BOISE, Idaho — Wednesday Weekly…December 4, 2024.
The Mountain West released its postseason awards on Tuesday—your Offensive Player of the Year is Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty, and your Coach of the Year is the Broncos’ Spencer Danielson. Let’s start with Danielson. What a way for him to celebrate the one-year anniversary of officially being named head coach, one day after winning the Mountain West championship. Since taking over the program as the interim guy in mid-November last year, Danielson is 14-2 at the helm. And Jeanty? As much as everyone in Bronco Nation loves Kellen Moore, it’s clear that Jeanty is the best player in Boise State history. I’d be shocked if we ever saw anything like this again.
It was a good haul for Boise State on the All-Mountain West first team. There were seven Broncos on the list including Jeanty: tight end Matt Lauter, offensive linemen Kage Casey and Ben Dooley, defensive linemen Ahmed Hassanein and Jayden Virgin-Morgan and linebacker Marco Notarainni. And it should be noted: the Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year, Special Teams Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year will be on the blue turf Friday night: UNLV’s Jackson Woodard, Ricky White III and Caden Chittenden, respectively. Plenty for Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff crew to talk about before the game.
FIND A WAY TO BE THERE
There are still seats left for Friday night’s Mountain West title game—if you look hard enough. There are some excuses for not attending, but can’t think of many. This is the highest-stakes matchup ever played in Albertsons Stadium. If for no other reason, hunt down a ticket to watch Jeanty on the Blue one last time. Remember Jeanty’s mantra in his interview with The Athletic six weeks ago. “I’ve said in a lot of interviews, and I’ll keep saying it – for me, it was never really about the money,” Jeanty said. “It was just about what’s going to be best for my future, as a player, as a teammate. Where can I still keep getting developed to go to the next level? And that undoubtedly was here.” He’s been playing hurt since the first game against UNLV October 25. The guy has given a lot.
AS FOR THOSE STAKES
There are two good football teams in the Mountain West this year—and everybody else. But what a season for those first two. The new College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday night laid it out nicely. Boise State is up to No. 10 and is still projected to receive a first-round bye in the playoffs. UNLV has jumped to No. 20. If the Broncos win the Mountain West title game Friday night, it will be over a strong enough opponent to prevent Arizona State or Iowa State from the Big 12 leapfrogging them into the top four seeds. That would not be the case if Colorado State had made the title game. And the Rebels will be in the CFP field if they upset a top 10 team. They’re ranked ahead of any other Group of 5 team already. So there you have it. A play-in game for the College Football Playoff on the blue turf.
TO RUN – AND TO STOP THE RUN
Boise State and UNLV are the top two teams in the Mountain West in scoring offense, and it’s merely flip-flopped for scoring defense. But drill it down more, and stopping the run is going to be a thing in Friday night’s title tilt, one way or the other. The Rebels and Broncos are one-two in the conference in rushing defense, and they did a decent job against each other six weeks ago in Las Vegas—Boise State with 185 rushing yards and UNLV with 188. And, as you know, Ashton Jeanty was held to his lowest full-game total of the season: 128 yards with a long run of 16 and 3.9 yards per carry. But it’s all hands on deck for the Broncos defense to keep the Rebels in check, as UNLV rushed for 351 yards on Nevada last week. The Rebels will throw the ball, but they sure wouldn’t mind chewing up the game on the ground.
THAT WILY GRAYBEARD ‘ASSISTANT COACH’
It’s so ironic that a former NFL head coach has been named a semifinalist for the Broyles Award that goes annually to the nation's top assistant coach in college football. But that’s the well-earned position offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter is in at Boise State. Koetter retired from the NFL and built a dream home in Boise. He enjoyed hanging out at practice to the point that he agreed to rescue the Broncos offense four games into the 2022 season. Then he retired again—no ifs ands or buts. But there was a but, as Spencer Danielson asked him to do it once more after Bush Hamdan departed for Kentucky, and it’s worked out rather famously. Koetter knows he has to call a pretty good game against UNLV Friday night, but he knows what did work, as well as what could have worked, in Game 1 versus the Rebels.
INSPIRED MOUNTAIN HAWKS IN MOSCOW
Intersectional games are always interesting in the FCS Playoffs. It was a little too interesting last year when Albany came into the Kibbie Dome and ended the Vandals’ season in the quarterfinals. This time it’s Idaho-Lehigh in Moscow on Saturday. The Mountain Hawks (the highest point in Pennsylvania is 3,213 feet, but whatever) upset Richmond 20-16 last Saturday in the first round and come in at 9-3. Lehigh is a charmed team, as it has rebounded from a 2-9 campaign in 2023. The Vandals, also 9-3, are riding a five-game winning streak that earned them a first-round bye. They are hoping Buck Buchanan Award finalist Keyshawn James-Newby, their star senior edge rusher, is back on the field for this one.
DEGGIE DIGS IN AGAIN
Tyson Degenhart quickly put his sub-par performance in the Cayman Islands Classic championship game behind him Tuesday night, putting up 15 first-half points in Boise State’s 87-64 win over Utah Tech in ExtraMile Arena. For the game, Degenhart scored 21 points, going 7-for-7 from the field, 1-for-1 from three-point range and 6-for-6 from the free throw line. Coach Leon Rice tweaked his lineup, starting Javan Buchanan and Julian Bowie over Dylan Anderson and Andrew Meadow. Interestingly enough, it was Anderson and Meadow who were the next-highest Broncos scorers with 14 points apiece. Point guard Alvaro Cardenas also had a big night for Boise State, just missing an unconventional double-double. Cardenas dished out 10 assists and logged nine points.
ON TO THE COUGS
It’s becoming a tradition in Downtown Boise—the neutral-site hoops game between Boise State and Washington State. The next one is Saturday in Idaho Central Arena. It benefits both schools in computer metrics. The Broncos are 2-1 against the Cougars in what you might call this mini-series but lost the last matchup a year ago in Spokane. Wazzu is 7-2 and coming off an impressive 68-57 win Monday night at Nevada. The Wolf Pack were coming off wins over VCU and Oklahoma State in the Charleston Classic. Isaiah Watts, son of former Seattle Supersonics star Slick Watts, led the Cougs with five second-half three-pointers.
STEELIES TRANSACTION SEMANTICS
They can be tabbed “callups” or “reassignments” or a number of things. This one is a “loan,” as goaltender Ben Kraws has returned to the Idaho Steelheads from the AHL’s Texas Stars in time for a long Canadian road trip to Trois-Rivières. Kraws, property of the Dallas Stars, has been good in his stints with the Steelheads—he is 5-1-1 with a 3.12 goals against average and .909 save percentage. His 48 saves on November 10 in a 4-2 win at Savannah are still tied for the most saves in a single game this season by an ECHL goalie. This will theoretically allow 30-year-old Tomas Sholl to go back to his mentor’s role, although he has been named ECHL Goaltender of the Week for the eighth time in his career. Sholl won two starts against Tahoe in Boise last week.
THIS DAY IN SPORTS…December 4, 2012:
Paul Petrino is introduced as Idaho’s new head football coach, charged with turning around a Vandals program that had gone 3-21 in the previous two seasons and leading it through the uncertainty of independent status. The Vandals had played their final game in the WAC 10 days earlier and were without a conference home in 2013. Petrino had been an offensive coordinator at Arkansas and Louisville under both his brother Bobby and former Idaho coach John L. Smith. Petrino was also on Smith’s Vandals staff from 1992-94. He would coach Idaho for nine seasons encompassing the school’s return to the Big Sky and would go 34-66.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
