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)

JC Safety commits to the Broncos

Safety Will Shamburger, who verballed to the Broncos in August, backed out of his commitment yesterday. It took all of half a day for a new Safety to take his scholly, when JC transfer Winston Venable threw his verbal at Boise State. Venable, who looks like a lineman in his photo, will have 3 years to play 2 at Boise State and looks like he will immediately vie for the 3rd safety spot that we saw Ellis Powers flourish in this year. Venable is 6'1", 210 lbs. and possesses 4.5 speed...oh yeah, and he punts too so look out Elkin Brotzman! Venable was the Co-Defensive Player of the Year this season at Glendale Community College and made league's first-team defense at two positions (Safety and Punter). With Shamburger's departure from the commit list, Venable still represents the 18th commit of the 2009 class.

Full list of current commits [scout.com]
A few more tidbits on Venable [OBNUG]

I'd gladly pay you Tuesday for a Shamburger today

Rivals.com sez Safety Will Shamburger from Jeremy Avery's old stomping grounds (Bellflower, CA) has verbally committed to play for Boise State. At 6'0" 180 lbs., Shamburger has an awesome frame to go with his awesome name. Shamburger also possesses 4.5 speed in the 40. Shamburger had 21 tackles and 1 INT last season for the St. John Bosco Braves—he also had 16 receptions for 299 yards and two scores on the offensive side of things. No position rankings were available for Shamburger, but he was given a grade of 5.4 by Rivals.com...for reference Joe Southwick and Malcolm Johnson were graded 5.6 by the same service. Shamburger is the 12th known verbal commitment for the Broncos in 2009 class.

Gerald Alexander loves his mom

Former Boise State defensive back, Gerald Alexander, who now plays for the Detroit Lions has a special bond with his mom. Gerald's mom moved to Boise to be near her son during his Boise State playing days and even opened up a Bronco-friendly Louisiana Fried Chicken franchise—now Gerald is showing his mom his commitment to her...by giving her a brand new Mercedes. A 2008 Mercedes CLS550, to be exact—fully loaded.

Gerald's gift was the second car he scouted for her...the first one he crashed on it's maiden voyage.

"Wham! I hit this lady," Alexander said. "I'm just thinking like, 'Did this really just happen?' It was obviously a shocking situation. I was telling everybody, 'How do you crash on a test drive?' "

Weird. We all thought that Alexander was better at Safety. A Mercedes CLS550 is about $80K...I got my mom a card.

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Tadman slips under the radar

OBNUG has finally cracked the Marty Tadman case as they tracked him down at Jets' minicamp. Officially, this looks like a tryout for Tadman, but this is more info than the Statesman dragged out, so kudos to Kevan and the gang (not affiliated with Kool and the gang) for giving us the valuable 411. All Marty was looking for was a shot...now he's got one. We're sure he'll make the most of it and then one day memorialize it in a sweet forearm tattoo.