Thursday, April 5, 2018.
You’d like to consider all of the honorees at next week’s Boise State Athletic Hall of Fame induction as equals, but the star of the show is definitely Kellen Moore. The Bronco great warmed up the Idaho SportsTalk audience yesterday with an update on his new life as quarterbacks coach of the Dallas Cowboys. It’s an interesting spring for Moore, his first without pads on since his senior year in high school in Prosser in 2007. There’s nothing like playing, Kellen said. But he added, “When this opportunity presented itself it was pretty hard not to do it.”
Moore said it’s the calm before the storm right now. “In no way, shape or form is it comparable to the season,” he said. “It seems funny to say, but right now it’s kind of like a typical 8 to 5 job.” Kellen called it “a great transition” to be able to morph from player to coach in the Dallas organization. He’ll put his own stamp on the Cowboys QB position in time as he says he’s “taking notes from everything—high school with my dad, the folks in Boise, Detroit, Dallas, everywhere I’ve been” and applying them to his new post. Moore is champing at the bit, looking forward to “doing some real football” when the Cowboys reconvene later this month.
Another of next week’s Hall of Fame inductees, Nate Potter, has taken the offensive line coach’s position with College of Idaho. Potter, the Timberline High grad who played two NFL seasons with the Cardinals, has been on the Boise State staff the past four years, spending the last three as offensive graduate assistant. He worked with the Bronco O-line, first under Scott Huff and then under Brad Bedell. C of I has another major addition to its staff with NFL experience: Shiloh Keo. The former Idaho Vandal will coach the Coyotes’ secondary. Keo, who lives in Eagle, played parts of six NFL seasons and won a Super Bowl ring with Denver two years ago. Also of note, the Yotes’ first scrimmage of spring football has been moved from Saturday morning to tomorrow afternoon due to weather concerns.
On the Boise State spring football front, the depth chart at cornerback sure looks to be in better shape than it was late last season. Reid Harrison-Ducros abruptedly left the team in November, about six weeks after losing his starting job to Avery Williams. That left little-used Jalen Walker as the next man up behind Williams and Tyler Horton. Then came the Las Vegas Bowl, where it was revealed Horton, who had just been named first-team All-Mountain West, would be unable to play against Oregon. The starting job was Walker’s. “It happened Wednesday of bowl week,” said coach Bryan Harsin. “His eyes got this big.” But Walker stepped up, recording six tackles, one for loss, versus the Ducks. “I think he’d tell you (it was) extremely valuable,” Harsin said. And the Broncos know they have a dependable third corner.
As Idaho spring football continues, the Vandals are not only starting over at quarterback, they’re also rebuilding at wide receiver. Alfonso Onunwor, Jacob Sannon and Reuben Mwehla are all gone, taking 144 catches and 1,715 yards from last season with them. Whoever the new Idaho quarterback is will have senior David Ungerer at his disposal, but behind Ungerer there is virtually no experience. Junior Jante Boston played in 10 games and made just four catches last year—from there the Vandals are looking to junior college transfers Ariyon Huff and Steavenson Fernand top bolster them this spring.
It’s not a binding resolution, but it serves as a resounding vote of no-confidence in Idaho athletic director Rob Spear. The ASUI Senate conducted a marathon session last night in Moscow—and in the end, it voted 10-5 to ask for Spear’s resignation or removal. Spear spoke to the group and claimed he wasn’t sufficiently trained by the university in reporting sexual assault cases at the time the multiple allegations against wide receiver Jahrie Level came to light, citing “mass confusion” about UI policy. The university rejected that argument, though. It’s hard to imagine the parties being able to work together moving forward.
Ask three draft experts about former Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen and the NFL Draft, and you’ll get three different answers. Two of them are similar right now, though. Ryan Wilson of CBS Sports.com thinks Buffalo will trade up to the No. 4 overall spot and select Allen. “For now, the Bills' job belongs to AJ McCarron but the expectation is that Allen will be the face of the franchise for the next decade,” writes Wilson. NFL.com’s Charlie Casserly predicts the Bills will trade up to No. 5—and will still take Allen. “Allen is built to throw in the bad weather he'll encounter in Buffalo,” says Casserly. Mel Kiper Jr. is sticking with his prognostication: Allen going No. 1 overall to the Cleveland Browns. “Allen, my top-ranked quarterback, can sit behind Tyrod Taylor in 2018 and take the Week 1 snaps in 2019,” writes Kiper.
No better place to extend a winning streak than in an opponent’s barn that you own. The Idaho Steelheads have now won seven games in a row at Tulsa’s BOK Center after drilling the Oilers 4-1 last night. In the process, the Steelheads’ overall win streak has been extended to eight games as they steam toward the Kelly Cup Playoffs. This victory may have been more impressive than any of the four shutouts Tomas Sholl has put up in the past month, as the Steelies netminder clocked 44 saves. Idaho wraps up the regular season this weekend in Texas at Allen.
This Day In Sports…April 5, 1984:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Los Angeles Lakers breaks Wilt Chamberlain’s NBA career scoring record with his 31,420th point in a 129-1115 win over the Utah Jazz. Kareem got the record by sinking—what else—a skyhook. He would end up with 38,387 points in his 20-year pro career with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Lakers. Three other players have since passed Chamberlain but haven’t caught Kareem: Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on 93.1 FM KTIK. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
