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Monday, December 15, 2014.
Oh, this new College Football Playoff system. What a marvelous olive branch it threw to the Group of 5: one berth in the New Year's Six bowls. There's peace in the valley now that Boise State has won that spot. But a story in the new ESPN The Magazine points out that BSU is "the party crasher, not the belle of the ball." The rest of the Group of 5 has reason to be skittish about being taken seriously as time goes on. The Broncos did not rock the world to get to the Fiesta Bowl the way they did in 2006 and 2009. "That rally-behind-the-outsider mentality may not be there the way it was before," admits Sun Belt commissioner and Boise State alum Karl Benson in the article. "Capturing the nation's imagination might be more difficult now."
As tempting as it might be for teams like Marshall and Northern Illinois and even Colorado State to hold a grudge and root against Boise State versus Arizona on New Year's Eve, all Group of 5 schools need to wish the Broncos well in Glendale. A stat in the ESPN magazine piece magnifies that theory. In 2009, teams from outside the power conferences occupied almost 18 percent of all the spots in the Top 25, with Boise State and TCU leading the way. Five years later, that number is down to four percent. As the gap widens between the power conferences and those on the outside, the Group of 5 needs the validation a Broncos' Fiesta Bowl win would bring.
Arizona, including energized star linebacker Scooby Wright, returned to the practice field Friday to begin preparing for the Broncos. Wright won three major national awards last week—now he’s anxious to play football to get the sour taste of the Wildcats’ 51-13 loss to Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game out of his mouth. “I’m glad we have another game to help us get over the one to Oregon,” Wright said. “I think we’re all eager to get back out there and play again.” It’s a thread that runs through the Arizona roster. “It still hurts, but we have a new opponent now, we have a new game to prepare for,” UA left tackle Mickey Baucus last week. “The game against Oregon is over. We have another game, and it will be a big one.”
Boise State commit Brett Rypien played in the Blue-Grey All-American Bowl yesterday at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. It’s one of those events that bills itself as a premiere high school all-star game, but you can’t find information on it to save your life. Rypien was one of three quarterbacks on the West roster. If we find he did anything significant in the game, we’ll let you know. The best we can do is a tweet from @BlueGreyFB: “Brett Rypien was expected to do well at the @BlueGreyFB All-American Bowl and lived up to the hype.” By the way, Rypien’s high school days are just about done. He’ll be graduating soon from Shadle Park in Spokane and will officially become a Bronco when the second semester starts. According to Rypien, he’ll be in Boise in 25 days.
Not that there are any rumors out there, but could the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl be Troy Calhoun’s final game at Air Force? The reason people float that theory is the buyout number in Calhoun’s contract. You may remember that Jim McElwain’s buyout at Colorado State was $7.5 million before CSU and Florida negotiated a slightly different number. According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, Calhoun's buyout clause calls for 10 percent of the remaining balance of his contract, which would currently amount to just $300,000. And there’s still some trickle-down to come after Wisconsin fills its new opening. The appearance on the blue turf this Saturday will mark the Falcons’ seventh bowl in Calhoun's eight years at the Academy.
The Boise State men’s basketball team improved to 8-2 with its fourth straight win yesterday, coasting past Southern Utah 79-60 in Taco Bell Arena. Derrick Marks continues to sizzle for the Broncos, scoring 30 points to record his second 30-point game of the season. He also became the first player in BSU history with six 30-point games in his career. Marks more than made up for the absence of fellow senior Anthony Drmic, who missed his third straight contest with an ailing back and ankle. Marks went 3-for-5 from three-point range—the rest of the squad was 1-for-8 from long distance, but Boise State shot almost 54 percent from the field overall.
Postgame mentions of James Webb III are becoming a broken record, but you can’t avoid it. Boise State’s sophomore transfer from North Idaho College was 8-for-9 from the floor and scored 17 points, and he added eight rebounds, five of them on the offensive end. Webb’s thunderous dunk with 15 minutes left capped a 13-3 run to start the second half, giving the Broncos all the separation they needed. Webb has gone 15-for-17 from the field the past two games, and he’s gone from zero points to 68 in scoring the past five outings. He didn’t even play against Idaho November 25, the game before this run started. “He’s at 60 percent of where we can get him,” said coach Leon Rice after the game.
Kevin Murphy had a good weekend, but the Idaho Stampede as a team did not. The Stampede were swept on the road by the Reno Bighorns and the L.A. D-Fenders, extending their losing streak to five games. Murphy poured in 33 points against Reno and 26 versus L.A., but in this extraordinarily high-scoring season, the Stamps were outdistanced by counts of 133-122 and 134-123.
The Idaho Steelheads got a couple back from Alaska, sweeping the Aces in CenturyLink Arena over the weekend after being on the other end of the same stick in Anchorage two weeks ago. The Friday night win was a fight-punctuated 2-1 defensive grinder, with goalie Olivier Roy making a slew of acrobatic saves. The Saturday night triumph saw the Steelheads offense explode in a 6-4 triumph, inspired by the 1,198 teddy bears thrown on the ice for the U.S. Marines’ Toys For Tots program after Idaho’s first tally. While Brett Robinson scored twice for the Steelies, Wade MacLeod was a massive helper. MacLeod’s three assists gave him 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in the last five games. The Steelheads are now 13-0-1 when scoring three or more goals this season.
Other weekend doings: the Boise State women blew past Eastern Washington 90-72 yesterday, led by 22 points from Brooke Pahukoa and 21 from Miquelle Askew. The Northwest Nazarene men played much better at Idaho State Saturday night than they did in Taco Bell Arena last Thursday. The Crusaders and Bengals were tied 22-22 late in the first half before ISU put its foot down with an 11-0 run and went on to a 69-57 victory. My bad on the College of Idaho men’s basketball team—the Coyotes’ games at Oregon Tech and Southern Oregon are yet to come, this Friday and Saturday. And the Bronco wrestling team was routed 31-3 by Oregon State in this season's first edition of the Border War. The only Boise State win came from freshman Geordan Martinez, ranked 17th nationally at 141 pounds.
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December 15, 2011: After a stellar four-year career, Nate Potter becomes Boise State’s second consensus FBS All-American. Potter, the senior left tackle out of Boise’s Timberline High, was named a first-team selection by the Sporting News, the final of the five All-America squads that go into the NCAA’s consensus equation. Potter had already made the Football Writers Association of America first team and the AP and Walter Camp second teams. Interestingly enough, Boise State’s other consensus All-American, Ryan Clady in 2007, was also a left tackle.
(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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