Camp notes: pads are heavy and other new experiences

Today's Boise State practice was full of firsts:

• First time wearing full pads
• First time practicing on the new blue turf
• First time newcomers practiced with returners
• First time the offense showed up
  
• First time Paul J realized that Jeremy Childs and Jeremy Avery are different people.
  

Dave Southorn filed his report from the morning sessions, and he had plenty of nice things to say about RB D.J. Harper, even though Harper did not have many nice things to say about himself.

"I was actually really disappointed with how I did last year," Harper said. "If I can stay healthy, I want to be a lot more productive."

The offense finally showed some firepower with three long touchdown plays during practice today. Kellen Moore and Bush Hamdan threw for two of the scores, and Jeremy Avery broke a 45-yard TD run. It sure was nice of Ryan Winterswyck and Mike T. Williams to let them.

Chadd Cripe has details, too.

More on practice today if anything surfaces.

Monday: Links with temper

Story of the day:

Aaron Burks, man of mystery [Statesman]

Congratulations on the Idaho Statesman for breaking some Boise State football news yesterday with the announcement of Texas high school WR Aaron Burks giving a verbal commitment to the Broncos. We have just one question: who?!

Burks is a mystery to a lot of Boise State fans. Fight Fight BSU couldn't find much about him. The guys at Bronco Country unearthed his stat line from last year (seven catches) and not much else. We're happy that the Boise State coaches are able to discover such gems, but Bronco Nation needs some more information.

Perhaps this is the problem: the Statesman might have spelled his name wrong. We found an Arron Burks on the Baylor Scout page, and Boise State's Scout profile has it spelled the same way. Perhaps this way we can find out more information about the kid. At any rate, the plot remains thickened.

Other links:

Goodbye, old blue turf [KTVB.com]

Better keep the Blue Turf Towel guy away from this.

How to bet on the Nevada Wolfpack [Bet Us]

Subtitle: More than one way to lose money in Reno

Coach Pete the racehorse [Statesman]
It appears someone likes Boise State more than we do.

An Oregon comic book: The Amazing O-men [SI.com]
It is only a matter of time before we have Idaho: The Disappointing V-men.

The Mothership in photos [Statue Left]
Still awesome and large.

Countdown to media day begins [PWtW]
We were wondering when Chris Ault would be speaking.

The face of the program has no face

ESPNU's Face of the Program contest came to an end today as the last of the D1-A teams were alphabetically revealed. Hope it was worth the wait, Wyoming.

As evidenced by the photo above, Boise State's selection for "Face of the Program" was the blue turf. We'll let Ted Miller explain why.

It takes just a fraction of a second to know whether a Boise State home game is on television. That's because Bronco Stadium is distinguished by the only non-green playing surface in the nation. Of course, the unusual field color would just be a curiosity and more than likely would invite mostly ridicule if not for this: Though the stadium seats only 30,000 fans, that field is one of the toughest places to play in the country.

Perhaps the Face of the Program should have been the belligerently loud "Whose House?" guy in the North End Zone.

Among WAC members, Boise State fared pretty well considering that its selection was both nationally relevant and unique. Here is the list of the other WAC choices.

• Fresno State: Pat Hill. The Fu Manchu on the face of the program.
  
• Hawaii: June Jones. No Timmy Change? No Colt Brennan? Is island hero worship that fleeting?
  
• Idaho: Jerry Kramer. Offensive lineman, kicker, natural gas spokesman.
  
• Louisiana Tech: Terry Bradshaw. Life is so unfair to Tim Rattay.
  
• Nevada: Chris Ault. By default and longevity.
  
• NMSU: Charley Johnson. Who?
  
• San Jose State: Bill Walsh. Good choice. We will not make any jokes about this one.
  
• Utah State: Merlin and Phil Olsen. Do they each get half of the face? How will this work?
  

Face of the Program [ESPN.com]

The face of Boise State's football program

ESPN began a poll in April to decide the face of every college football program in the country. We thought it might be fun to check in to see how things are going.

Boise State has received 66 suggestions so far, and the blue turf and the Fiesta Bowl seem to be the favorites. Of course, there are plenty of other choices, too.

sroake1
dan hawkins

This one must have been posted in 2004.

drays2004r
The face of the program is clearly Zabransky. He typifies what the Broncos are all about...A team that gets disrespected but constantly finds a way to get the job done in convincing fashion. He's just a winner.

Zabransky is a winner, except in most big games, in the state of Georgia, and in the Humanitarian Bowl.

2244curt
Gimmick plays and a schedule filled with cupcakes every year.

Might the last part of this be a nomination for Gene Bleymaier?

The Vandals are having a much more difficult time coming up with a face of the program, as referenced by the tens of people weighing in at ESPN.com. So far the choices appear to be Dennis Erickson, Mark Schlereth, and the great John Friesz. We just found reason #437 not to be a Vandal fan.

Face of the Program: Boise State [ESPN.com]