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Wednesday Weekly…April 30, 2025.
It was another “if I had told you” checkpoint Tuesday. If I had told you in the summer of 2023 that 1) Andy Avalos would be fired as Boise State head coach during that season, 2) that a 35-year-old Spencer Danielson would end up as head coach, and 3) that Danielson would be making $2.2 million per year in less than two years, you would have made some comment about consumption of an illegal plant. But Danielson’s story only gets better, as yesterday he received a five-year, $11 million contract extension. I mean, he’s probably still underpaid for a guy who took a Group of 5 team to the first 12-team College Football Playoff, but it’s still a lot better than the $1.1 million Danielson made last season.
WHEN DICKEY’S LIGHT SWITCH FLIPPED
You’ve heard this story before, but Boise State athletic director Jeramiah Dickey has told many people around him about his “burning bush” moment. When Dickey named Danielson the Broncos’ interim head coach a scant year and a half ago, he made it clear to the then-defensive coordinator he was going outside the program to find the next coach. Then Dickey saw the rejuvenated team rout Utah State in Logan and give Danielson not one, but two Gatorade baths. Players like Ahmed Hassanein and Alexander Teubner lobbied hard for Danielson. Then the Broncos beat Air Force, and the perfect storm happened—Boise State made the Mountain West championship game. In a meeting with Danielson a couple days before the matchup at UNLV, Dickey knew, and he announced it the morning after the win over the Rebels.
PAC-12 TV DEAL IS IMMINENT
The Spencer Danielson bulletin 24 hours ago overshadowed this news from Northwest sports columnist John Canzano: the Pac-2 has its TV deal for 2025, and it has some clues for the new Pac-12 in 2026. CBS Sports and The CW are involved in the Oregon State and Washington State schedules, and that’s no surprise. But ESPN’s involvement was not widely expected. There’s probably not a ton of money included in the ESPN piece, but Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould has said all the way along that maximum exposure is important to the conference. The Pac-12 TV contract can’t be far behind, whether or not the league extends an invitation to a long-awaited eighth football member.
ASHTON SETTLES IN
This isn’t going to get old for a while. From the “What they’re saying about Ashton Jeanty” department—got these from a Vic Tafur column in The Athletic. Raiders coach Pete Carroll said Marshawn Lynch was calling all draft night, excited about the pick. “No one loves the running game like he does,” Carroll said. “Guys that have style are really special to Marshawn. He found a physical way to bank off people and bounce and keep the play alive, and Ashton is a player that shows that kind of style.” And how about Marcus Allen? “He is the quintessential running back,” Allen said from the Raiders draft party. “He has all the tools. He can catch, he can run, he has great balance, he has great vision…he has speed.” And from Carroll himself: “He is hard to tackle…and has marvelous creativity.” I like the word “creativity.”.
WHO’S NOT ROOTING FOR AHMED?
The Detroit Lions sent their International Fan of the Year, Marius O’Dell of Germany, to the podium to announce the team’s sixth-round pick last Saturday in the NFL Draft. And in these parts, we view that selection as the International Player of the Future, Boise State’s Ahmed Hassanein. The Broncos’ star EDGE becomes the first Egyptian ever drafted into the NFL, and the pure emotion on-camera when he got the call from Lions coach Dan Campbell was something else. “Coach, I will die for you. I just want you to believe in me,” he told Campbell through sobs. Then, as friends celebrated at his Boise draft party, Hassanein proposed to his girlfriend Payson. Key words: “Boise draft party.” Hassanein later posted a message directed at Bronco Nation, saying this is where he will settle down and build a home.
MORE NFL DESTINATIONS
Four undrafted Broncos will get their auditions. Wide receiver Cam Camper, Boise State’s leader in receptions last year, gets a shot in training camp as an undrafted free agent with the Jacksonville Jaguars, as does offensive guard Ben Dooley with the L.A. Rams. And this is a great story, even he doesn’t stick: safety Alexander Teubner, the one-time walk-on from Seaside, OR, will get a rookie minicamp tryout with the Baltimore Ravens. Same is the case for fellow safety Seyi Oladipo with the Miami Dolphins.
GRADES ON MOORE’S FIRST TEST
Coach Kellen Moore’s first draft class with the New Orleans Saints is “mid”, according to the experts. They’re giving it B and C grades. One NFL analyst looked at “dozens” of evaluations and tabbed it bottom five in the league. But let’s see where it is two years from now. Some question the Saints’ choice of Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough in the second round, but it’s not time to skewer Kellen’s judgment. He’s trying to build a culture with the Saints—the kind he became accustomed to at Boise State—and he feels Shough fits it emotionally and mentally. Some also suggested that Moore’s personality wouldn’t be able to handle that of Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, but when you’re stressing culture, why would you want to mess with that? In my opinion, Sanders fell to the fifth round for one reason: teams just didn’t like him.
HOME FROM A PORTAL VISIT
I don’t know if anyone else could have done this, but it was announced Monday that defensive tackle Braxton Fely is out of the transfer portal—and back at Boise State. Fely has an uncommonly close relationship with Danielson—his civil wedding ceremony was officiated by Danielson—so this is a unique case, and not a precedent. Wide receiver Eric McAlister said he was entering the portal the week before Avalos was fired in 2023. Then McAlister tried to come back after Danielson was named interim coach, but it was decided it wouldn’t be a good idea. We know one guy who won’t be returning: punter James Ferguson-Reynolds. The Broncos have already pulled another Australian punter out of the portal, Weber State’s Oscar Doyle, who averaged 44.4 yards per boot last season.
SPRING DANCING
A trio of NCAA Tournament destinations are set for Boise State on Friday. The Broncos women’s tennis team is headed for Austin to face Baylor after capturing the Mountain West championship last weekend. Boise State men’s tennis was runner-up in the MW title match but got into the NCAAs as an at-large pick and will face Cal in Berkeley. And the Southland Conference champion Boise State beach volleyball squad, which has earned its first NCAA Tournament berth in program history, will meet Stanford in Gulf Shores, AL. That match will be telecast on ESPN2.
SUN VALLEY’S WELCOME MAT
The 2025 FIS World Cup Finals went exceeding well last month in Sun Valley, so much so that the premiere international skiing event will return to Baldy in 2027. The announcement was made Monday during the Boise Metro Chamber’s Regional Leadership Conference in Sun Valley. There were very few opt-outs from the biggest names in the sport in this year’s finals. Lindsey Vonn became the oldest female Alpine skier to make a World Cup podium in any event—by six years—when she finished second in the Super-G at age 40. And superstar Michaela Schiffrin took gold in the Women’s Slalom.
DEGENHART SENDOFF
Today from 4-5 p.m. Tyson Degenhart, now a former Boise State star, will make his final personal appearance for Pastry Perfection, signing his new “Career Celebration Card” (and myriad other things I’m sure). His “Degenhart Dozen” promotion was one of the early NIL deals three years ago, back in a more innocent time. That’s when NIL was working the way it was intended to, with athletes simply representing local businesses and being compensated for it. Degenhart had a lot bigger NIL contracts come his way as time went on, but he has always treated the one at Pastry Perfection as something special. Hopefully you can make it down there today and just thank the Broncos’ career scoring leader for being a heckuva good guy.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by BACON BOISE…fresh breakfast and brunch every day!
April 30, 1993: One of sports’ most infamous moments, as tennis star Monica Seles is stabbed in the back by a deranged spectator during a tournament in Hamburg, Germany. The attack was carried out by a fan obsessed with Steffi Graf—at a time when Seles was No. 1 in the world and Graf No. 2. Seles was the three-time reigning French Open champion and had also won two straight Australian and U.S. Opens. The injury took only a few weeks to heal, but she would not return to competitive tennis for more than two years.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
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