Thanks for nothing, Judases

A common rite of recruiting is the de-commitments of athletes. Verbal agreements are far from binding, and many high school football players are far from decisive. Those who commit early in the recruiting process are especially prone to changing their minds.

Boise State was bit hard by the de-commit bug, and all three who betrayed the Broncos were cornerbacks.

Kevin Frank chose Washington State, Mike Williams picked Baylor, and Thaddeus Brown committed the ultimate sin by signing with WAC rival Nevada. These losses hurt even more now that Orlando Scandrick has turned pro.

Grading the classes: Hawaii

This week, OBNUG will be grading the recruiting classes for each WAC team. Our research may be spotty, but as you can see from the final result, there is no questioning our loyalty.


Hawaii

We wanted to go easy on the Warriors since they have such a disadvantage recruiting from the islands. But then we remembered what punks they were when we played last year, so all bets are off.

Losing June Jones certainly did not help the incoming recruiting class. And Jones' admission that he left because of a lack of commitment to football by the athletic department wasn't too great either. Still, 22 players chose to come to Hawaii, including eight from local high schools.

"I'm very proud and honored that we were able to keep some of the top athletes from Hawai`i to stay home," Hawaii head coach Greg McMackin said. "That was our mission and we were receptive from their coaches and families, who were very gracious and hospitable, to invite us into their homes and schools to give us a chance to convince their kids to play for the University of Hawai`i."

Apparently, more people want a piece of Northern Illinois than we thought.

The class includes two quarterbacks, junior college "stars" Greg Alexander and Brent Rausch, who will compete with Tyler Graunke for the starting spot this fall. Replacing Colt Brennan will be tough, but I'm pretty that's what they said about Timmy Chang, too. Heh, Timmy Chang. (Giggling quietly to ourselves.)

The more difficult task will be replacing the four starting wide receivers who either graduated or turned pro. There can't be that many kids out there who act inappropriately after every catch, think more highly of themselves than they ought, and have dreadlocks. Good luck with that.

Scout.com rank: 93
Rivals.com rank: 84
OBNUG grade: F

Warriors sign 22 student athletes [University of Hawaii]

Copyright scandal? Eh, whatever

Kudos to KTVB Channel 7 and broncocountry.com for unearthing this gem of a story: it appears that someone else is using the Broncos logo!

A Canadian football club adopted a logo and color scheme – leading many to notice the similarity to Boise State’s athletics logo.

The Kamloops Broncos of British Columbia compete in the Canadian Junior Football League – and have a logo that mirrors that of the Boise State Broncos. Fans at BroncoCountry.com first noticed the similarity.

"It's interestingly similar to ours,” Boise State Marketing and Promotions director Brad Larrondo said.

David Augusto is Stone Phillips!

But before we get all 48 Hours Mystery on this story, let's keep in mind that the Kamloops Broncos are a minor league Canadian football team that went 1-9 last year. And they are already planning on changing their logo for the 2008 season.

Thank goodness we didn't have to break out the Scooby-doo Mystery Machine van for this one.

Which Broncos? Team uses logo similar to Boise State [KTVB.com]

Photo courtesy ktvb.com

Combine invite for Scandrick

Orlando Scandrick may have got just the break he needed by getting an invite to the NFL draft combine. Scandrick can help himself out a lot with a good showing at Indianapolis, and he will need to if he hopes to get drafted by an NFL team.

Ryan Clady also received an invitation, but considering his stock as a potential top ten pick, he may choose not to go. Eleven other WAC players were invited.

Thirteen WAC football players invited to NFL combine [Idaho Statesman]

Photo courtesy broncosports.com.