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Wednesday Weekly: February 18, 2026.
I mentioned this in early January, but it really bears repeating: How does Utah State men’s basketball get it done year after year, coach after coach? USU is on its fourth coach since 2018, Jerrod Calhoun, who’s in his second year. They’ve had 20-win seasons in six of the past seven years and have made the NCAA Tournament each time—and they’ve posted 26 or more victories in five of them. And now the Aggies have topped 20 again. After Ryan Odom left in 2023, Danny Sprinkle came in, left with a roster that returned zero points from the season before. USU went 28-7, and Sprinkle bolted for Washington. Calhoun went 26-8 last season and is 22-3 this season, and he has the Aggies in first place in the Mountain West going into tonight’s game against Boise State in Logan.
WHAT’S AHEAD IN ROUND 2 VS. USU?
The Broncos’ task tonight is to stay with the Aggies—and prove that last Friday’s team that blew leads of 23 and 17 points in an overtime loss to UNLV was an imposter. Boise State isn’t necessarily at the “playing for pride” stage after the disappointing night against the Rebels, but it’s an interesting concept going into the Utah State game. After the loss to UNLV, RJ Keene felt the Broncos got “complacent” after building their 23-point first half lead and said, “We need to set aside our egos.” No way Boise State will be complacent in Logan after getting run out of the gym at home by the Aggies last month. Seven is not a lucky number for the Broncos—they’re 7-7 and in seventh place in the Mountain West.
DOING WHAT THE ANALYTICS SAY TO DO
After what Utah State did to finish their game against Memphis last Saturday, you have to wonder about the Aggies’ mindset for Boise State. USU drilled the Tigers 99-75 and, with the game in hand, scored 13 points in the final 1½ minutes, including a tomahawk dunk at the buzzer. Memphis coach Penny Hardaway was none too happy and said on his radio postgame show, “You can’t keep scoring the ball. You gotta have more class than that. You’ve just gotta have some type of class, seriously.” Hardaway’s had his own issues, but that’s another story. The counter to that is Utah State felt it had to keep scoring to improve its KenPom and NCAA NET ratings metric to position itself for the NCAA Tournament. But hey, the Aggies could have at least dribbled that last possession out, right?
THIRD TIME AROUND FOR STRAUSSER
Chris Strausser, who’s always loved hanging out in Boise, has good reason to stick around, as he’s been named Senior Offensive Analyst for Boise State football. Strausser will have a keen interest in the Broncos offensive line, as that has been his career specialty. Highlights include his post as Boise State O-line coach for Dan Hawkins from 2001-05 and Chris Petersen from 2007-13. Strausser then followed Coach Pete to Washington. He later went on to the NFL and was most recently the offensive line coach for the Houston Texans in 2023-24. This is a solid addition to the Broncos staff.
PAC-12 TREATMENT
Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News ranks the toughness of each Pac-12 football schedule, and he has Boise State’s as the second-easiest, intimating that the conference gave the Broncos a break. “All eyes will be on the opener at Oregon, with the inevitable comparisons to the riveting duel two years ago,” writes Wilner. “But perhaps the most impactful game—for the Broncos and maybe the entire Pac-12—comes the following week when Boise State hosts Memphis, a potential contender for the Group of Six slot in the playoff. The Broncos can’t complain about their conference schedule: They don’t play back-to-back road games or face any opponents with two weeks to prepare. Look closely, and it’s apparent the Pac-12 took great care with the sequencing of games for Boise State and San Diego State. Which was smart.”
ASHTON & KLINT CAN CLICK
Klint Kubiak looks like the ticket for the Las Vegas offense next season, as the new Raiders coach will be able to put surefire No. 1 draft pick Fernando Mendoza with former Boise State star Ashton Jeanty and tight end Brock Bowers. Of course, we thought Pete Carroll was going to be the perfect guy to transition Jeanty into the NFL a year ago. In a profile of Kubiak at The Athletic, Ted Nguyen writes, “It will take some time for Jeanty to become as precise with his outside zone reads as Kubiak wants him to be, but part of the beauty of this offense is all the reps that Jeanty will get running the same play. With better play calling and more built-in blocking adjustments, negative plays for Jeanty should be greatly reduced. Giving Jeanty a shot to run untouched into the line of scrimmage should unlock his vast potential.”
POSSIBLE (PROBABLE?) DEBACLE FOR SAC STATE
I’ve gotta weigh in on this Sacramento State thing. The Hornets been trying to put the cart before the horse for years now, and now they’ve done it with their move to the MAC in football. To offset the $18 million in entry fees and the millions more it’ll have to pay visiting MAC teams, with no conference revenue coming in, Sac State president Luke Wood claims an economic impact of $975 million and national broadcast value of $675 million over the next five years. Where in the world did that math come from?
We’ve all seen “MACtion” on the ESPN networks on weeknights. Good exposure, yes, but empty stadiums—embarrassingly so. Sac State averaged 15,500 fans per game last season in Hornet Stadium. Now they have an opportunity to draw far fewer than that hosting Akron on a Wednesday night. That’s going to outdraw Montana on a Saturday? As The Athletic says, “This whole thing feels like a pyramid scheme.”
TEAM IDAHO
While we await Hilary Knight and Team USA to drop the puck Thursday against Canada for the Olympic gold medal in Milan, we have to salute Jaelin Kauf for her two silver medals (one in women’s moguls and the other in dual moguls. Kauf is one of those athletes claimed by numerous states (in this case: Idaho, Wyoming and Utah). She lists her hometown as Alta, WY, right on the Idaho border, while her parents live in Tetonia, so she’s in Idaho’s Teton Valley a lot. Two golds for Kauf to go with the two gold medals won by alpine skier Breezy Johnson, who was raised in Victor but is equally claimed by Jackson Hole.
HOFFMAN-LESS OFFENSE FOR THE STEELIES
The Idaho Steelheads are back to the usual Wednesday-Friday-Saturday routine this week, and that starts tonight on the road against the Tahoe Knight Monsters. At least as of this writing, the Steelheads will be playing three more games without their leading scorer, Brendan Hoffman, after dropping two of three without him at Wichita last weekend and scoring just two goals combined in the two losses. Hoffman was called up to the AHL’s Texas Stars after posting an ECHL-leading 32 goals, the last three of which came in a hat trick against the Utah Grizzlies last week. Amazingly, this is the first time he’s had a shot at AHL ice.
BIG WEEKEND FOR THE YOTES
College of Idaho does its final jockeying for the Cascade Conference tournament as it hosts Oregon Tech and Southern Oregon in Elgin Baylor Arena to end the regular season Friday and Saturday. The Yotes will be trying to avenge a sweep at the hands of those two schools on the road in early January. The standings reflect the importance of these—Tech is one of the three teams tied for first at 14-4 in conference, while C of I and SOU are a game back at 13-5. A sweep would give the Yotes a 20-win season, as is the routine in Caldwell.
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February 18, 2016, 10 years ago today: Jared Allen posts a video of himself on a horse, riding off into the sunset. And with that, the former Idaho State great retired after a stellar 12-year NFL career that saw him record 136 sacks, the ninth-most in league history, with Kansas City, Minnesota, Chicago and Carolina. As a Bengal senior in 2003, Allen was the Buck Buchanan Award winner as Division I-AA’s best defensive player before being drafted in the fourth round by the Chiefs. He was a five-time Pro Bowler and was NFC Defensive Player of the Year in 2011.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
