High School Musical or WAC media convention?

Zac Efron, meet Chadd Cripe.

When the WAC media convene in Salt Lake City for their annual meeting of the minds in July, there will be much more to discuss than Colin Kaepernick's skinny girl legs. Disney's High School Musical will be showing at a nearby theater, leaving WAC media members with a difficult decision: Vandal preseason predictions or Wildcat pride.

This heartwarming story features rousing music, fantastic dance choreography and is sure to delight the entire family.

Dance choreography sure sounds like more fun than Dick Tomey press conferences.

We know what decision will be making. Buffet at noon; getting our head in the game at 3:00 and 7:30.

Disney's High School Musical [Showbuzz.com]

Friday: Links with ageism

Story of the day:

ESPN recaps Broncos' busy spring[ESPN.com]

The Worldwide Leader is nothing if not persistent. In its efforts to create spring wrap-ups for every team in college football, ESPN.com often ends up doing a disservice to the small-conference schools, choosing sweeping generalizations over actually attending the spring practices. For instance:

There are questions at quarterback and along the offensive front, but there are plenty of playmakers if merely adequate answers appear.

This sentence could have been written five months ago.

The rest of the ESPN story is rather non-informative, considering that Boise State fans already know everything there is to know about the team. The added publicity is nice, but is it too much to ask for ESPN to make a starting QB prediction or something?

Other links:

Jake Plummer in downtown Boise on Saturday [Idaho Statesman]
We've got our #16 Arizona Cardinals jersey ready!

UW quarterback Jake Locker's legend grows [Rivals.com]
We're not sure which is more legendary: suffering a spine injury and missing just one game or beating Boise State.

Maisel and Schlabach offer WAC questions [ESPN.com]
We've got a question for them: How dare you.

ACC says good-bye to H-Bowl

The ACC has finally had enough of the Humanitarian Bowl, and the conference will end its bowl ties following the 2008 postseason.

For seven years, ACC teams have traveled to Boise, complained about Boise, and lost to small-conference schools. Conference officials decided they had had enough.

"The people in Boise have always done a fantastic job for us but there was a strong feeling that we needed to get our No. 8 team back into this part of the country," ACC commissioner John Swofford said.

Swofford continued: "Plus, the ACC hates humanitarians."

With an opening for 2009, the Humanitarian Bowl will be looking to fill a vacant spot in its bowl lineup. And although late-December, afternoon bowl games are not exactly hot tickets, we think that the H-Bowl should be able to get an entertaining opponent. Here are our suggestions:

• Another WAC team. Although, for this to be possible, the NCAA might need to lower its bowl-eligible requirements.
• Idaho's 5A high school football champion. David Augusto's head might explode.
• Notre Dame. Every year. They won't have anything else to do.
• Fast food and mobile phone mascots. The Idaho Powerball can officiate.
• The Hosei (Japan) University football team. Konnichiwa, college bowl season.
• A team of WAC bloggers. OBNUG calls dibs on wide receiver!
  

No more trips to Boise for ACC [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

Thursday: Links with disappointment

Story of the day:

Nevada prep to walk-on at Boise State [Nevada Appeal]

Jake Hess, a 6-foot, 230-pound fullback from Galena High School in Reno, will walk-on at Boise State in the fall. Wait, isn't there a WAC football team already in Reno?

"A lot of people were asking, 'Why don't you go to Nevada?'" Hess said. "I really like Boise State - I like the tradition. The town is awesome. I can see myself at Boise."

Nevada's Pistol offense loses games and recruits, apparently.

Other links:

Troy Merritt feature [Idaho Press-Tribune]
Bronco Nation will be there in spirit because golf is pretty boring to watch in person.

A Top 25 list with perspective [EDSBS]
We think Mario Kart should have been ranked higher.

ACC pulls out of H-Bowl [Idaho Statesman]
Also pulling out? National respect.

Expect another wild season [Rivals.com]
And expect a small-conference school to get screwed.

MySpace profile: Ian Johnson version 2.0

Every so often, OBNUG puts on its investigative hat and hunts down the social network profiles of Boise State personalities. We're not proud of it.



Earlier today, we delved into the personal profile page of Ian Johnson. Or did we?

Further research shows a decidedly more personal MySpace page for #41, complete with accurate information, real photos, and mentions of his wife Chrissy. You mean there can be more than one profile page per person? Technology completely eludes us!

• Profile name: ian
• Tagline: Knowledge!!!!
• Friends: 39
• Top Friends: Chrissy Johnson, Shaun Jordan
• Music: Your Life and Mine by Just Surrender
• Books: "books are for nerds"
• Most tragic comment: "Hey good luck tomorrow bro! show everyone that Hawaii is no match for you!"

MySpace profile: Ian Johnson

Every so often, OBNUG puts on its investigative hat and hunts down the social network profiles of Boise State personalities. We're not proud of it.

We figured Ian Johnson to be a popular guy. He is an athletic, famous jock with a nationally recognized moment in the spotlight. Yet he only has 231 MySpace friends.

We attribute this to one of two things:

1. He has agoraphobia.
2. We did not find his actual MySpace page.

The latter option is a very good possibility, considering his profile lists his income at $250,000 and Barry Sanders as a Top Friend. At the same time, though, he has a lot of real, authentic people on his MySpace friend list, and they all seem to think that they are friends with the real Ian Johnson.

Agoraphobia is out of the question, too. People with social fears do not propose in front of a national TV audience.

Perhaps the reason for his low friend count is that he doesn't use MySpace very often. Maybe he views it as childish and immature, and he sees it as an obsession for those with no lives of their own. We wonder what that makes us then.

On second thought, forget we asked that.

Profile name: Ian

Cursor: giant football clipart

Friends: 231

Top friends: Matt Nelson, Kyle Wilson, the NFL, and ReggieBushFanClub.net,

Music: NFL Rise to Glory
Blog: none

Comments: "Thanx for the add. U R my favorite running back."

Ian Johnson's MySpace [MySpace]

Wednesday: Links with exercise

Story of the day:

Boise State to host big-time QB recruit [Idaho Press-Tribune]

The Idaho Press-Tribune's Dave Southorn is reporting that California high school QB Richard Brehaut will be in camp this summer with the Broncos. Rivals.com ranks him as a four star recruit and gives him a 5.8 on their rating scale that goes up to 6.1.

The following are stats from Brehaut's freshman year. Freshman!

65.0 completion percentage, 2,348 yards, 22 touchdowns
528 rushing yards, 5 touchdowns

Bush Hamdan was not available for comment.

Other links:

Numerical evidence that the BCS is awful [The Big Lead]
Along with the compelling case of common sense and demand, numerical evidence should make things pretty clear.

Boise State's hook-and-ladder spawns new iterations [Scout.com]
One high school is calling it the hook-and-latter. Also popular: the statue of levity, the double reverb, and quarterback stink.

Boise State games are fun to watch [Are you ready for football?]
Was there ever any debate?

McMackin to keep Hawaii's traditional pre-game dance [Scott Slant]
Former BSU WR Bady has new afl2 team [OurSportsCentral]