Abdullah of Nebraska.
Turns out Montana is just one of three teams that might land Idaho quarterback Chad Chalich. The Vandals have granted Chalich a release transfer to either the Grizzlies, Idaho State or Sacramento State. Since all three are Big Sky schools, the former Coeur d'Alene star will be able to play right away in 2015. There could be worse choices than ISU. The Bengals got their offense crankin' this season behind quarterback Justin Arias, and he was a senior. There's a lot coming back in Pocatello. In parts of two seasons at Idaho, Chalich threw for 1,715 yards and seven touchdowns against five interceptions and rushed for 364 yards and one TD.
You don’t think Western Michigan’s P.J. Fleck is jacked for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl against Air Force a week from Saturday? Fleck, the youngest head coach in the country, was on the Jim Rome Show Tuesday. "This town really deserves a winner," Fleck told Rome. "When I took the job I wanted to make sure this place is a winner for a very long time. I knew the challenges. I knew the challenges and what it's always been. Change is hard, but I think people are starting to see if you keep your oar in the water and keep rowing the boat, elite things are going to happen.” We are quickly learning that “row the boat” is Fleck’s mantra.
In hoops, Boise State has another home date tonight against Northwest Nazarene in Taco Bell Arena. Guard Montigo Alford will likely sit this one out as he did the Tuesday night win over Adams State. Alford was injured in practice, and coach Leon Rice’s description of the mishap is scary. “That made a coaches heart drop,” said Rice. “The guy had already left his feet and the guy went that way and Montigo literally did a flip in the air and landed on his shoulder and jarred his head. This day and age we’re always cautious about head and mild concussion symptoms. It was a bad one.” NNU comes into tonight’s tilt with a 2-7 record after a thrilling 59-57 win last Saturday over Montana State-Billings. Erik Kinney leads the Crusaders with 13.1 points per game.
Boise State’s Derrick Marks naturally gets a lot of attention for his scoring, as he is neck-and-neck with fellow senior Anthony Drmic for the team lead in that department at 14.9 points per game. Marks is 18th in career scoring in Mountain West history and needs five points to reach the 1,400-mark. But the senior’s floor game has been phenomenal since Thanksgiving weekend. Marks does not have a turnover in his last 68 minutes of playing time going back to the second half of the North Carolina State game.
As we turn to hockey, we turn back to the Fiesta Bowl. Maybe that’s fitting since the Idaho Steelheads wore Bronco-themed jerseys last weekend. It's been noted that the first two times Boise State went to Glendale in January of 2007 and 2010 coincided with the Steelheads’ last two trips to the ECHL's Kelly Cup Finals. Idaho won the Kelly Cup title in 2007 over Dayton and fell in the 2010 finals to Cincinnati. Is it omen time? The Steelies are in CenturyLink Arena this weekend for a pair against the rival Alaska Aces. Idaho will have defenseman Mike Dalhuisen back, as he has rejoined the club after being assigned by the AHL’s Texas Stars.
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December 11, 1971: Boise State plays in its first post-season game as a four-year school, taking on Chico State in the Camellia Bowl at Sacramento. The Broncos fell behind 28-7 early in the third quarter before a wild rally behind quarterback Eric Guthrie and wide receivers Don Hutt and Al Marshall carried them to a 32-28 win. It was also the first time the Broncos appeared on network TV, with ABC telecasting the game regionally via legendary play-by-play man Keith Jackson.
(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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