BOISE, Idaho — Wednesday, April 15, 2020.
Boise State has landed a number of transfers the past month. The Florida State Seminoles would surely like you to know about a couple of theirs. We’re hoping upon hope that the FSU game still happens on the blue turf in September. If former Mississippi State defensive lineman Fabien Lovett has his way, he’ll be there.
You remember Lovett, who jumped into the transfer portal when new Bulldogs coach Mike Leach tweeted a stay-at-home “joke” featuring a woman knitting a noose. Lovett’s now a Seminole, and he’ll seek a waiver that would allow him to play right away. Lovett made 19 tackles with a sack as a redshirt freshman last year. Florida State has also picked up Meiko Dotson, who tied for the national lead in interceptions last season with nine for Florida International. Dotson is a graduate transfer.
KIPER’S ‘BIG BOARD’ STILL MISSING CURTIS
We’re spending a lot more time following Mel Kiper Jr. these days, but what are you gonna do? Kiper has released his Mock Draft 4.0 at ESPN.com, a two-rounder. Boise State’s Curtis Weaver, alas, is not there. Fellow former Bronco Ezra Cleveland is, but he’s not sniffing Kiper’s first round, tabbed at No. 58 overall and going to Minnesota. “Let's fill out the Vikings' list of weakest positions with an offensive tackle,” writes Kiper. “Cleveland, who started 40 games at left tackle for Boise State, looked great in agility drills at the combine and ran a 4.93 40, the third fastest among offensive linemen. He's not just a workout warrior, though; he has stellar tape. Cleveland could be the swing tackle in Year 1 for the Vikings.” It would be cool to see him block for Alexander Mattison again.
ADAMS IS A BRONCOS RARITY IN THE NFL
There’s quite a lineage of former Boise State players in the college football coaching ranks. But when Caves & Prater interviewed Indianapolis assistant offensive line coach Klayton Adams on Idaho SportsTalk Tuesday, it became apparent that the same is not the case in the NFL (not counting former Boise State coaches). By Mike Prater’s count, the only ex-Broncos going on to jobs as NFL assistants are Adams, Dallas offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, Miami defensive backs coach Gerald Alexander, former Atlanta quarterbacks coach Bush Hamdan (now on Eliah Drinkwitz’s staff at Missouri), and the now-retired Art Valero, a longtime NFL offensive line coach.
Prater texted me to see if I knew of any others. I did not. I thought that was it—except that Adams threw in Danny Langsdorf, who was once a Boise State quarterback and started for the first month of the 1993 season. Langsdorf spent time as an assistant with both the New Orleans Saints and New York Giants. He’s made the rounds in college ball and is now the quarterbacks coach at Colorado after spending a few weeks on Marcus Arroyo’s new staff at UNLV.
MW PREPARING FOR HARD TIMES
Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson joined the other four Group of 5 commissioners in signing a letter to the NCAA last Friday asking for temporary relief from financial and attendance requirements due to financial hits taken during the pandemic. Among other things, Dvision I schools are required to sponsor at least 16 sports, and FBS members have to average at least 15,000 in football attendance at least once every two years (although that rule is already loosely enforced, if at all). Thompson said the request is not about eliminating sports. "How can we maintain the sports that we have but not fund or spend what we have spent in the past?'' he said.
UNCHARTED WATERS FOR OLYMPIC SPORTS
Here’s a red flag for Olympic sports on any college campus that also has football. Cincinnati dropped its men’s soccer program effective immediately Tuesday, citing the unknown in the face of the pandemic. Northwest Nazarene doesn’t have football, and soccer has always been an integral part of the Nighthawks program. And at the same time Tuesday, NNU announced that its men’s team will host a Boys and Girls Youth Summer Camp in July, and the women’s program will host a College ID camp. Assuming, of course, there’s some normalcy in July.
Olympic sports shine at College of Idaho, too, and Coyotes runner Alex Martin has been honored as the 2019-20 Cascade Conference Men’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Martin, an NAIA All-American from Bend, OR, was among 15 nominees from around the conference. He finished third last fall at the NAIA Cross Country Championships and is a four-time NAIA Scholar-Athlete.
THIS DAY IN SPORTS…April 15, 1985, 35 years ago today:
In Las Vegas, two of the greatest fighters of the era meet when middleweight champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler defends his title against WBC light-middleweight champ Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns. After a ferocious first round in which both boxers landed tremendous punches, Hagler took charge. In the third round, he floored Hearns with three vicious rights, prompting the referee to stop the bout.
(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.)
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