SCOTT SLANT: Spencer provides a sense of stability

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Wednesday Weekly: April 22, 2026.

“Is my coach going to be around for four years?” isn’t as frequent a question from recruits anymore (because many of them won’t be). But it’s better to have that be the case than not. Stability is fleeting in college football, especially at the Group of 6 level. Coach Spencer Danielson’s contract extension through 2030 does not hurt Boise State’s cause. The move just adds a year to the extension he got last April, so it’s kind of rinse-and-repeat after a third straight Mountain West championship. Danielson would be the first to tell you he has work to do despite a 24-8 overall record. A lot is made of his 0-5 ledger against Power 4 schools. But that cannot be compared to Chris Petersen—or even Bryan Harsin. The gap between the Group of 6 and Power 4 is massively bigger than it was back then.

SPRING GAME SPOTLIGHT

One of the groups to watch in Boise State’s Spring Game on Saturday is Power 4 transfers. There are five of them, and all five could contribute next season. With Dylan Riley banged up, we may get to see more of Harry Stewart III than expected at running back. Stewart is a 5-10, 220-pounder from Kansas. If he’s the No. 3 running back behind Riley and Sire Gaines this fall, it’s safe to say he’ll bring an entirely different style than last year’s No. 3, Malik Sherrod. There’s another former Jayhawk competing at a position of need for the Broncos, Logan Brantley at linebacker. Brantley played in all 12 games for Kansas last season. And with Sherrod Smith out for the spring with an injury, Cam Jamerson out of TCU has been getting a lot of run in the secondary, especially at nickel.

LEFT TACKLE LEGACY

Boise State’s Kage Casey hopes to hear his name called in the NFL Draft on Day 2, but odds are it’ll be Day 3 on Saturday. At any rate, Casey is poised to continue the Broncos’ left tackle legacy that dates back to Daryn Colledge, who was drafted in the second round by Green Bay in 2006. Colledge was the first of four straight Boise State starting left tackles taken in the draft, with Nate Potter, Charles Leno Jr. and Rees Odhiambo following him. Ezra Cleveland, still active with Jacksonville, joined the list in 2020. Casey is expected to move to guard in the NFL, and there’s precedent for that, too. Once he joined the Packers, Colledge was slotted in at left guard, and that’s where he played most of his nine seasons in the league. Odhiambo made the switch to guard in the NFL, too.

BRONCOS DRAFT PICKS: ENDANGERED SPECIES?

If Casey is selected in the NFL Draft, that’ll make 16 out of the past 17 years that a Boise State player has been chosen. The exception was two years ago, and George Holani is proving that maybe he should have been drafted. But the state of college football is such that there could be more gaps in Boise State’s draft run in the future. Case in point: safety Ty Benefield, who would have been the Broncos’ top draft prospect next year had he not entered the transfer portal. Benefield got a big payday at LSU. If he’s selected next spring, Boise State won’t get credit for it. And, at the same time, there may not be an actual Bronco chosen. And that would be 15 years after a record six Boise State players were taken in the 2012 draft. Ah, the good ol’ days.

ANOTHER GEM FROM THE GEM STATE

For the second consecutive year, it looks like a true Idahoan is going to go in the first round of the draft.  Following Michigan’s Colston Loveland, the proud product of Gooding who was selected by the Chicago Bears last April, Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq is a good bet to be chosen Thursday night. The Athletic’s Dane Brugler has compiled his full mock draft—all 257 picks—and he projects Sadiq to be scooped up at No. 14 overall by the Baltimore Ravens. Brugler calls the Skyline High grad “a dynamic asset who can block his tail off. He would give Baltimore a multidimensional pass catcher.” And he’d give Idaho one more thing to brag about.

BOWLING FOR TIE-INS

The Pac-12 bowl situation is going to be front-and-center for a while after confirmation that current bowl tie-ins will be extended through the 2026 season pending the future of the CFP format. There’ll be some moving parts in the coming months, but right now the only sure tie-in for the new Pac-12 appears to be the rebooted Poinsettia Bowl, where the conference’s champion might play, yes, the champion of the Mountain West. This is not what the new Pac-12 schools signed up for. The legacy Pac-12 members now in other leagues remain eligible for the Pac-12’s old bowls: the Holiday, Alamo, Las Vegas, Independence and Sun Bowls. The new Pac-12 may be affiliated with the new bowl in Puerto Rico, but it would be against a Group of 6 opponent. That’s it for right now.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PORTAL

Boise State thinks it got a good one, but we won’t know until November…or December…or January. Jikany Deang, a 6-11 forward from North Dakota State College of Science, became the Broncos’ third transfer portal commitment last weekend, hopefully helping fill the void under the rim. Deang averaged 17.6 points and 8.5 rebounds last season and shot better than 36 percent from three-point range. Sounds Drew Fielder-ish, but Deang did it at the junior college level.  Boise State is known as a developmental program, now it’s gotta go develop.

His stats don’t scream offense, but his resume screams defense. The second transfer portal signing for Boise State hoops was Jerquarius Stanback, a 6-9 forward from Alabama State in the SWAC. Stanback played two seasons for the Hornets, averaging 8.8 points while starting all 32 games. But his key numbers were 5.8 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game.  Stanback was named Defensive Player of the Year this past season in the SWAC. I’ll reserve judgment, because it looks like Stanback has a lot of upside.

FIELDER’S THIRD VISIT IS A CHARM

It wouldn’t be surprising if Fielder’s NIL offer exceeded that original $2 million number by a bit. Instead of going with Nebraska or Washington, the former Boise State forward has committed to Alabama, the school he visited last weekend. Fielder didn’t go there for more playing time. Meanwhile, the transfer portal exit wasn’t over after all for the Broncos.  Noah Bendinger, after saying he was going to return to Boise State, announced Monday he was entering the portal.  Bendinger, a 6-4 guard, redshirted for the Broncos this past season.

AC BOISE’S BREAKOUT

Athletic Club Boise coach Nate Miller made a change in goal for the team’s second home game, replacing Joseph Andema with Jonathan Kliewer last Saturday night. Andema had started the first four games, but Kliewer produced a clean sheet in his pro debut in a 4-0 rout of Westchester SC. AC Boise’s defense was huge, as Kliewer faced only one shot on goal. At the other end, ACB got its first multiple-goal game in franchise history, as Denys Kostyshyn tallied twice and became the first Boise player ever to earn USL League One Player of the Week honors.

Now ACB plays up a level as it faces USL Championship’s Las Vegas Lights FC as part of the USL Cup, a World Cup-style interleague tournament featuring all 43 teams from the USL Championship and League One. Teams are divided into seven regional groups of six or seven teams each, with each club playing four group matches. Seven group winners and one wild card will advance to a single-elimination knockout stage. The tournament concludes with the championship match in early October. The USL Cup is separate from the USL League One Playoffs, which will hopefully include AC Boise.

STEELIES HAVE TO GO THE HARD WAY

Home-ice advantage in the first round of the Kelly Cup Playoffs was sitting right there for the Idaho Steelheads, but the Allen Americans caught them and passed them last week. So it’s on to Texas, where the Steelheads will face the Americans in Games 1 and 2 on Thursday and Friday. The series switches to Idaho Central Arena on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (if necessary). What has ailed the Steelies? The low-hanging fruit is the departure of Brendan Hoffman, who was called up to San Jose of the AHL in mid-February. Despite the long absence, Hoffman still finished fourth in the ECHL and topped Idaho with 32 goals. He has been missed.

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April 22, 1876, 150 years ago today: The first game in National League history, with the Boston Baseball Club defeating the Athletic Club of Philadelphia 6-5. The winning pitcher was Joe Borden, who was rewarded with a then-unheard of $2,000-per-year salary. When he failed to live up to expectations, Borden was forced to moonlight as a groundskeeper to earn his pay. The American League wouldn’t begin play until 25 years later in 1901, and the first World Series played between the two leagues was in 1903.

(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.)