Spring football recap: Day One

Boise State football practice was the place to be Monday afternoon as the Broncos kicked off spring ball. Bears coach Lovie Smith as well as BSU alumni Ryan Clady, Orlando Scandrick, Daryn Colledge, and Ryan Dinwiddie were on hand to watch the first practice of the 2008 Bronco squad.

Chadd Cripe reports that the emphasis on tempo was noticeable throughout practice, and the players seemed to buy into the new approach.

Petersen made sure his push for a quicker pace at practice was understood from the start. When players ran to form a huddle around him after stretching, he made them do it again.

They hadn't moved quickly enough.

The rest of practice was crisply run, with little wasted time and the offense cutting back on huddles.

"Everybody in the country is going to show up in spring ball and have a good first day in terms of effort and attitude," Petersen said. "The whole trick is to be consistent and persistent every day."

Also encouraging was the fact that three Boise State running backs finished among the best conditioned athletes on the team in a new system designed by strength coach Tim Socha. Ian Johnson, D.J. Harper, and Doug Martin were three of the five players to reach the highest level of the conditioning program. Harper ran a team-best 4.43 40-yard dash.

First impressions from BSU's first practice [Idaho Statesman]

WAC rivals name athletic directors

Louisiana Tech and Utah State have named new athletic directors, and each has his sights set on the schools' football programs.

The LaTech Bulldogs hired head football coach Derek Dooley (pictured) to take over the athletic director duties, despite Dooley not having any experience in the position. Did Buddy Garrity have a hand in this?

Utah State showed more sense in its hiring of Scott Barnes, most recently an assistant AD at the University of Washington. Barnes is committed to building the football program, which is a good sign for the WAC and a bad sign for unathletic high school football players from the state of Utah who were hoping for a scholarship.

Dooley introduced as Tech AD [Shreveport Times]
Barnes named AD [Herald Journal]

Bob Stoops hates underdogs

Boise State's Statue of Liberty play made it to the finals of ESPN's recent Greatest Highlight competition, much to the dismay of Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops.

Stoops thought that ESPN.com voters might have overvalued the wild ending of the Oklahoma-Boise State 2007 Fiesta Bowl as the second-greatest television highlight of all time. While Stoops termed the Broncos' Statue of Liberty surprise as "a heck of a highlight," he had a couple of other personal favorites.

What exactly were his personal favorites? We assume they were Oklahoma's 79-10 win over North Texas, the U.S. Army's victory over Native Americans, and Goliath beating David.

Big 12 Roundup [ESPN.com]

Boise State spring football kicks off today

Boise State returns to the field today for the first time in 2008 as spring practice gets underway. The Broncos will have 15 practices over the next month (taking a week off for spring break), and there will be three scrimmages planned that are open to the public. Here are the scrimmage dates:

1. March 21 (3:30 Bronco Stadium)
2. April 4 (3:30 TBA)
3. April 11 (6:00 Bronco Stadium)

Last week, we listed several questions we thought would need answering over the course of spring practice, so we hope that the Broncos have some productive sessions. Chadd Cripe will be covering the practices on his Boise Beat blog, while OBNUG will be trying to figure out a way to sneak in.

The Statesman ran a good spring ball primer on Sunday, but no Boise State news would be complete without OBNUG's opinion. Thusly, our highlights of the feature:

• "Practicing the no-huddle." Can we hope to see this during the regular season?
• "Great teams are built in practice." This just in: Utah State cancels spring practice.
• "Veterans Austin Pettis and Titus Young." Are we sure "veterans" is the right word?
• "A physical defense." We will gladly accept that.
• "Garcia Day to cornerback." Inevitable.
• "Thomas Byrd as starting center." Fine by us.

BSU football filling in the blanks [Idaho Statesman]

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.

WIR: Godspeed, spring football

Week in review (WIR) can't wait for the start of spring football on Monday. Now OBNUG can finally stop making up news stories.

• Fiesta Bowl still a good highlight.
• Clady makes millions at Pro Day.
• Anyone but Idaho State!
• No Kyle Wilson this spring.
• NFL mock draft minus objectivity.
• Fresno fans keeping it civil.
• OBNUG ranks the schedule.
• BSU basketball pulls a Hawaii Bowl.
• NCAA cover athlete not a Bronco.
• Spring practice! Thank goodness you're here.

Have a great weekend, Bronco fans. Looking forward to Monday!

An open letter to spring football

Dear spring football,

Boy are we glad you're here.

This offseason has been a long one for us considering the way last year ended. Plus, we had to deal with the Jeremy Childs suspension, players turning pro, injuries to David Shields and Kyle Wilson, and Fresno State being the WAC favorite despite their being Fresno State.

You couldn't have come at a better time, and we can't wait to have the Broncos back on the practice field. We're glad to have something to talk about besides Jeb Putzier's NFL career.

There are a lot of intriguing topics with this 2008 Bronco squad, and we hope that you will help clear up some of our questions. Or at least make the list shorter.

• Who will be the starting quarterback?
• Is Doug Martin the future? And is the future now?
• Who would win a battle of strengths between Byron Hout and Daron Mackey?
• Will Childs and Wilson be missed?
• Who is going to replace the linemen who graduated?
• Will the Vinny Perretta veer option offense that we scrawled on a napkin and mailed to coach Chris Peterson be on the practice sched?
• Did Austin Pettis get any faster?
• Did Jeron Johnson get any more durable?
• What is the deal with that Ian Johnson guy?

We'll be checking in as often as we can to see how things are going. Hopefully, you can give us some answers to these questions before we start making up conclusions on our own.

Oh, and one last thing. Can you stay around until late June? We can't stand the thought of four months without football.

Sincerely,

OBNUG team