Quick-hit thoughts on the last four months of Boise State football

A lot can happen in four months. Just ask Chase Holbrook's NFL Draft stock. Bam! Roasted!

For me, my last four months were spent huddled in a ball on the floor, rocking back and forth, reading through old OBNUG posts to remember the good times. Oh wait. Did I say that was me? I meant to say that was Graham Watson.

I was busy following the Broncos from afar, keeping my BSU opinions to myself, and watching more ESPNnews than any man should be allowed to watch.

But no more. I'm back, and I have four months of BSU opinion to get off my chest. Let the venting begin.

Gene Bleymaier has something he would like to get off his chest.

The BSU athletic director took to Capitol Hill to fight the good fight for the little guy. Did he succeed? Of course not. No one wins when politics are involved. But Bleymaier did about as well as he could have done, and seeing him go toe-to-toe with heavy-hitting politicians made me proud to say that he was athletic director of my favorite team.

This was the exact opposite of the feeling I had when I discovered that UC Davis was on the schedule in October.

David Augusto turns his attention to hobbit casting in Lord of the Rings 4.

The KTVB news director is out? Then how will I be able to learn about in-game player injuries? I need confirmation that the player on crutches, in street clothes, and wearing an ankle cast is not going to return to the game.

Whatever back-office politics are going on at KTVB, they need to stop before someone else (namely, Justin Corr) gets canned. Augusto, while uninformative, lecherous, and hobbit-like, was a tried and true Bronco fan, and for all the grief we gave him over the past several months, we only meant about three-quarters of it. Here's hoping Augusto lands on his feet.

Is Boise State football recession-proof? According to the BSU ticket office, yes.

The Broncos jacked up ticket prices in the spirit of ... Scrooge-like greed? Really, I don't know why they jacked up prices considering that the economy is in worse shape than Nathan Enderle and that there's a giant, gleaming money stream of a stadium addition resting parasitically on the inflated seats of the masses. Raising the ticket price for the everyman? If anyone should be paying more money, it is those freeloaders sitting pretty in the Corey Barton end zone house.

Instead, we the people get stuck footing the bill. The Bronco ticket office maintains that 78 percent of season ticket holders have renewed, which basically means that rich Bronco fans can keep coming to games to hobnob and sit on their personalized seat cushions. And what of the rest of us? If you're going to raise prices, at least show us plans for the stadium horseshoe.

I guess the rest of us will just have to find other ways of participating on game day. Now might be a good time to point out that OBNUG's game day comment threads will remain the same free price that they've always been.

Ian Johnson runs a 4.4 at the combine and doesn't get drafted.

First off, a 4.4?! Are you serious?! Was he given a thirty yard running head start? I had no idea that Ian Johnson had 4.4 in him, mostly because I spent the past two years watching him run 4.9 with a hand on the back of an offensive lineman.

And the surprises keep coming. Johnson's biggest knock was that he didn't have elite NFL speed, so he goes out and runs faster than almost any other running back at the Combine. And how does the NFL reward him? By not drafting him and letting him sign a free agent contract with the Vikings and Brad Childress' backwards offense. Note to Brad Childress: give Ian Johnson a fullback

Doug Martin is playing defense because he is too violent for offense.

Quite honestly, I am disappointed. When I heard the news, an entire year of Martin pining went out the window. I wanted him to be the feature running back and a real BSU legend. Now that he's switching sides of the ball, I can see that isn't going to happen.

It was probably for the better. Boise State is stacked at the running back position (Avery, Martin, new guys), and Martin is too multi-dimensional to ride pine waiting his turn. Still though, it will take some time for me to change my fanciful daydreams of Martin bowling his way through San Jose State's defense and then going with me to see Fast & Furious to fanciful daydreams of Martin de-cleating Fresno State receivers and then going with me to see Fast & Furious.

Michael Atkinson and Winston Venable are the new business.

It's not as if Boise State needed more insanely talented defensive players, but they got them anyway with the spring breakouts of Atkinson and Venable.

Let's start with Venable, who nearest I can tell is the Terminator clone of Ellis Powers. The big nickel safety is a key to Boise State's defense, especially when it comes to defending the spread offense or, as Nevada calls it, give Kaepernick the ball and pray he does something good with it. From the looks of spring practice, Venable will be able to fill that role nicely.

Thanks to a stirring cameo as a fullback in the spring game, Atkinson's star is perhaps brighter than any other fresh face headed into fall camp. The defensive tackle will be a key part to a stellar D-line rotation that includes folks like Ryan Winterswyk, Billy Winn, and Byron Hout. Even better, Atkinson is nicknamed Canadian Bacon for both being Canadian and presumably being a fan of John Candy comedies co-starring Rhea Perlman. I prefer to call him Harry Crumb.

Dustin Lapray has a Twitter page.

I would say more but you really just need to see it.

Discuss:

• Need to get anything off your chest about these topics?
• If Michael Atkinson were a John Candy movie, which John Candy movie do you think he would be?
• Did you renew your season tickets?