1.29.2009

Childs' Combine invite was apparently lost in the mail

*Yoink

So about that article a couple of days ago...nevermind. It turns out that Jeremy Childs will be attending the NFL Combine in Indy next month, but nobody knew about it. The Statesman is reporting this morning that Childs is working out at Athletes' Performance in L.A. and prepping for the combine, one of only about 40 receivers on the list. KBCI reported a week or so ago that Childs had not been on the list of attendees and that Ian Johnson would be the lone Bronco participant. Furthermore, ESPN's Graham Watson corroborated the story saying that Childs' name was conspicuously absent among the list of non-BCS participants. Well, they were both wrong or simply jumped the gun, leaving me holding the bag as it were. J Bates, I curse your name.

Scouts will be particularly interested in Childs' 40 time which has been clocked previously as "fast enough"...but will need to increased to "faster than Brian Dawkins" by the time the Combine rolls around.

Childs gets his invite [Statesman]

1.28.2009

Dutch Treat

Cheech and Tjong was a great flick...

All apologies about the headline because I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of it in coming years...but it seems apropos as the Broncos received a huge verbal commitment just moments ago from Dutch DT Ricky Tjong-A-Tjoe. Scout.com just confirmed that Tjong-A-Tjoe committed to the Broncos after an in-home visit on Wednesday and on the tails of a month-long recruiting tour that had stops in Eugene and Pullman. Tjong-A-Tjoe (pronunciation guess is as good as mine) is 6'4" and 295 lbs. and had offers from Oregon, Washington State, San Jose State, Idaho and Idaho State. Originally from the Netherlands, Tjong-A-Tjoe made the most of his first season playing American football by tallying 35 tackles, two sacks and four forced fumbles—all which garnered him first-team All-State honors at Boise High. Ricky will join another Dutch transplant in Capital WR Geraldo Hiwat in the '09 class and Bronco sophomore DB Cedric Febis as well. Scout.com has not evaluated Tjong-A-Tjoe as of yet, but considering the number of offers held by the big guy, it looks like the Broncos got another steal. Check out the big red machine below:

1.26.2009

Jadon Dailey is gone-zo.

"Losing good commentators makes me a sad Panda..."

Looks like everyones favorite color commentator will not be back in the booth next year. Jadon Dailey has apparently parted ways with Peak and will be heading back to Arizona. Now, I heard rumblings about this a few days back, but didn't have the stones to post it as fact...but now Idaho Radio News has posted the story and I'm confident it is ringing true. IRN states:

Multiple sources (basically anyone I’ve asked) say he liked doing the play-by-play but was frustrated with the other parts of the gig - selling ad time for Peak.
This may be true, but someone very close to the program told me the other day that an illness in the family might be in play here as well. Either way, we'll certainly miss Jadon's wit and wisdom and wish him the best in the future.

1.25.2009

What can Brown do for us?

Who is this mystery man?

It looks like Boise State may have just snagged another recruit this weekend...but this one was so far off my radar that I'm having to do some major league sleuthing to bring in much info. Encinal's Jonathan Brown has been rumored to have committed this weekend after a recruiting trip with the likes of Kirby Moore. Brown was named the All-East Bay player of the Year this year as a two way standout at quarterback and linebacker (Bronco QB commit Joe Southwick was the All-East Bay Offensive Player of the Year). Now, I don't have confirmation on this yet, but it's certainly hard to believe that the talented Brown will be coming in at QB after the earlier verbals from Joe Southwick and Mikey Tamburo. Has Boise State nabbed its 3rd linebacker of the class? Could be. Brown's size, 5'11" and 200 lbs. sure seems to put him in Boise State linebacker range (smallish), but he looks athletic enough to play anywhere on the field. Update: Looks like Brown is coming in as a Safety. Brown notched 92 tackles last year, 8 quarterback sacks and two blocked punts. Colorado and Air Force were rumored to have interest or offered Brown. More to come when I find it out. Below is a short video showing Brown's explosiveness:



Two-way leader guides Encinal [SFGate]
Encinal's Brown commits to Boise State [Inside Bay Area]

1.23.2009

Childs a no-go for the combine

Be the ball, Jeremy.

Jeremy Childs winding road to the NFL may have just gotten a wee bit more complicated. Whereas last years early departures, Orlando Scandrick and Ryan Clady, had a chance to show their wares at the meat market known as the NFL combine...Childs will have to hope that he draws a big crowd on Pro Day. The official invite list, out today, shows only one Bronco making the trip to Indianapolis, and that Bronco is Ian Johnson. Oddly enough, Johnson may have more to prove to the scouts than Childs...at least physically. The combine runs between February 18th and the 24th.

Story [KBCI]

1.20.2009

Shamburger not headed to the blue

All roads don't lead to Boise...news to me.

Safety Will Shamburger, once Boise State's 12th verbal commit of the 2009 class, is a big softy. Shamburger decommitted from the Broncos on the 16th and will instead head to Seattle and join the Huskies. The writing appeared to be on the wall when Shamburger wavered from his commitment in early December, telling some scouting services that he'd switch commitments if Arizona State came calling...well, they didn't—but it was obvious that Shamburger's heart wasn't fully with the Broncos and he'll now head to greener turf (literally, not figuratively) in the Emerald city. After Shamburger's early December waffling, the Broncos quickly wrapped up JC Safety Winston Venable...effectively making Shamburger's decommitment a non-issue—but it is nice that Shamburger is no longer leading the Broncos on and infecting the Broncos commit sheet with a big, red "Soft Verbal" tag.

Have fun in Huskyland, Will...we're sure you'll look great in purple (like Grimace)

1.16.2009

New feature

Not faster than a speeding bullet.

You've all seen the celebrated Chuck Norris facts, right? Well, not even Chuck can hold a candle to our resident immortal, Kellen Moore (just don't tell Chuck I said that). So in the spirit of full disclosure, FFBSU (that's us) is trotting out a new feature: The Kellen Moore Fact of the Day™. They're kinda like Chuck Norris facts, but with less roundhouse kicks. You can find The Kellen Moore Fact of the Day™ in the sidebar right below the RSS feed buttons. Enjoy...and if you have a few obscure Kellen facts, send them to me right HERE.

Also, you can join the newly created Kellen Moore Facts Facebook group so you don't miss any.

1.15.2009

Yeah, you're in the same place...

A little remodeling is needed from time to time...

I decided to do a little housekeeping on the blog to make things a look and run a bit smoother. Hopefully, the new layout won't confuse anyone as it was done to streamline the blog a bit more and break out of the box that most blogger templates try to put you in. The content will remain the same and all the old posts are still here (virtually, anyway). You can now search Fight, Fight BSU all the way back to the beginning, but don't go digging for that blogpost about Mike Coughlin being the QB in 2008; I was a little off on that one. If you would like to see anything on the blog that you aren't seeing right now let me know.

Oh yeah, and I'll be unveiling a new series next week you should all like.

1.14.2009

End of an era for snappy headline puns

A classic headline pun. Drink it in.

With yesterday's announcement that Jeremy Childs will be departing for the NFL—a wave of sadness swept over me. No, I'm not depressed about the void that will be left on the blue turf next season, but rather the void that will be left in newspaper columns and KTVB graphics as the 'Childs Play' pun headline will be forever lost. It is a little known fact that the Statesman employs an entire department for the sole purpose of coming up with headline puns (this blog, by comparison, employs only one) and, well, KTVB has Mark Johnson. These hard working people's jobs are now in danger, and in this economy, the shockwaves may be felt far and wide. Worsening the situation is the departure of Ellis Powers to graduation...'Powers that be' or 'More Powers to you' pun headlines will have to be retired—hence, more jobs lost.

The only hope is that a new wave of starters and recruits will be able to fill this gaping abyss on our headline spreads and segment intros. Obviously, the arrival of Kirby Moore will bring a glut of headlines like 'One more Moore' or 'S'Moore', but Kirby won't arrive until Summer and who knows how many will be unemployed by then?! Well, it's time to get proactive...we need new puns and we need them right NOW! To help stimulate the economy, I humbly submit to beat writers, journalists, video editors, Tom Scott and Mark Johnson the following headline puns to highlight these individuals:

George IlokaBy George! Iloka does it again.
Jeremy AveryA-very good outing.
Titus YoungYoung getting restless.
Doug MartinMy favorite Martin.
Kellen MooreThis one's a freebie.
Hunter WhiteThe Great White Hunter.
Billy WinnA Winn's a Winn.
Jarrell RootRoot, root, root for our home team.
Nate PotterScary Potter.
Ryan WinterswykNow is the Winter-swyk of our discontent.
Shea McLellinOh Shea can you see?
DJ HarperThe Harper Image.
Kyle Efaw'Faw he's a jolly good fellow.
Mitch BurroughsBurroughs before hos. (maybe don't run this one on front page)

Hopefully this list will help get us through these tough pun times—and hopefully will spark and new era in headline pun greatness the likes of which we've never seen.

1.13.2009

Childs on graduation promise: "Never mind"

You'll never have it this easy again.

About a month ago, Jeremy Childs said that he would return for his senior season at Boise State. You remember, it went something like this:

...yadda yadda my mom, blah blah blah diploma...
Well, like goings-on in Las Vegas...Childs believes that 'things that happen in December, stay in December' and has promptly spun an athletic 180 and decided to depart for the NFL. Rumors to this effect started swirling last week from J Bates' general direction...but now it appears confirmed—Childs is taking his 10-yard outs to the big show, and Orlando Scandrick's senioritis has infected another big time Bronco player. Sadly, Childs was only 1 yard from jersey retirement.

In other news, Kirby Moore will start next year.

Semi-full story [Statesman]

Wilson will not follow in Scandrick's footsteps

Now now...it's not polite to point.

All-WAC/All-American cornerback Kyle Wilson is staying put. That mighty wind you just heard was Bronco fans exhaling. After a couple of weeks of speculation that the talented Bronco DB may go pro...Wilson's brother Gerry says he's on the blue for the long haul.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say it was a tough call, but I wouldn’t say it was easy,” said Gerry Wilson, the oldest of three Wilson boys. “… It was a matter of evaluating what’s best for Kyle and what’s best for the team.”
Gerry, who played college ball at Princeton and is the CEO of yoonew, an online sports ticket trading company, obviously knows the importance of education and might have helped sway his little brother's decision. If this is the case, Bronco Nation thanks you. Wilson may be on track to be another first or second-round draft pick in the 2010 draft and will be a key cog on a Bronco D that should be amazing next season. Now, go and have a chat with Jeremy Childs, won't ya?!

Full Story [Statesman]

1.09.2009

Poll position

Y'know who was awesome at this game? D.A.R.Y.L.

Boise State's final rankings are in, and they are about what we expected. The Broncos, who you may recall were 1 point from a perfect season, finished 11th in the AP poll and 13th in the USA Today Coaches' Poll. Also, take a gander at the respect TCU got by defeating the Broncos (by one point, I might have mentioned) in the December 23rd Poinsettia Bowl—they finish at 7th in both polls (and take a picture...that's the last time you'll see a 2-loss non-BCS team ranked that high). The final rankings also failed to hand Utah a share of the national title, placing them 2nd and 4th in the AP and Coaches' polls, respectively. In a fair bit of irony, Oregon is ranked higher than the Broncos in both final polls.

The final rankings for the Broncos cap a pretty darn good year that surprised many, given the youth of the team, and will no doubt give them the momentum to start the 2009 season ranked. Hopefully, the Broncos will not squander that goodwill in the opening weeks of the '09 campaign. All signs point to the Broncos having a real tough squad next year.

1.06.2009

Ryan Clady don't sign no shoes

Clady blocks out the sun and...Oh my Lord! What happened to your index finger?

Ryan Clady, you've arrived. Third in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting, a multi-million dollar contract, and the respect of every analyst and Defensive Coordinator in the country. What are you going to do with all your newfound fame and fortune? Not sign some middle-aged fan's Jordans, that's for sure! Don't give up middle-aged fan...he probably just didn't hear you.

1.02.2009

New Year's Resolutions


New Year's resolutions—they're as predictable as death and taxes. Each and every January 1st, we look at ourselves in the mirror and resolve to quit smoking, quit drinking, lose some weight, and punch John Minegar in the head...heck, some of us even keep them until mid-February. Well, don't believe for one minute that the Broncos aren't taking a long look in the mirror this year and making a list of things that they'll do or do better in 2009. Just for the heck of it, let's speculate on a few, shall we?

Jeremy Childs—Don't listen to pal Orlando Scandrick's pleas to join him in the NFL.

Titus Young—Go to school, go to practice, go home, go to sleep...repeat.

Kellen Moore—Save some awesomeness for 2009. No need to blow it all on your Freshman year.

Bronco O-line—For the love of God, EAT SOMETHING!

Jarrell Root and Shay McLellin—Have titanium rods put into legs.

Jeron Johnson—Get all that blood cleaned off helmet.

Chris Petersen—Refinance mortgage.

Kirby Moore—Develop E.T./Elliot-like mental bond with older brother.

Byron Hout—Doin' fine...stay the course.

George Iloka—Gain weight, add a few more vertical inches to hair.

Bryan Harsin—Find "Austin Pettis Corner Fade" in playbook, circle it in red.

Derrell Acrey—Become motivational speaker.

Kyle Wilson—Stay for senior year.

Ryan Winterswyk—Tape pictures of WAC QBs to 2 x 4s, break them with bare hands.

Doug Martin—Go from being "angry runner" to "insane-with-rage runner"

4-2-5 defense—Doin' fine...stay the course.

Tim Socha—Start wearing TCU: 2008 Poinsettia Bowl Champions t-shirt every day.

FFBSU—Punch John Minegar in head.