Dinwiddie takes over in Winnipeg

Out with Kevin Glenn; in with Ryan Dinwiddie.

Last year's East Division most oustanding player, Glenn has fallen from grace in Winnipeg rather swiftly, and Dinwiddie is in the right place at the right time. Dinwiddie will get the start on Thursday for the Blue Bombers, and even if it takes him awhile to get settled, it sounds like Winnipeg will not be going back to Glenn any time soon.

Head coach Doug Berry said Thursday's game isn't a one-game trial for Dinwiddie, either. He's the No. 1 quarterback until further notice.

Winnipeg is 0-4, and much of the blame is being placed on Glenn's shoulders.

  "I don't think I've played perfect football up until now," he said.

You think? To be specific, Glenn has played the worst football in the CFL. His efficiency rating is 65.9, which is worst in the league. He has thrown eight interceptions, which is worst in the league. Dinwiddie will be a revelation by comparison.

Reaction from Winnipeg fans has been highly encouraging. An OBNUG reader and Winnipeg resident, who alerted us to the story, is thrilled to have Dinwiddie starting, and judging by the Blue Bomber message boards, other fans are looking forward to a change under center, too.

listen to Ryan Dinwiddie. hes confident, he's a field general, his attitude seems to be contagious, heck just listening to RD there, makes me cant wait until thursday. God i hope its nice out

...and...

this might be the spark they need.

GO DINWIDDIE GO!

Now if we could only get Brock Forsey in the backfield.

Dinwiddie takes helm [Winnipeg Sun]
Bombers message board [BlueBombers.com]

"You have the lightest blue eyes": a Dinwiddie interview turns awkward

The Winnipeg Sun might very well be known for a lot of good things, but we doubt that interviews are one of them. A staff reporter sat down with former BSU standout and current Winnipeg Blue Bomber QB Ryan Dinwiddie to discuss, well, whatever popped into her head apparently. The interview included the following questions:

Q: Do you have any pets?
Q: What hobbies do you have?
Q: If people were to find you doing anything on an off day in Winnipeg, what would it be?

Ryan Dinwiddie, you are now off the Pabst Blue Ribbon Hot Seat.

Still, softball questions were far from the strangest part of the interview. That distinction falls to the awkward, uncomfortable topic of Dinwiddie's beautiful eyes.

Q: Have your eyes always been the focus of attention? Because you have the lightest blue eyes most people have ever seen. They're like Husky eyes.

Uh...next question please?

Our conclusion is that the Winnipeg Sun was not actually interviewing Dinwiddie, but rather helping him fill out his Match.com profile. Hard-hitting Canadian journalism at its finest, eh?

Ryan Dinwiddie Q & A [Winnipeg Sun]

OBNUG Hall of Fame: Dinwiddie inducted

Congratulations to Ryan Dinwiddie on his induction into the OBNUG Hall of Fame. Dinwiddie's three quarters of fire and brimstone on the Fresno State secondary was never in doubt of induction, ending up with over 90 percent of the vote. Special thanks to David Carr for providing the nine percent of no votes.

Dinwiddie joins Marty Tadman's Fiesta Bowl as the second inductee into the Hall of Fame. Next week, we will have the third candidate for induction, so stay tuned.

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.)

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

HOF nominee: Dinwiddie's 3 quarters vs. Fresno

This week's OBNUG Hall of Fame nominee is brought to you courtesty of Bronco fan Jason Haberman. Visit his blog at www.jasonhaberman.com. Praise his diction and vocabulary. And join him in recognizing one of the best performances in Boise State history.



When I was asked to contribute a nomination to the prestigious OBNUG Hall of Fame I was torn. Having been a Bronco fan since birth, I wondered, who should I choose. What performance did I think was worthy of being nominated?

Maybe I should recognize all the destruction that LB/DE Eric Helgeson leveled on the Big Sky in the late 80s. Do I go back to that magical '94 run where QB Tony Hilde and RB KC Adams and company ended "The Streak" and made it all the way to the national championship game? What about QB Bart Hendricks and his 77-yard scamper in that Humanitarian Bowl versus UTEP? I was very close to choosing LB Korey Hall versus Oregon State in 2004 with the volleyball interception (one of his three that game) and subsequent bull charge down the sideline for the score.

However, there is but one performance that I witnessed that was so amazing that there was no way I could ignore it: Ryan Dinwiddie versus Fresno State, October 18, 2002.

Let me set the scene. Dinwiddie was our prolific passing leader coming back for his junior season after lighting up scoreboards and record books the previous year. Hopes were high. We opened the season with the usual drubbing of Idaho, which set the stage for Boise State's big trip to SEC country to face the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Well, that game didn't quite turn out as well as we would have liked. In fact, it was a disaster. Dinwiddie was sacked early in the game and broke his ankle in the process. The day just got worse from there, and we lost 41-14.

But worse than losing the game was losing our all-everything gunslinger. In came untested senior B.J. Rhode. Talk was, if we could get a split of the four games that Dinwiddie was going to miss, then we could still be in contention for the WAC title.

Rhode did more than split. He excelled. He took the reigns, and in those four games the BSU offense put up point totals of 35, 63, 58 and 52 in four consecutive blowouts. This got the locals talking: "Should Dinwiddie be the starter when he comes back?" "B.J. has earned the right to keep playing." So on and so forth.

We had Fresno in our building for a Friday night ESPN showdown for what could decide the WAC championship. The fans were pumped. This warm evening was the first game that the entire record crowd was completely decked out in orange, all 30,924 of us. Something special was about to happen. You could feel it.

Rhode started the game, but we all knew Dinwiddie would play. The real question was, how much, and would he be rusty?

Rhode engineered a 13-point cushion playing the entire first quarter. But Dinwiddie jogged out in the second quarter and answered every doubter. He simply put on a clinic. He was absolutely on fire. His final stat line says it all: 19 for 22, 406 yards and 5 touchdowns. In less than three quarters! Boise State set a school record for yardage with 688 yards that day; Brock Forsey pitched in 132 yards of his own. Dinwiddie averaged over 21 yards per completion. One in every 3.8 pass attempts ended with a touchdown. That is domination.

I haven't even gotten into his innumerable Boise State records or his setting the NCAA career passer efficiency rating record.

Dinwiddie owned Fresno that day. And in my mind, his performance is worthy to be a sure-fire OBNUG Hall of Fame inductee.

Dinwiddie re-signs with Blue Bombers

Former Boise State QB Ryan Dinwiddie has re-signed with the CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

“Ryan is already familiar with our personnel and our coaching staff, so it was important for us to ensure he remain part of this organization,” said Bomber G.M. Brendan Taman.

“I think he proved last season that he has the skills and the mindset to be a CFL quarterback. The hope now is that he will continue to build on the poise and leadership skills he displayed last season, especially in the Grey Cup.”

Dinwiddie, who started the last season's Grey Cup in place of injured starter Kevin Glenn, had been in contract negotiations with the team for quite some time. Turns out the final numbers came down to neck-beard compensation.

Dinwiddie Returns to Blue and Gold [bluebombers.com]

Bold predictions for the week ahead

Spring is here! And with it, football! We couldn't be more excited about the football. And unless it rains on our truck that we just washed, we couldn't be more excited about the spring.

Without further ado, here is what we see happening in the next few days.

• After the success of Ryan Clady's mall autograph session on Saturday, the Ann Taylor store will try to capitalize with its own Boise State football celebrity appearance. Sadly, punter Brad Elkin proves to be much less of a draw.
  
• On the first day of spring football, the Boise State coaches name their starting quarterback: Ryan Dinwiddie, who was just granted college eligibility for eternity!
  
• OBNUG will try to sneak in to watch spring practice only to be kicked out when it is decided that press passes made in Publisher and printed out on a home computer do not actually make one a member of the press. OBNUG will retaliate with a childish post about campus security.

Scheduling wish list

When Boise State's schedule came out last week, we immediately thought that the Broncos were going undefeated. This is the same thought we have every offseason, and we usually continue having this thought until a road game at a BCS school.

The 2008 schedule seems to set up particularly nice for us with home games against Hawaii and Fresno, two games before our trip to Oregon, and creative scheduling early in the season. We like it.

But we feel that 2009 could be so much better.

Idaho State, Bowling Green, and Southern Miss do not get us excited. We want some new competition next season. Here is our wish list for Boise State football 2009.

• Duke: We want Sean Renfree to know what he is missing: success, tradition, and blocking.
• Washington: We could have easily beaten the Huskies last year, and we want another shot. This time, we will leave Taylor Tharp at home.
• USC: If Idaho can lose to them, then we should be able to lose by a lot less.
• Colorado: We want Dan Hawkins' to pay in eternity for his crimes against us, but we will settle for beating the Buffaloes by double digits.
• The All-MAC team: Everyone is always saying that the WAC is a weak conference. Well, suit up the best players in the MAC and ship them out to Boise and we'll see about that.
• The Chicago Bears: No one cuts Brock Forsey and gets away with it.
• The Winnipeg Blue Bombers: Playing against Ryan Dinwiddie might make our heads explode. We want to find out.
• The Boise Burn: Just to make sure that the Broncos are the best team in Idaho.

Dinwiddie haggling over the Canadian dollar

Former Boise State standout Ryan Dinwiddie had quite an exciting end to his 2007 CFL season, starting at quarterback in Canada's Super Bowl. Now, he wants to get paid. Relatively speaking.

Dinwiddie said the hold up is largely about incentive clauses. Canadian reports indicate the two sides are $15,000 to $20,000 apart, numbers Dinwiddie called “kind of right.”

A football league dealing in thousands rather than millions is sort of refreshing in a middle class kind of way.

Dinwiddie, CFL team haggling over contract [Idaho Statesman]