Presented by HARMON TRAVEL.
Wednesday Weekly…August 13, 2025.
The rivalry lives on—on the basketball court. Technically it won’t count, although you know it will for fans. Boise State and Idaho will meet October 17 in Idaho Central Arena, and it’ll be an exhibition game. The Broncos are coming off a 26-11 season and a semifinal appearance in the College Basketball Crown. The Vandals have started their turnaround under coach Alex Pribble, who is going into his third year—Idaho was 14-19 last season. Boise State leads the series 54-35. Believe it or not, this will be the first time the teams have met in hoops in 11 years. It’s been 15 years in football. (You never know.) By the way, that’ll make for a great weekend for Broncos faithful. The following day, Boise State hosts UNLV on the blue turf in what you can safely call a Mountain West showdown.
ANOTHER 25 IN ’25 FOR THE BRONCOS
The AP Poll is the big one, and—just like in the Coaches Poll—the Broncos are No. 25 in the preseason rankings. This is their first time in the preseason AP in seven years. And that comes on the heels of Boise State’s No. 8 finish in the AP Poll last season, their first time in the top 10 at the end in 13 years. Again, the Broncos are the only Group of 5 team in the rankings, making them a favorite to repeat as a College Football Playoff participant. For perspective, Boise State received 191 points in the poll. The next Group of 5 team was Tulane from the American—the Green Wave had 23 points (UNLV was right behind them with 21). Notre Dame is No. 6. Don’t blink…the 2025 season starts two weeks from Thursday.
SIRE BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT
The narrative on the Boise State running backs group has shifted since the start of fall camp two weeks ago. When Sire Gaines missed the first few days of practice, it was almost like he was the forgotten man. But Gaines is back with a vengeance—at a new-look 225 pounds, even though he’s still only 18 years old. And there’s a spirited battle between Gaines and Malik Sherrod for the starting spot. Thing is, if the competition continues as is, it won’t matter who starts. Gaines and Sherrod have talked about rushing for 1,000 yards apiece this year, as they’ll essentially split the touches Ashton Jeanty got last year, with a dose of Breezy Dubar and Dylan Riley. The Boise State offense won’t just morph into a Maddux Madsen air attack with Jeanty gone. It doesn’t have to. It can be similar to last year’s—and similarly effective.
TRUE FRESHMAN SWEEPSTAKES
Odds are at least one true freshman will play at wide receiver for Boise State, and the way things are going, it could be more. Coach Spencer Danielson has been raving all fall camp about Quinton Brown, the 5-8 speedster. But after last Thursday’s closed scrimmage, Danielson threw the other two true freshmen into the conversation, Qumonte “Cash” Williams, another Texan, and Kamryn Jones. For those of you who miss Prince Strachan, Williams is 6-5, 197 pounds. And he has the skills to match. I think the development of the wide receivers room with be fairly fascinating.
HOLY MOLY, HOLANI
A former Boise State running back peeled off a 19-yard run on his first carry in the Raiders-Seahawks game last Thursday night. On his team’s second possession, he ran 24 yards for a touchdown. His name was…George Holani. It was irony personified as Holani had seven carries for 61 yards on those first two drives. Ashton Jeanty? Three attempts for minus-one yards over the same stretch. For Jeanty: no big deal, as it’s just his first preseason game as a pro. But it is significant for Holani, as he can play his way onto Seattle’s 53-man roster with performances like that.
KELLEN EASES IN
Just like Jeanty’s preseason debut as a Raiders rookie, there aren’t a lot of conclusions you can draw from Kellen Moore’s preseason inauguration as a head coach. Moore’s New Orleans Saints lost to the L.A. Chargers 27-13 Sunday. But every coach approaches preseason games differently, and Kellen is using them to get a handle on his quarterback situation. He started Spencer Rattler—then played a lot of his top QB draft pick, Tyler Shough of Louisville. Shough looked better, in my opinion, throwing for 165 yards and a touchdown with one interception. Moore was more aggressive with his play-calling with Shough in there, even after a pick-six. To be sure, there’s a lot of work to do with this Saints team, but nobody said it would be easy. Kellen called the game “an awesome first step.”
MATTISON WILL ALWAYS MAKE HIS MARK
Fingers crossed for Alexander Mattison. The former Boise State star is out for the season after suffering a neck injury in the Miami Dolphins preseason game in Chicago on Sunday. Here’s hoping this isn’t the end for Mattison in the NFL. Not because he won’t make a full recovery (which he is predicted to), but because he’ll be 28 next year, and that’s old in NFL running back age. The guy has been through a lot—namely racist taunts from so-called fans two years ago because he lost a fumble in the Minnesota Vikings season opener. It didn’t change who Mattison is, which is a caring, big-hearted athlete who wants to help others through his I Am Gifted Foundation. The Dolphins are Mattison’s third NFL team after five years with the Vikings and one with the Raiders. Here’s a wish that we see him back next season.
ONE OF FOUR KORN FERRY ORIGINALS – BACK FOR MORE
A field of 156 golfers tee off tomorrow in the 36th annual Albertsons Boise Open at Hillcrest Country Club. PGA Tour cards aren’t directly at stake this time, as it’s the last event of the Korn Ferry Tour regular season. Defending champion Matt McCarty is back, and he already has his. But immediate jumps to the big tour are staring three players right in the face. It’s called the “Three-Victory Promotion”. The players to watch are Johnny Keefer, Neal Shipley and Austin Smotherman. All three of them have two Korn Ferry wins this season, and a victory in Boise by one of them would mean an instant ticket to the PGA Tour. Elsewhere, Boise State’s Cole Rueck missed the cut Tuesday at the U.S. Men’s Amateur in San Francisco.
WESTERN IDAHO FAIR ROAD TRIP: BAD TIMING?
The Boise Hawks were kind of in a funk when the Grand Junction Jackalopes came to town and beat them to open a six-game series last week. But the Hawks won the final five in the set to go 10 games over .500 for the season, and that’s the momentum they carried into the beginning of their annual Western Idaho Fair road trip Tuesday night. But it’s a tough 12-game assignment in Northern California, and it began with an 8-7 loss to the Yuba-Sutter High Wheelers. The rampaging Oakland Ballers loom next week.
HARSIN’S PLACE ON THE DEPTH CHART
Eagle High grad Davis Harsin, son of former Broncos head coach Bryan Harsin, is going into his redshirt freshman season at Idaho State. But ISU coach Cody Hawkins says Harsin won’t be the Bengals’ starting quarterback—it’ll be Jordan Cooke, a junior who redshirted last year but played in all 11 games for Idaho State in 2023. Hawkins does say Harsin might play in the Bengals’ opener. The younger Hawk is getting the depth chart lined out now, because ISU’s season opener is in Week 0—a week from this Saturday at UNLV, where Dan Mullen will make his much-celebrated Rebels coaching debut.
A LIFETIME EXPERIENCE
It was all about seeing the world, and not so much about prepping for the season for Boise State women’s basketball. The team just finished an international excursion and took in the sights in Athens, Greece—like the Parthenon and the Acropolis—and all the history that goes with it. On the court, it was annihilation, as the Broncos won their first game 108-20, and their second one 120-40. Not exactly comparable to a mid-winter Mountain West tilt.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by POOL SCOUTS…perfect pools, scout’s honor!
August 13, 2017: Fittingly, the son and grandson of a couple of PGA club professionals wins his first major in the PGA Championship. Big-hitting Justin Thomas, 24 years old and 145 pounds, picked up a two-stroke victory at Quail Hollow in Charlotte. Former Boise State star Graham DeLaet, helped by back-to-back eagles in the third round, finished tied for seventh, his best result ever in a major. It was the final PGA Championship to be played in August (excepting the COVID-delayed one in 2020), as in 2018 the tournament moved to May to allow the season to end before the NFL and college football seasons—and to make tour players available for future Olympics.
(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.)
