Thursday, January 12, 2012.
It’s another first for Chris Petersen. Boise State’s coach has never had to fill more than one opening on his staff in the same year, but that’s what he faces now with the departures of Brent Pease to Florida and, reportedly, Jeff Choate to Washington State and Marcel Yates to Texas A&M. The Broncos have been very fortunate—extraordinarily fortunate for a team that has compiled a six-year record of 73-6. They’ve had only three assistant coaches leave previously despite repeated overtures from other schools. And each time a former Boise State assistant has returned to the program to fill the void. Petersen will likely have to go outside the Bronco bloodlines now.
Robert Prince has, as expected, been promoted to offensive coordinator. Prince will still coach wide receivers, so the offensive opening on the Bronco staff is that of quarterbacks coach. It’s too bad Kellen Moore has other things going on right now. Choate and Yates leave holes, opening up the special teams/nickelbacks and secondary slots. The only thing most passive observers noticed about Boise State’s special teams the past season was the infamous missed 39-yard field goal on the final play of the loss to TCU. But considering the things over which he had control, like kickoff cover teams, this was probably the most impressive season of Choate’s six-year tenure with the Broncos. Boise State allowed only 19 yards per kickoff return in 2011, making field position a season-long advantage. Yates has his own tale to tell—more on that tomorrow.
Just for fun, let’s throw one name out there: former Bronco special teams coach Kent Riddle. He went to Colorado with Dan Hawkins and is now coaching special teams and tight ends at North Texas. And the Broncos will need a recruiter in Texas. Choate and Pease were primarily responsible for mining the considerable talent Boise State has pulled out of the Lone Star state—Choate in Houston and Pease in Dallas-Fort Worth. Six of the Broncos’ verbal commitments for the 2012 class are from Texas. But Pease said yesterday on Idaho SportsTalk that fans need not worry about those guys wavering. “They don’t come here for a particular coach,” Pease said. “They come for Coach Pete.” And, Pease added, their future teammates and the city and the fans.
Why did Pease choose Florida over new national champion Alabama? With the Gators, he’ll have a chance to build the offense the way he wants to, which would not necessarily be the case with the Crimson Tide. And after the BCS Championship Game, expectations would be high for the ‘Bama offense, what with outgoing offensive coordinator Jim McElwain’s unusually aggressive and successful game plan versus LSU. At Florida, Pease has nowhere to go but up as he takes over an offense that was ranked 105th nationally in 2011, averaging just 329 yards a game.
And why would Pease leave Boise in the first place? Well, his roots as an Idahoan have long had runners to other states. Pease played at Walla Walla Community College, played and coached at Montana, and coached at Northern Arizona, Kentucky and Baylor. He’d like to be a head coach. At the age of 47, Pease is ready for a next phase of spreading the wings. And the field.
Well, “this” season is now “last” season. It finally ended on January 9. Yes, there are too many bowl games. The bowls should be held to certain standards to remain certified. Like, how about local support? Independence Bowl and Hawaii Bowl, that means you. The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl takes its shots, but it can feel good about its local turnout after drawing 28,000 fans this season without any local ties. Sure, Utah State was close enough to travel a significant number. But, Missouri’s close enough to Shreveport, too, and nobody came to that game. Louisianans must have had something better to do. The Independence Bowl announced attendance at 41,728, and it couldn’t have been half of that. The Hawaii Bowl reported both paid attendance, 32,630, and turnstile, 19,411. Even that latter number was extremely generous.
When you hear talk of Idaho ties in the NFL—and, more specifically, in the playoffs—the one name that never seems to come up is former Idaho State offensive lineman Evan Dietrich-Smith of the Packers. And that’s odd, because he was involved in one of the more infamous incidents of the 2011 season. It was Dietrich-Smith who was stomped on by Ndamukong Suh on Thanksgiving Day for all to see. Dietrich-Smith, who played for the Bengals from 2005-08, handled it extremely well—no reaction, no postgame accusations. Green Bay hosts the Giants in the NFC divisional round Sunday, and Dietrich-Smith is back in his reserve role. He’s played in all 16 games for the Packers this season and started three, including the Thanksgiving Day clash when he was filling in for injured left guard Josh Sitton.
We’re about to find out if Anthony Drmic can osmose (yes, that’s a word) his non-conference performance into Boise State’s Mountain West schedule. Drmic has been aggressive and confident in Taco Bell Arena in particular, keying the Broncos’ 10-5 start. And the 12-day break between the loss at Fresno State and Saturday’s Mountain West opener against Air Force has allowed Drmic’s ailing ankle to heal. The 6-6 Australian has posted three 20-point games this season, the most by a Bronco freshman since Tanoka Beard logged four in 1989-90. And Drmic’s 26 points against Idaho on New Year’s Eve are the most by a Boise State freshman in 18 years. Meanwhile, the Bronco women made their Mountain West debut last night with a 65-46 win over New Mexico. Former Eagle High star Lauren Lenhardt was the catalyst with 23 points.
The Idaho Stampede went 0-fer at the NBA D-League Showcase in Reno, losing 113-98 yesterday to Bakersfield. Coach Randy Livingston had to make some adjustments with Luke Babbitt and Julyan Stone back in the NBA—Antoine Walker tried to pick up the slack, leading the Stampede with 18 points and eight rebounds. The glaring line in the box score was rebounding, as the Jam had a 15-board advantage. NBA veteran Mikki Moore made his Stampede debut in the game with nine points and three rebounds in 21½ minutes. The Stamps, who have lost four of their last five games, return to CenturyLink Arena tomorrow to begin a two-game series against the L.A. D-Fenders.
On this, Dontrelle Willis’ 30th birthday (see “This Day In Sports” below), let’s catch up on offseason doing of some of the more prominent former Boise Hawks. Willis is on the comeback trail, he hopes, having signed with Philadelphia a month ago. Willis is 72-69 over his nine-year big league career with an ERA of 4.17. But he hasn’t won more than two games in a season since 2007. Righthander Andrew Cashner, the former TCU star who debuted with the Hawks in 2008, is now a San Diego Padre, part of the trade that sent Anthony Rizzo and Zach Cates to the Cubs. Cashner had been a starter in Chicago but is ticketed for the bullpen with the Padres. And the Reds acquired reliever Sean Marshall from the Cubs. Marshall was a beacon on an otherwise disappointing Cubs staff last year, notching a 2.26 ERA and five saves.
This Day In Sports…January 12, 1982:
The D-Train is born. Dontrelle Willis was the Opening Night starter for the Boise Hawks when their Chicago Cubs affiliation era began in 2001. After a trade to Florida, Willis emerged as the National League Rookie of the Year in 2003 and helped the Marlins to a World Series championship. In 2005, he won 22 games and finished second for the NL’s Cy Young Award. But Willis’ numbers slipped beginning in 2007, and his journey since has gone through Detroit, Arizona, San Francisco and Cincinnati. He showed signs of life last season with the Reds and last month signed with Philadelphia. Dontrelle Willis…30 years old today.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment Sunday nights at 10:30PM on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on 93.1 The Ticket. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
