Sticker time!

This is the most masculine sticker I could find.

Kids love stickers. I should know...I used to be one (not a sticker, but a kid). I used to have a whole book full of scratch-n-sniffs and Garbage Pail Kids stickers. Now, my kid is wracking up the stickers every time we go to Fred Meyers and he's loving them too. Well, the Boise State coaches are handing out star-shaped stickers during Spring Camp, and like the attendance sheet in elementary school, it's paying dividends.

"The coaches would say 'it's amazing what the (high school) kids will do for a sticker,'" (Coach Pete) said. "Well, the high school kids and college kids aren't that much different."

Nor are any of us, Coach Pete, stickers are awesome (especially potstickers from Oriental Express)!

The most heavily stickered player on the team is Richie Brockel...and not due to his on-field prowess. Brockel is injured this Spring and the tight-end crew has taken it upon themselves to sticker up Brockel's visage in the team room whenever they can.

Other childhood carryovers that may help motivate the Broncos this Spring:
Coach Pete draws a smiley face on players' playbooks.
10 minutes extra recess.
High fives.
Pizza party.
May pick one toy out of bin.

Star Power in Spring [Press Tribune]

Going, going...

Titus, we hardly knew ye...

Titus Young is gone-zo (for the remainder of the year at least). This coming from Chris Petersen's mouth this afternoon as he has upgraded Young's "3 game" suspension to an indefinite one. As usual, we have little details about Young's misdeeds, and we know that no rules were broken during his suspension, but Coach Pete says that TY and the team "need time apart" and that they'd "look at things down the road". Young has been in the doghouse for much of this season...a stark contrast from last year's "golly gee" demeanor as a true frosh. We certainly can't speculate on the reasoning behind Young's uber-suspension (although we've heard rumors)...but it's hard to imagine that the team won't miss his speed and elusiveness. Not so sure they'll miss his ball security, however. We selfishly hope that we'll see TY on the blue again next season, but I don't think anyone can take that for granted. I guess the bottom line is that Titus could outrun defenders all day long on the field, but couldn't outrun the long arm of the coaching staff off of it.

"Full" STORY

A win's a win...

...and a Winn's a Winn

So we learned something valuable on Saturday night: Boise State's offense can play 1 quarter and still win. After treating us to 3 of the most boring quarters of football imaginable, Boise State exited Hattiesburg, MS still undefeated, but Coach Pete was none-too-happy about the effort. Thankfully, the defense continued their domination—holding Southern Miss well below their usual output and shutting them out on 4th down attempts and redzone scoring for all but one ill-fated series. Kyle Wilson owned 5-star freshman WR DeAndre Brown and the Billy Winn and company made the absence of Sean Bingham and Joe Bozikovich scarcely noticeable. A seismic shift has happened this year, however, as I find myself getting much more excited to watch our Defense perform than our Offense. Guess I just don't find holding penalties, fumbled snaps and 2 yard rushing losses all that exciting anymore.

Now, what exactly is the issue with the offense? Hard to say. They did look nigh unstoppable in the second quarter and they truly look, at times, like they could drop 24 in every quarter..but our old pal inconsistency reared his ugly head. Kellen Moore had a so-so outing, throwing for 3 TDs, but also tossing an INT and mishandling a few snaps. The run game looked better...sparked by some nice runs by IJ, Doug Martin and Jeremy Avery. Avery looked the most explosive in the run game, moving the chains well at times and hitting the holes hard, one 77-yarder by Avery was called back by *gasp* a penalty. Jeremy Childs and Austin Pettis had stellar games and truly, two of Kellen's TD passes where "all them". Despite all the good things in the game...it still felt kinda "icky"—5 games in and 5 and 0...but this team seems so far from their potential...maybe that, in itself is a good thing.

The defense is clicking in a big way and the defending WAC champs (sorry, just threw up a little) Hawaii are heading to the blue for a Friday night tussle. You better believe that Coach Pete is gonna work these guys hard this week and no Bronco will lack motivation when the Warriors come in with our hardware. This team may really be scary when every cog falls into place. One such cog, Titus Young, will not be falling in anywhere for a few games, by the way.


LINKS

OBNUG takes you to the Southern Miss/BSU no spin zone.

Statueleft compares Bronco fans to small poultry.

Noice! Thompson Coach Pete's Player of the Day

Brandyn Thompson was named Coach Pete's Player of the Day for the 4th day of Fall Camp.

“Brandyn showed up today with great focus, energy and he turned that into some play-making ability,” said Petersen. “He had an awesome interception, but his coverage has been very tight all camp long. We’re looking forward to great things out of him this fall.”

This is very good news, since the early departure of Orlando Scandrick has left a gaping void in the defensive secondary opposite Kyle Wilson. Thompson was one of 5 true frosh to play last year, but was mainly utilized in nickel formations when we played NMSU and Hawaii. Particularly uplifting for nervous Broncos is the fact that Thompson has outperformed other highly touted recruits Antwon Murray, Keith McGowan and Garcia Day. Thompson had an acrobatic pick today against Austin Pettis, who I'm pretty sure is 3 feet taller than him. Good job, Brandyn...keep that intensity up cuz WAC offenses like to throw.

In other news...Ian talks