Designed Trick Play vs Quick Snap vs Wrong Snap Count

I have changed my mind, back and forth, and believe it was a devised play. Then again after the play, the camera pans to Pettis who thinks there was a flag, so that might mean Byrd ( the center) snapped it early if he saw someone jump offsides. Then again, Byrd might have snapped the ball on the wrong count. Inquiring minds want to know!

footage provided by KTVB

Our favorite blogs have chimed and what do they say on the Opening Game of the 2008 Campaign! Please visit early and often!
OBNUG
Fight Fight BSU
Dustin Lapray
BroncoNationNow

Domination Commence.....

Opening Kickoff


Flyover
Where to begin........The defense stepped up and was explosive. I will applaud D. Acrey for stepping in when Ginng was dinged up. Acrey was a stud, making 14 tackles, instead of potentially being sour after not being named "starter" ( which might be the most overrated word of the year, since the linebackers and running backs/wide receivers at Boise State are so interchangeable. The depth at each position might be the best in school history and is a weapon the coaching staff are fully utilizing). Additionally, way to make plays last night Aaron Tevis, props are deserved!

-Jeron Johnson laid out Id St QB Russell Hill and it appeared that he might have bloodied him up, after the medical trainers held a towel to his face on the sidelines after the hit. Hill would return to below average performance, but his toughness will not be challenged by this basement dwelling blogger. This is not all on Hill since the defensive secondary destroyed the Id St offensive air attack ( ( 74 yards passing by Hill, ugh).

-Good to see the coaching staff reward George Iloka and playing him early so the true greenshirt freshman used up all of his first year. I am glad they did not wait half through the year to play him, or the last game of the year (like what happened to old school player Rashid Gayle in the early 90's).

- The questions of the o-line were answered, even if it was a Division 1AA team.

-Who else thought the bomb that Kellen Moore launched to Titus Young for the 80 yard touchdown was overthrown? I could not believe the jets on Titus....Keep pimpin player and keep sleeping with the football and treat that baby right.....Right now against Idaho State, the fumbles can be lived with. Risk vs Reward with Titus is worth it but I will leave the fumbling issue to others.....Keep pimpin T.Y.

This pic says it all pic courtesy of the Idaho Statesman

- Kellen Moore deserves praise and will get it endlessly. He deserves it and I would say the kid was just "under total control". Some say "poise", some say "as expected". Just happy the kid showed off his wares and there is no question why he is the best quarterback at the school right now, and yes, quite possibly the best in school history. I know, I know......first game of his career against a lowly Division 1AA school, wait til he plays a D-1 defense. I hear that, but I am glad I was there at Bronco Stadium to watch history with the pretty ball Moore threw to Titus Young for his first career TD pass. Yes expect a lot more to come.

- Love the chemistry between Moore and Young but wish Pettis could get more love than just one catch for minimal yardage.....Pettis might not be as explosive but I believe he could be the most dependable receiver outside of Jeremy Childs.

- What happens when Jeremy Childs returns and snags 9 balls and Pettis gets 3 himself, and Young only gets 2 catches. Hopefully the momentum and chemistry and good times keep rolling!

- Mad Doug Martin got dinged up a lil but did not have a carry, bummer.....was expecting him to have 2 td's in mop up duty.

- Richie Brockel....keep on keeping on. Maybe he is the new "Helmandollar". Good reward for a kid who has graduated already and this is his redshirt junior year.

- Ian Johnson playing special teams in the 4th quarter in a meaningless blow out? Maybe he is auditioning for the NFL and showing off some other skills. Don't agree with the risk vs reward with this decision but so far so good. Nice to see the so-called celebrity of the team making a huge impact right away with the blocked punt in the first half

- The often understated and underrated quarterback, Tanyon Bissell, did a nice job on the spread option plays...wait to hold on to the rock.
- Statue of Liberty play ....by Id St failed. Nice compliment to BSU, poor execution! Loudest booing all night.

- Former Mountain View Maverick and recently scholarship crowned athlete, Tyler Shoemaker, rewards the staff with 2 TD receptions, props are in order!

pic courtesy of the Idaho Statesman

- Does are defense really levitate?



- Just want to make sure everyone knows that Coach Pete said the right thing when discussing Kellen Moore's rookie game...cliff notes version- " As expected". No truer words will ever be said. Coach Pete sounds grounded with this comment and the young ol' ball coach is growing on me more and more with every decision he makes. Too bad his alum U.C. Davis could not hold off the San Jose State Spartans last night as well.


- I want to know who "Swiked" Ryan Winterswyk in practice this last Thursday? Allegedly he was injured in a non-contact situation. Get healthy quick and buckle up for Oregon. I guess the scope job has been completed and will be back for the second road game of the year in 3 weeks.

- What else? Good crowd, good buzz in the air for a home opener, even against a lowly opponent. No excuse for the Jumbotron not working at the first game. No excuse. You have the initial Sky Box appearance and then the outdated Jumbotron is not working? Piss poor effort. That being said, can't think of anything else to quibble about....except for the bathrooms on the west side are plentiful and there must be 30-40 urinals in there. Good thinking and thank you to whoever mandated plenty of urinals. Thank You Mother Nature for some splendid late August temperatures. For those who sat on the East Side, how was the shade from the new Sky box?

- Brought my young boy to his first BSU football game and he instantly joined in on the BOISE-STATE chant. I was a proud papa to see that for the first time. He gorged himself on popcorn like a child should. He met a new friend who sat in front of us and who was within 3-4 yrs of his age and bonded instantly. Want to thank that new friend for including my son, since the highlight of the night for my son was watching his new friend play his Gameboy ( it happened to be the new Tony Hawk game).
- I coached Id St middle backer #12 Brad Rife in high school down in Orange County, California. The boy has grown up and just plain got yoked out. I am just happy to see him playing college ball and want to wish him good luck in football and in life.

pic courtesy of the Idaho Statesman

- Not a fan of the Olympics theme song being played by the band multiple times....Once is fine, with the announcement of Gold Medalist Kristin Armstrong being in the stadium, but more than that? So the band is still the band and I will leave it at that.

- Lastly, no major injuries like Chris Beanie Wells from Ohio State.......memo to Broncos-keep stretching and working on the flexibility! Anybody else happy that Rich-Rod lost his opening game against Utah? I bet the Clemson bandwagon jumpers are still icing their broken ankles after losing to Alabama last night. Props to Coach Dooley at LA TECH for upsetting Miss. State.

Your thoughts????

pic courtesy of the Idaho Statesman

Here is the latest installment of the Podcast....

that some local bloggers have put together with some allstar appearances.....enjoy!
Game day is 4 days away

 The Bronco Nation Podcast - It Begins [61:21m]: Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

Fire Aftermath in East Boise

Just want to thank all of the neighbors, volunteers and local emergency peeps who truly helped out and saved as many properties as possible........I was down there for a few hours last night helping a customer and the word "shock" could not be illustrated enough. People were running on adrenaline and when that wore off, the shock of losing a house was imposing. The vibe of the community was very uplifting since everyone who was able to, was helping out. That meant carrying a hose, watching some one's kids while the other parents went to fight the fire, and using a pick ax to bust out windows for the firefighters to bust into an house to shut down some roaring flames.

Sadly there was a lady, who lost her life during this event. She was a instructor at Boise State and I am sure the University will honor her in a moment of silence during the opening of the 2008 Football season......

Here is a quick shot of what was a dried out sagebrush-filled BLM land that now looks as desolate as the Lunar surface......

Once again, thanks for the people who risked their lives to stand up against this behemoth of fire!

How to determine a QB race?

Kellen in the dark shorts and new hair cut against any upcoming contender for his crown!


http://view.break.com/557859 - Watch more free videos

Day 2 of the rest of

Bush Hamdan's life. The sky is not falling! Old Sensei Hamdan will guide young Moore into battle like a football captain should.

Good luck to both and as former Miami Hurricane footballer Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson would say "....Know your role"

Guitar Hero strikes again

fans need to be educated when rocking out to a bunch of GH3 posers, not watch out for the frets across the eye brow!
http://view.break.com/557306 - Watch more free videos

footage found at http://barstoolsports.com/

...And your new BSU starter at Quarterback is

live news conference at 3pm mdt on ktvb.com and probably on the tele as well!

Initial reaction, lil surprised, but happy the freshman is being considered and won the job. Trust in Coach Pete, we shall! Cue the victory rings tones.....now only if Paul J was dribbling these words out of his mouth, " Back to pass, Moore looks left and hits an wide open Titus for these touchdown."

Very unprofessional slideshows below

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Bob Behler interview with

fellow blogger enthusiast, BRONCONATIONNOW! Peep this and thanks for the good get, JT!

Latest Podcast featuring Alex Guerrero

week of 08.12.08 involving JT, DREW and former BSU standout defensive tackle, Alex Guerrero. What is Alex up to post-BSU career and a quick recap of the scrimmage.

The Bronco Nation Podcast - The 100 Yard Dash Fantasy [32:15m]: Hide Player Play in Popup Download

Random scrimmage pics

Vinny flies down the field on his way down for a score
Hunter White deflecting the pass like another #25 used to!
The dropped td ball from Bush, by Pettis Joe Glenn will complain that BSU coaches teach their players to fly

Choate and Bissell's 'hawks Many fans that were queried, decided Bush will be watching Kellen come fall
Mo-pete or a mohawk
The old running back criss cross in the backfield run play
Even Kellen's laser-like throws hover at eye level. This led to the TD pass play.

Thomas Byrd owning Sean Bingham in one-on-one drills

Turf Monster or Black Mist from the show, LOST
Bissell giveth and taketh away
Harper's Hawk

Let the Drew Hawkins experiment begin

Following the BSU scrimmage today, everyone wanted to discuss the obvious disappointment in the lack of change in the QB battle. Neither one of the two leading contenders, Bush Hamdan or Kellen Moore, really had showcase plays. Sure there was the arguments of drops by wideouts and this QB was going against the 2nd or 3rd teamers. Sometimes the QB would wear the red jersey and they were free to throw the ball down field without fear of getting touched. That was not always the case as the red shirted QB's occasionally got roughed up.

Bush getting touched in a red jersey

Bush getting hurried in a white jersey-The best QB of the day, stat-wise, was Nick Lomax and he did look like he was in control. Lomax threw a bomb of about 30 yards ( to Tanyon Bissell) but the play did not stand as the unhindered defender who was coming untouched, would have clobbered Lomax but let up since Lomax had the red jersey on.

-I was disappointed that Mike Coughlin got reps about 5-7 series into the scrimmage. MC did not show very much but not sure what he had to work with.

- Which leads me to the mystery man, Drew Hawkins. There is no way he was going to play this year, and will 99% most likely greyshirt or at least redshirt. Drew looks like a High School QB and not like any of the other fellow pigskin slingers on the team. Hence the year off and see what he brings in the next few years. Might come from good stock.......

-There was the over the middle, rib-cracking hit by Jeron Johnson on Julian Hawkins. Ouch. This pic below is post-collision

-There was the crushing blitz by Derrell Acrey who snuck in and leveled Kellen Moore (sans red jersey) towards the end of practice. Acrey let everyone know about it as well, hootin' and hollering as he got up off the turf.

-Chris Potter and Michael Choate were go to guys in the later part of the practice with Hawkins and Lomax slingin' the rock.

-It is nice to think of Ian, Pettis, Young and Childs being on the field any given time together. Imagine the threat of the big play!

-No pistol offense and in fact there was some shotgun spread zone/read plays, but the use of a fullback that I had not heard of before, Stephen Gabbard. In years past, the tight end would/could be utilized like a h-back but there was more of definite fullback look today. Andy Silsby was also on the field as well with the first teamers. Interesting enough, D.J. Harper lined up as fullback on Kellen Moore's first play of the day. It ended up as a play action completion but do not be surprised if Avery and Harper are the tandem in the backfield of next year.

- Some of the unknown younger running backs touched the rock, Drew Wright, Mitch Burroughs and Matt Kaiserman,, but the work was basically handled by the experienced crew of Ian Johnson, Jeremy Avery, Doug Martin and D. J Harper.

- Good news was the lack of turnovers. There was a fumble by Moore on a blitz and then there was the 3 fumbles by Titus ( one for sure on a reverse-see below, and one for sure on special teams). No interceptions was nice to see.

- The defense should be ahead of the offense at this point due to timing. The defense did not allow any huge runs which was good to see. There was a lack of tackling on the Vinny Perretta touchdown scamper ( started as 10 yard hitch, see below). The play consisted of the cornerback, I believe it was Brandyn Thompson, let Vinny elude him or Thompson simply did not wrap up. Initially I thought Thompson just "hugged" the wideout as not to knock out his teammate but on second look, I think Vinny just shook him off.

-Saw a lot of the fake zone run play and swing out the rock to the trips side where the #3 wr would run a bubble screen. Sometimes it made positive yardage, sometimes it got blown up. Critical play to master in the spread offense. Below, we have the sequence

- Speaking of screens, a lot of screens from the 5 wide formation were thrown to Avery, as seen below ( Avery ended up dropping the ball in the first half of the scrimmage, but the coaching staff kept going to the well later on...)

- Seemed like Tommy Smith (see below) was always rushing the QB, 3rd and 4th Stringers but still. I noticed he was in a lot of these pics, usually closing in on the QB, sometimes airborne

- I want to compliment Tanyon Bissell for a being smart QB/Athlete/whatever when on a busted play, Bissell took the snap up field and got positive yardage when the two running backs were discombobulated. Below we have Bissell dishing out to Harper. There was also a hot route for Bissell to fake the option and throw it to Hawkins. This might have been the play where J Hawkins got lit up by Jeron Johnson.

-leaving on a positive note, the center snap exchange was a non-issue

There will be several opinions by bloggers, real media and the unabashed fans but this scrimmage is just the first test to get out the rust and see what is working. The adjustments from here on out should be the most interesting thing to watch for.

OBNUG

FIGHT FIGHT BSU

BRONCONATION N.O.W.