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Wednesday Weekly…May 14, 2025.
Boise State’s game at Notre Dame on October 4 had the look of last year’s Oregon game in terms of exposure—it was set to be shown on NBC’s Peacock streaming service like the matchup against the Ducks was. But that changed Monday when it was announced that the Broncos and Fighting Irish will meet on big boy NBC, and the game will kick off in the premium late afternoon slot, at 1:30 p.m. Mountain time. Thus it’s a bigger TV stage than the Broncos had for their epic game in Eugene last year. Of course, everyone had seen highlights of that game—multiple times—by the time the Heisman Trophy ceremony rolled around in December. This one has a head start in exposure. NBC originally indicated the Irish game against North Carolina State was slotted for the main network, but now that’s the one planned for Peacock.
Now that we know the situation, let’s look at the opportunity it presents. As we’ve said all the way along, an upset of the Fighting Irish, or even a close loss, could pay the dividends that last year’s walk-off defeat in Autzen Stadium provided. But truth be told, the Broncos aren’t getting a special spotlight here. The Irish typically play one Group of 5 (or even FCS) school per year, and Boise State is the latest. And the past three years, all three of those games have been in a feature afternoon window on NBC. Notre Dame lost two of them, 16-14 last season to Northern Illinois and 26-21 to Marshall in 2022. So while a victory in South Bend would be historic for Boise State, it might just be seen as another major Irish toe-stubbing.
THE VERY FIRST GAME OF WEEK 1
THE PAC-12 CONCLAVE
Jeramiah Dickey’s “What’s next” tweets sometimes come across like white smoke emitting from the chimney at Vatican City. Something’s about to happen, but we don’t know what the heck it is. Some big Pac-12 news has to be imminent, right? The 2026 TV deal? The eighth (and maybe even ninth) member? Preeminent Northwest sportswriter John Canzano has this word of advice on expansion: “All this is very fluid, but right now the Pac-12 believes it’s the clear No. 5 football conference and doesn’t want to do anything to dilute itself. Keep that in mind as you consider additions.” Canzano has long thought that Texas State is a likely football candidate, but that doesn’t mean he thinks it’s the best-case scenario. “Ideally, the Pac-12 would add UNLV, then try for Memphis/Tulane (football and men’s basketball only),” writes Canzano.
NOW, ABOUT THAT FOOTBALL FACILITY
If it was only about basketball, Nevada would be in the running for a spot in the Pac-12 based on a vote last Wednesday night by the Reno Redevelopment Agency. The organization’s board approved tax increment financing to help build the $435 million arena at the Grand Sierra Resort that will be home to Wolf Pack hoops beginning with the 2027-28 season. The Pac-12 would be proud to have a place like that, but football drives the bus, and that has been Nevada’s problem. Coach Jeff Choate, a former favorite of Bronco Nation, will get things done down there, but it’s going to take years for the football fan base to catch on again. Mackay Stadium is a hodge-podge and has become a detriment, and fans just don’t show up there the way they did 20 years ago. Nevada averaged 17,288 fans per game last season.
JEANTY’S SLOT RECEIVER ROOTS
Ashton Jeanty tooks the practice field last Friday as an NFL player for the first time, as the Raiders held their rookie minicamp in Las Vegas. In The Athletic, Jeanty had this quote to set the table: “I’m ready to be a pro and show everybody why I was picked where I was picked at, and just get ready to play that Raider brand of football.” We haven’t heard much from Andy Avalos since he was fired and landed at TCU, but he did talk in The Athletic about Jeanty’s recruitment. Four years ago Jeanty was still primarily a high school slot receiver when he came to Boise for a workout. “You can see it now, but it was his body control, his change of direction, the leverage that he runs with,” Avalos said. “You could instantly tell he was a powerful runner.”
INTERNATIONAL AHMED
Former Boise State star Ahmed Hassanein endeared himself to the Detroit media during the Lions rookie minicamp last weekend, especially when he was raving about the lobster mac and cheese in the team cafeteria. But Hassanein has another reason for contentment as Detroit’s sixth-round draft pick. Because he has an International Player designation, he does not count against the Lions’ current 90-man roster limit, allowing the organization to continue to seek additional talent. Hassanein won’t count against the limit until he makes Detroit’s 53-man roster. And if he doesn’t, he could sign with any team’s practice squad and not count against the 16-player limit for that. But whatever the situation ends up being, Hassanein wants the road to be tough. “I look for hardships,” he told the media. “I want to earn everything.
RECRUITING NEAR AND FAR
Boise State has a commitment from a running back for the 2026 recruiting class, Mariyon Sloan of Shafter, CA. Sloan is a 5-11, 180-pounder who amassed 4,446 yards from scrimmage in three years of high school, according to MaxPreps. Meanwhile, Boise State is serious about developing international players. On the heels of Hassanein’s success story, attention turns to Germany’s Max Stege and Ireland’s Lopez Sanusi to see how far their careers can go. Australian Alma Taleni just committed after a year at Utah, joining signee Daniil Starykh of Germany and new enrollees Arthur de Boachie of England and Roland Podesta of Australia. And now we see a tweet from Brandon Collier of PPI Recruits. He thanks Boise State offensive line coach Tim Keane “for coming all the way out to Sweden to recruit our athletes.”
KELLEN GOES TO WORK
What Kellen Moore does with the inexperienced quarterbacks room in New Orleans is now entirely up to him, as Derek Carr retired from the NFL Saturday. Carr aggravated a December shoulder injury in late March, and the choices were surgery, which would have jeopardized the entire 2025 season, or competing at less than 100 percent. So Moore will be able to go all-in on developing his second-round QB pick, Tyler Shough out of Louisville. Kellen also has Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener, like Carr a former Fresno State Bulldog, on the roster. All that aside, I think Moore and Carr could have coexisted in New Orleans. Their personalities wouldn’t have clashed, and the quarterback competition would have been fair. Carr passed for 41,245 yards and 257 touchdowns in an 11-year career with Raiders and Saints.
BREAKING NEW GROUND IN NAMPA
It’s been an epic baseball season at Northwest Nazarene. The Nighthawks won the GNAC Tournament for the second straight year, but this time the reward was their first-ever No. 1 seed in the NCAA Division II West Regional. That means NNU hosts one of the two West pods—and on Thursday night at 6 p.m., the Nighthawks will host the loser of the pod opener between Point Loma and Montana State-Billings. Regardless of the result, NNU will play again on Friday night. The winner of the Nampa pod advances to a best-of-three Super Regional series at the higher remaining West Regional seed next week, with the winner of that heading to the eight-team DII College World Series in North Carolina.
MORE ON THE DIAMOND + THE STREETS
There’s baseball at Memorial Stadium this Sunday, as the Boise Hawks play their one exhibition game before the 2025 season begins next week. The Hawks will host the Black Sox Pro Baseball Team, a national barnstorming team of independent baseball players. Boise’s opener is next Tuesday night at home against the Idaho Falls Chukars. And the 2025 YMCA Famous Idaho Potato Marathon has a little extra juice on Saturday, as it’s officially certified by USATF, making it a Boston Marathon Qualification race. That will improve the field—and the scene at the finish line, which will be at the Morrison Center this year.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by BACON BOISE…fresh breakfast and brunch every day!
May 14, 2017: The New York Yankees retire the franchise’s final single-digit jersey, as Derek Jeter’s No. 2 joins the legends in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park. Jeter, the team’s longest-tenured captain and one of the most popular Yanks of all time, won five World Series rings during his 20 years in pinstripes. He is the Yankees’ career leader in hits with 3,465, games played with 2,747, and stolen bases with 358. Rounding out the single-digits list in the Bronx are Billy Martin (1), Babe Ruth (3), Lou Gehrig (4), Joe DiMaggio (5), Joe Torre (6), Mickey Mantle (7), Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey (8) and Roger Maris (9).
(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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