The Big West and Boise state began a dialogue Monday and as reported by The Statesman as a membership assessment tool has been sent to the campus. However, it’s going to take the lion’s share of votes by the league’s board of directors (8 votes of the 10 directors) for Boise State to be accepted. If Boise State is accepted they would have a home for their non-football programs as The Blue Turf moves to The Big East for the 2013 season.

San Diego State has been lending a helping hand for the placement of Boise State’s non-football programs as it, too, will be joining The Big East as a football-only program in the conference. Their support is largely do to a situation that they know all too well and as Farrell put, “San Diego State does have some sensitivity to Boise State’s situation.”

So, as we all wait to see where the chips fall, we can look forward to sharing a breath of relief as Boise State’s programs are all safely kickin’ tail in their conferences.

From Left to Right: #20 Mitch Burroughs, #4 Jerrell Gavins, #5 Jamar Taylor & #7 D.J Harper
Photo courtesy of @BroncoSports https://twitter.com/BroncoSports/statuses/198431466374438912

Quarterbacks: With Kellen Moore off to the NFL no position has more eyes on it than that of the Quarterback. Competing for that job we have 4 players, Nick Patti, Jimmy Laughrea, Grant Hedrick, and Joe Southwick. Each player got a chance to show us what they have to offer with multiple reps during the game. First starting with the perceived front-runner Joe Southwick. Southwick looked good, he has zip on his passes, good mobility, and the most experience of all the quarterbacks in this race. Southwick led the offense on two touchdown drives one being the drive to win the game. Next up we had Grant Hedrick, he showed us what we already knew the guy can move in and around the pocket. He also showed he has a strong arm missing on a deep route that would have been a probable touchdown had it been caught. That being said, Hedrick had the roughest day of all the QB’s throwing a interception and fumbling on a sack. Jimmy Laughrea to many is the dark horse candidate of the competition. Laughrea during pregame warmups showed he has a incredible arm warming up right in front of where I was sitting. During the scrimmage however Laughrea had a sub-par showing not making mistakes but was not overly impressive either. That leaves us with perhaps the most hyped freshman QB to come to Boise State and that is Nick Patti. I won’t play discrete here Patti impressed, he showed great mobility, often rolling out to his right as the pressure was coming at him all day. That mobility translated into some good completions, and decision making. Patti also had the highlight of the day completing a beautiful deep pass to Troy Ware for a touchdown.

QB Summary: If looking at the competition strictly from today it would seem Nick Patti and Joe Southwick are just at a different level right now. Both performed greatly with Southwick looking overall the best from start to finish. Hedrick and Laughrea struggled but unfortunately for fans we don’t know how they have performed in practice and closed scrimmages. If I had to pick a starter from what I saw today, I would start Joe Southwick, closely followed by Nick Patti. Spring games though don’t make starting quarterbacks it simply gives a small glimpse of what maybe happening in practice. This could be a long battle but if nothing else I think fans walked away today feeling a little better about losing the greatest quarterback in Boise State history.

The Rest of the Offense: So what about the rest of the offense? For the most part, I felt pretty good about what I saw. With players like Mitch Burroughs and DJ Harper on the sideline it was hard to get a full idea of what this team will look like come Michigan State. At running back though I was impressed with Drew Wright, he didn’t have a flashy day, but he showed some good quickness and ran hard. At wide receiver I thought the depth came through very clear. Kirby Moore looked great, Troy Ware had a great touchdown, and Boldewijn got open frequently just to have some passes barely miss him. The offensive line did struggle at times giving up some penetration on running plays and pressure from the edges was pretty constant. In scrimmages though the offensive line is at a disadvantage and with so much experience coming back I don’t think it is something to worry about.Last we have the tight ends, they didn’t have a huge role today in the scrimmage. That being said, they did warm up right in front of me and from that I can say we have some solid size at that position. I was also impressed with Gabe Linehan, he showed great physicality at the line of scrimmage and had some solid blocks on the edge when he was asked.

The Defense: The biggest question to me is how do you replace a defense that had all that NFL talent? Well today we started to see the answers and perhaps the answer was just replace it with more NFL talent. Mike Atkinson looked phenomenal in the middle of the defense getting good push on every snap. Sam Ukwuachu might have been the star of the spring game. Though he looks like he could still add some weight at the defensive end position, he was great, and very impressive off the edge getting a ton of pressure on the QB’s.  If Ukwuachu wasn’t the star of the spring game then Demarcus Lawrence was, also getting a ton of pressure on the QB’s and stuffing the run with relative ease. Behind the defensive line you had the linebackers the standout of this group was Blake Renaud. Renaud seems to be getting a reputation as a guy who intercepts passes and today was no different getting another during the scrimmage. Lastly we had the secondary, I honestly didn’t see a ton from this group on a individual basis. What I did see was Lee Hightower and Jeremy Ioane pretty comfortable at the safety spots.

Final Thoughts: Overall I was very impressed with both sides of the ball. You saw a lot of good things all over the field, you also saw some bad. But with so much talent off to the NFL, you have to come away thinking Chris Petersen has a very good group of players ready to replace them. I can’t pick a QB from this scrimmage, though I do think we saw that Southwick and Patti have likely taken a step forward after today. I also can’t say I am ready to say this Bronco team heads to East Lansing and walks away with a win. I can however say I feel much more comfortable about the future of this team after what I saw. And really, that is all a fan can ask for at this point of the very young season.

After Thoughts: You may have noticed I didn’t comment on the special teams. Much of the reason for that is because not a lot can be said about it during a scrimmage. The other part of it, well, I just can’t believe how bad the kicking still looks. 2 missed XP’s makes you wonder if the kicking can be fixed with the current roster. All I know for sure is if you went to the spring game hoping to feel good about improvements in the kicking game you walked out feeling sick. Hopefully this is something that can get turned around quickly, because I don’t think Bronco fans can handle another season of kicking woes.

Boise State Scrimmage

College football off-season is like a sports fan’s purgatory for me, especially the dreaded couple months before baseball season begins.  At least once the Yankees start playing I have a team to follow until the Broncos take The Blue again.  I find myself re-watching games from the previous season, endlessly staring at all of my Bronco memorabilia, and putting “Out of the Blue” on repeat on the DVD player.  When things get really bad, I sometimes put on my #11 jersey and try to throw the football around my house left-handed, much to the dismay of my wife and anyone/thing else that happens to be in the path of the errant ball.  So with nothing else to do, and to save the Castle house from being destroyed by flying footballs, I thought I would recap how I spent last off-season and what we have to look forward to this year.

Last Season

The beginning of the football season began for me, as for most Boise State fans I assume, with spring practice and the annual Blue-Orange game.   Although the game started in the late afternoon, after months without football I of course had to overdo it by tailgating way too early.  By halftime of the game, the wife was cranky, the kids were crying, (or was it the other way around?) and we had to head home.  Luckily, it provided a little bit of a Bronco football fix for a couple months until….

Midsummer and it was time for me to wander around Bronco Stadium to try and decide where I would be moving my four season tickets to. The annual season ticket renewal, with the chance to upgrade/move your seats was the next big event getting me ready for football season.  Being that I have the family plan, I couldn’t move far, but I was determined to move a few rows down, and perhaps get seats on the aisle.  My hope was to make it a lot easier to get to my seats while carrying a crying two year old, a sleeping five year old, and a large bucket of popcorn.  I was successful finding the seats I wanted, but unfortunately had to be asked to leave after sitting in them for a couple hours pretending I was actually watching a game.

Fall camp had finally begun, and the final scrimmage was here.  I had spent the last couple of months counting down to the opener against Georgia, while bantering with their fans and convincing them that it was no longer 2005 and Jared Zabransky was no longer our quarterback.  Luckily for me (and my family) we did not have time to tailgate before the scrimmage, so we got to enjoy the whole game.  We were able to catch our first glimpse of the new (and soon to be controversial) ribbon boards, as well as some incredible punting by Trevor Harmon, and the future at running back from Malcolm Johnson who was running over everyone.  Turns out Harmon would not punt at all and Johnson had run over his last linebacker on the blue.

One last thing to do in the off season before the opener:  get the tailgating-mobile ready.  The old 1973 Dodge Balboa (we call it the Mo-Ho) needed some love.  Through the years it had been filled with tailgating supplies, souvenirs, empty Captain Morgan bottles (the coke at Bronco Stadium tastes a little watered down, doesn’t it?) and other odds and ends that needed organized, thrown out, given to the needy or put back in the Mo-Ho because “We might need it sometime”.  After a couple of hours of taking everything out, and then putting it all back in a different spot we were ready to tailgate!  The season was finally upon us.

What to do this off-season

With all of this fun how can you not stay entertained in the off-season?  So what do we have to look forward to this year?

Spring practice starts tomorrow, Monday March 12th, and the most interesting story line will be the four way quarterback battle.  Joe Southwick, Grand Hedrick, Jimmy Laughrea, and Nick Patti will all compete to be the next Boise State quarterback that will be too small to play in the NFL.  From my conversations with other members of Bronco Nation, it seems we are split amongst who we want to start, except most seem to be dismissing Laughrea, probably because we are scared of what the national media will do with a name with “Laugh” in it.  My gut tells me it will be Southwick, but my gut also told me in 2008 that Bush Hamdan would leave the football facility and lead the Broncos.  My heart wants it to be Patti, so we can get another four year starter.  By the way Chris Petersen has said that all four QBs will not be available to the media.  Should be fun to watch

Some other interesting battles to watch will be at linebacker and safety, where we will see who wants to step up and take over for long time starters George Iloka and Byron Hout.

Spring practice will wrap up April 14^th with the Blue & Orange game at Bronco Stadium.

The NFL Draft will be the next event to keep us Bronco fans entertained, and it should be interesting.  This is by far the deepest draft class to ever come out of Boise State, and we should see as many as seven Broncos drafted, with perhaps five going in the first few rounds.  Doug Martin, George Iloka, Shea McClellin, Tyrone Crawford, and Billy Winn are all top prospects that are at the top of many expert’s draft boards.  Nate Potter and Kellen Moore should both get drafted as well, and Kyle Efaw, Aaron Tevis, Tyler Shoemaker and Chase Baker might all make camps as free agents.  The most interesting story of the draft for Boise State fans will probably be Kellen Moore, and when and where he goes.  He seems to be as polarizing as Boise State itself, and I will not be surprised if he is drafted early or not drafted at all.

After the draft, the long off-season resumes.  Most of my time between the draft and fall camp will be spent on the Blue Turf Board debating the future starting lineups, the QB competition, and trying to convince Michigan State fans how stupid they are.  If I get bored on there I may wander over to the Spartan’s own message boards, or on to Twitter to troll.

Before we know it (I hope) August will be here, fall camp will begin, and the countdown to kickoff of the Michigan State game will be underway.  The quarterback competition will be in full swing, and hopefully a starter will be named ( I hope we don’t have to wait until the huddle breaks on the sideline in East Lansing to find out who).  I can’t wait.

Guess I will go watch Out of the Blue again.