Presented by BACON BOISE.
Wednesday Weekly: April 1, 2026.
Yes, the guy who Boise State was going to build next season’s team around is gone. Drew Fielder plans to enter the transfer portal, which opens next Tuesday. The Broncos not only lose their leading scorer (14.7 points per game) and rebounder (5.7 boards per game), they also lose the big man in the middle, a player so difficult to find at this level. Fielder was all-in on Boise State a year ago, having watched the Broncos growing up. And he carried that vibe through the season. But the money from power conference programs is so massive now, well. it doesn’t take much tampering to make a breakthrough. There’s really nobody to replace Fielder on the current roster, leaving Leon Rice and staff to comb the portal themselves.
NIL INFLATION
If this $2 million dollar figure being thrown around for Fielder is accurate, and it’s sounding pretty credible, what are you going to do? Things have escalated so much in the NIL world just the last 2½ years, it’s stunning. In the fall of 2023, the offers for Ashton Jeanty were said to be less than half of that, and he stayed with the Broncos for what would now be seen as a nominal fee. Seriously, what kind of money would be on the plate for Jeanty now? The basketball equivalent of that would be Tyson Degenhart. As Degenhart was looking ahead to his senior year two years back, the dollars were really starting to climb. Of course, Degenhart was unique. There may never be another like him. We knew Fielder, a Boise native, for one year. But it’s hard to turn down life-changing money when your NBA prospects are nominal.
‘GLUE GUY’ GONE
I did not have Keene leaving the team on my bingo card. The self-professed Boise State “glue guy,” who entered the transfer portal last Wednesday, seemed to be all about getting a medical redshirt and spending one more season with the Broncos. Was it a “recommendation” from Boise State? We may never know. But I’m of the opinion that Keene was more than a glue guy for Boise State, he was a defensive dawg. And that’s why he was thrown into the starting lineup when he probably should have been a sixth man. Keene’s legacy will be his hustle. He pulled down exactly 10 rebounds six different times as a Bronco and never scored more than five points in any of those games. Twice he was scoreless. Keene was also, by all accounts, a great locker room guy. I’m going to miss him.
THE NEW TOP OF THE ROSTER
Time for a “what’s gone/what’s left” look at Boise State hoops. While Fielder and Keene are portal-bound, Javan Buchanan, Dom Parolin and Dylan Andrews are out of eligibility (although Buchanan is searching for another year somewhere else). So what’s left? Suddenly, Andrew Meadow and Peanut Carmichael are the guys the Broncos have to build around until something materializes out of the portal. Meadow is reportedly in demand out there for his scoring prowess. Whether Boise State is willing to open up the wallet or not for Meadow will be telling. Carmichael seems more prone to stay. They are currently the Broncos’ two returning scoring leaders. The only other veteran on the roster is guard Julian Bowie, who sat out after eight games as he was dealing with the death of his dad.
DYNAMIC DUO IS DECIDED
A year ago going into Boise State spring football, Sire Gaines and Dylan Riley concocted a goal of each of them becoming 1,000-yard rushers last season. That narrative changed as Fresno State transfer Malik Sherrod impressed during drills—capping it with a 65-yard touchdown run during the spring game. Would it be Gaines and Sherrod chasing the 1,000-yard duo designation? Of course, Dylan Riley exploded during the fall and ended up with 1,125 rushing yards, while Gaines, with a solid but inconsistent season, ended up at 811. Sherrod has graduated and Dubar has transferred to Missouri State, so there’s little mystery in who this year’s goal-setters are. Riley and Gaines are talking about the dual milestone, which has never before happened in Boise State history.
THE SP+ EYE-OPENER
The release of ESPN’s first SP+ college football ratings for next season has generated a lot of buzz (read that: debate)—not because Boise State is No. 39, but because of the gap between the Broncos and the rest of the new Pac-12. San Diego State is next, all the way down at No. 71, and Fresno State is No. 78. Boise State checks the boxes in the SP+ criteria: returning production, recent recruiting and coaching changes. The Broncos have a wealth of returning production, as they again lost only two starters to the transfer portal. They also had the top-ranked 2026 recruiting class in the Pac-12, and their coaching staff is as stable as any in the conference. Boise State is the top-rated team in the Group of 6, and the Pac-12 is the top-ranked Group of 6 conference.
DANIELSON’S GROUP OF 6 DESIGNATION
Chris Vannini’s annual offseason list of the top 20 coaches in the Group of 6 is out at The Athletic. Boise State’s Spencer Danielson is No. 4 behind UNLV’s Dan Mullen, Navy’s Brian Newberry and Army’s Jeff Monken. On Danielson, Vannini writes: “He has won three Mountain West championships in two-plus years as a head coach. The Broncos took a notable step back last year after a College Football Playoff appearance and Ashton Jeanty’s departure for the NFL, but Boise State hadn’t won three consecutive league titles since 2008-10. That is harder to accomplish in the G6 than it used to be.” (Mullen ahead of Danielson is curious after what happened last year.) The next Pac-12 coach on the list is Colorado State’s Jim Mora at No. 6. Yet some preseason projections have CSU finishing last this fall.
AC BOISE: IS AND WAS VERSUS ARE AND WERE
Many of us novice American soccer fans (and new AC Boise Fans) have wondered about verbs in the sport. For example, “Liverpool were leading in the 44th minute,” and, “Chelsea need a new goalkeeper.” To this day it sounds so odd to me. But British English habitually uses plural verbs for teams, companies, and organizations. Not so Saturday night at what was once Les Bois Park, as we still go with American vernacular: Athletic Club Boise makes its home debut (not Athletic Club Boise make their home debut). So much to get used to! The game against the Spokane Velocity will mark Boise’s first new minor league franchise since the Idaho Steelheads and Idaho Stampede came on the scene in 1997.
STEELIES REGAIN MOMENTUM
The Idaho Steelheads won a series last week for the first time since early February. And they did it against a good team, taking two of three games from the South Carolina Stingrays in Idaho Central Arena. It was the rubber match last Saturday night that may have given the Steelheads some mojo as the regular season winds down. They had clinched a Kelly Cup Playoff berth Friday night despite a loss to the Stingrays and rallied for a 4-3 shootout win. The Steelies’ nine-game homestand wraps up with a three-game series beginning tonight against the ECHL’s best team, the Kansas City Mavericks.
RAPID RISE TO THE TOP 25
The latest Boise State program to make the top 25 in its sport is beach volleyball, which hit the rankings for the first time on Tuesday at No. 20 in the Collegiate Beach Poll. The Broncos, despite a 9-11 overall record, were solid at the Big 12 Preview last weekend. Boise State upended No. 20 Arizona and No. 19 South Carolina, marking only the fifth and sixth ranked wins in team history. And it’s the first time it’s happened multiple times in the same week. The Broncos are a beach volleyball anomaly. Washington, ranked one spot ahead of them, is the only other northern team in the rankings.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by POOL SCOUTS…perfect pools, scout’s honor!
April 1, 2021, five years ago today: Roy Williams retires from coaching after 18 years at North Carolina and 15 years before that at Kansas. Williams’ incredible run produced 903 victories, 30 NCAA Tournaments, nine Final Fours and three national championships, all with the Tar Heels, in 2005, 2009 and 2017. He is the only coach ever to post 400 wins at two different schools. Williams began his college coaching career as an assistant at UNC, his alma mater, under legendary coach Dean Smith before being hired by Kansas. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.
(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.)
