Wednesday, June 4, 2008

OBNUG Hall of Fame podcast #2

We are trotting out the big A/V guns again for our Hall of Fame nominees. Our second ever OBNUG podcast should sound much better than the first. There was nowhere to go but up, right?

Once again, Nick and I debate the merits of this week's Hall candidate--Ryan Dinwiddie's three quarters versus Fresno State. We also find time to discuss recruiting, Taylor Tharp, and drunken Nevada Wolfpack players.


Voting for Dinwiddie will be available through Sunday, so vote, vote, vote! (Actually, just vote once; we don't want a repeat of last time.)

icon for podpress HOF Discussion: Dinwiddie's 3 quarters vs. Fresno Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download


Phil Steele's messed-up All-WAC team



Phil Steele, one of the more famous names related of college football preview magazines, has released his picks for the WAC's all-conference teams. And boy did he pick some doozies.

First, allow us to disagree with a number of items:

  • Kyle Brotzman: 4th team kicker
  • First team defense: no Broncos
  • Second through fourth team offense: no Broncos
  • No Jeron Johnson
  • No Titus Young
  • No Vinny Perretta
  • No Richie Brockel
At least Steele found Ian Johnson's name while he was figuring, in vain, the distance between his rear end and a hole in the ground. In all, Boise State had three first team members (Andrew Woodruff and Jeremy Childs joined Johnson with that distinction), and one second team member. That is exactly one more than Utah State and two less than Idaho.


In addition to egregious mistakes on the Bronco front, we had some nits to pick with the rest of Steele's reality-challenged opus. But the greatest one might have been the horrible future he predicted when he named NMSU QB Chase Holbrook to the first team.

Needless to say, we will not be purchasing Steele's print publication.

Phil Steele's 2008 WAC all-conference [Philsteele.com]

Wednesday: Links with thumbs up



Story of the day:

Summer conditioning: let the side aches begin [Idaho Statesman]

Success takes time off for nobody, which is too bad for the summer vacation plans of Boise State players.

The Broncos kicked off their eight-week summer training schedule that is equal parts preparation and muscle torture. Strength coach Tim Socha is in charge of the conditioning, and the Statesman reports that there is 100 percent participation from the team.
"This is a big deal for (the players)," Boise State strength and conditioning coach Tim Socha said. "This is to us - to me and to them - the start of their season. We come in in the summer and they know they've got eight weeks of hard work to get ready."
He wasn't kidding about hard work. Take a look at one of the more demanding exercises:

Former strength coach Jeff Pitman made the "decks" famous - a workout during which the players ran/walked/crawled to the top of Bronco Stadium. In 2005, the players did 20 decks in one workout by the end of the summer.

Socha, who replaced Pitman in May 2006, put his own twist on the decks. He staggers the players' starting spots based on body type, so linemen don't have to climb as far as running backs, and he times them - the goal is 10 seconds per climb.

Ten seconds per climb! We get tired just thinking about that.

The workouts will be four days a week for about two hours each session, and they'll involve equal parts weightlifting and running. Players also plan on holding their own player-led practices about three times a week, and those will involve lying around and trying to catch their breaths.

Other links:

Summer conditioning video [Idaho Press-Tribune]
Boise State voyeurism at its finest.

Hamdan speaks! [Idaho Press-Tribune]
The IPT's story about summer conditioning is rife with quotes from QB Bush Hamdan, a notorious media avoider.

Vlade Divac: humanitarian [Idaho Statesman]
A flop for every child.

Hawkins' tour across Colorado [Post Independent]
Why? Because it's Division I football! It's the Big XII!

Hawaii starts season early [Sporting News]
Like 6:30am Hawaii time early.