Spring practice recap: Day Four: Keep the backup quarterbacks away from the red zone
Boise State has been working on red zone offense this spring so as never to be in another 34-16 game against UC Davis. Results so far? Mostly good, no thanks to Michael Coughlin and Joe Southwick.
After the jump, read about Coughlin and Southwick's red zone adventures yesterday, and share your thoughts on who you expect to be under backup center when the first spring scrimmage kicks off next week. Are you Team Coughlin or Team Southwick? Let's discuss.
Story of the day
Mike Coughlin and Joe Southwick are not helping Boise State's red zone confidence
Dave Southorn reports from spring practice:
During the first four spring practices, the Broncos have done quite a bit of work inside the 20 during team drills, but on Monday, the defense got the upper hand, it seemed. Safety Travis Stanaway picked off Mike Coughlin and linebacker Derrell Acrey picked off Joe Southwick during the dozen or so plays the team worked on inside the 20 at the tail end of practice.
Southorn says nothing of the other 10 plays from inside the red zone or of how un-Coughlin-like Kellen Moore looked. So what can we really learn from this? A couple of things.
First, Coughlin and Southwick are going to have a fun time battling for Kellen Moore's backup job. It appears that both are flawed an equal amount, so the backup duties could come down to which one performs better in spring and fall scrimmages.
Second, Boise State is serious about this red zone business. Southorn also reminded everyone that BSU picked the brains of the Texas coaching staff on how to improve red zone efficiency. If only Tom Emanski made a DVD series on scoring from inside the 20! Bryan Harsin would be all over that.
And third, the Boise State defense is just fine, thanks. In case anyone had forgot, the Broncos specialize in turning offenses into fumbling, bumbling anarchists. As such, I can only assume that Mike Coughlin's interception came off an ill-fated option right that he audibled into a jump pass.
Former Bronco of the day
Chadd Cripe reports that Peterson, a highly touted TE prospect who redshirted in 2009, has left the team. There was a lot of buzz around Peterson when he joined the team. The California kid was a big-bodied, fast-moving prospect right out of high school, and he was expected to be Derek Schouman 2.0 once he saw the field. He will be missed.
Too soon for a depth chart update?
- Kyle Efaw (junior)
- Tommy Gallarda (senior)
- Chandler Koch (sophomore)
- Sean King (senior)
- Gabe Linehan (redshirt freshman)
- Holden Huff (incoming freshman)
- Kyle Sosnowski (incoming freshman)
What's more is that Peterson was on scholarship, which means the Broncos now have a little more room to maneuver with their 2010 recruiting class. Instead of grayshirting anyone who looks at Coach Pete funny, they can now afford to stick an extra player on the roster. Might it be Sosnowski now that the team is down a TE?
Miscellaneous
- Coach Pete on the MAC-esque Tuesday game on the Broncos' 2010 schedule:
"We're back on the weird days," Boise State coach Chris Petersen said. "That's OK. Our guys do a good job with those."
- Good to hear Travis Stanaway's name mentioned. For all intents and purposes, Stanaway is Jeron Johnson's primary backup, so having him playing well is key to Boise State's defensive depth. Plus, Johnson is likely to kill a man this season, and that will probably be a one-game suspension.
Dustin Lapray quote of the day
Lapray has not covered spring practice since last Wednesday, but he did take the time to write a fluff piece on the Broncos for Sunday's paper. Who doesn't love opening the Sunday paper and reading about the changed bodies of defensive linemen? I sure do.
These truths are evident in the eyes of redshirt freshmen so ecstatic to be on the active roster, in the changed bodies of defensive linemen hoarding carbohydrates and gutting high-calorie diets to put on extra weight (so invaluable in the trenches).
Carbo-hoard is the new calorie-glut.
Your turn
What do you make of the Coughlin-Southwick QB battle? Think the Broncos need to improve in the red zone to have a successful 2010? Bummed about the loss of Trevor Peterson? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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35 comments
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Comments
Team Southwick
First off Coughlin is getting old and let’s be honest he probably will never really see significant playing time. Southwick on the other than was highly recruited out of high school and he’ll do fine. He just needs to get used to the surroundings and the players and all that good stuff. On Peterson at TE kind of sucks, but honestly I’m pretty happy with the play from what we have. Efaw and Gallarda both are playing really really well and it’ll be another good season with them.. BSU does need to improve around the goal line and inside the 20, but we have Chris Peterson at the helm (the best coach in america), so he’ll get it resolved.
by Tennisguy on Mar 16, 2010 8:06 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Southwick II at least based on last year's scrimmage
South looked very confident in QB role. Disappointed about Peterson. But we have a long time in college terms to develop. Several prospects looked like they could be TE. We have Efaw for 2 more years, Koch looked serviceable, and with our rep for using TEs I’m sure we can recruit. As for goal line we have 2 big WRs coming on line; I’m sure they can learn to “fade away” once Pettis leaves. It would be nice to have a poundign RB like Carter or Helmendollar but dont see one on roster at mo’.
I am incredibly bummed that Trevor Peterson left the team...
Now I look like an idiot for telling everybody he was going to be the next great TE/FB hybrid.
by Drew Roberts on Mar 16, 2010 8:22 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Me too Drew-but maybe Intern is on to something
My first thought, unexpressed, is amybe eh saw the writing on the wall. I mean kid turned down harvard, then leaves after RS year? Could be looking to paly elsewhere a la Iona Key.
I'm not concerned about the red zone offense of the backup QB's
After all, if they are testing out new schemes there are bound to be mistakes. Mistakes should happen in practice so they can be corrected before game time.
Peterson must have taken a look at Soz (That is what we’re calling him now, btw) and decided to split! I know I would!
Catch me on the BroncoNation Podcast!
by OBNUG Intern on Mar 16, 2010 8:32 AM PDT reply actions 2 recs
Ah, perspective
Good points about the new schemes, Intern. You deserve a rec for that. There are lots of factors that could play into throwing picks in practice, and that is one of the bigger ones.
I’m on board with Soz. Although I may trip up once or twice and call him Snoz by accident.
"Lunch has been canceled today due to lack of hustle." - Tony Perkis
"Dallas Cowboy" phenom perhaps?
Cowboys were notorious in the day for trying lots of new schemes/guys in preseason and thus losing games. Season would start and they’d kick behinds. Nowadays emphasis on winning everything has ameliorated that some. With Broncos serious depth perhaps experimenting can explain mishaps. I honestly believe staff has the depth down to 2-3 levels; having a little fun makes sense.
Knives sharpening knives
is how I look at our O playing our D. Our D is seriously good, and the fact that our backups have trouble with even the 3rd string D is not cause for alarm. Red zone issues, deep ball, left hash FG- just enough bumps in the road to make the ride interesting. I sense an overwhelming non-complacency; that’s a good thing.
wow....
Check out this report on Robinson….
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/03/16/1119130/suspended-boise-state-football.html
now that is bad…..
Be Perfect Waterbug!!
by BleedBlue75 on Mar 16, 2010 9:15 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Hold on OBNUG-we dont have any facts yet
Reading this there is no mention of an instrumentality. What we may have here is typical prosecutorial max charging. It reads and sounds like a standard barroom altercation, while not exactly Man of the Year stuff not something to necessarily get undewear balled up. Long time ’til fall; I wouldnt be surprised to see this as a “mutual combat” situation that gets pled to minor offense. As I suggested in the beginning, absent an instrumentality most fist on fist stuff goes away.
From what I know
this other guy was taunting JR, got in his face, and tried to start the fight. Robinson ended it with one punch, breaking the guys jaw, and the guy is now pressing charges. The guy may have thrown a sucker punch first, or been about to throw a punch when Robinson laid him out.
Boi Blue
by BoiBlue on Mar 16, 2010 9:40 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
That seems to be the rumor
and if that’s true, I don’t really blame him. A lot of people may disagree with that because players should conduct themselves in a certain manner. Easier said than done, especially when someone is up in your face.
Hopefully the guy learned his lesson not to start fights with football players.
"Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o'clock this afternoon... with nail polish."
I just don’t think athletes should be hanging out in bars, particularly in their college career. Go to the local Country Swing club or Meals in Moments. You may see plenty of more rabid Vandal fans, but they won’t shouldn’t be drunk and swinging punches.
"Everyone counted us out. I don't know why they keep doing that." -- Kyle Wilson
how do we feel about petersen's response?
is it any better/worse than chip kelly’s?
reason why i ask is because you see the dysfunction of the Oregon team and kind of relish in it.
the only thing i can say is that this thing doesn’t happen THAT often for BSU. You can’t predict what young men are going to do and you recruit them based on the information that you know about them and give them the tools to hopefully succeed.
to the boise state’s staff’s credit, we don’t have this kind of thing that happens. and, when it does, immediate suspension. who knows how long it will last.
Dr. William Block: You gotta lose the arm, Joe.
Joe: Lose the arm? What do you mean, lose the arm? My arm?
and, sorry, i mean I relish it.
Dr. William Block: You gotta lose the arm, Joe.
Joe: Lose the arm? What do you mean, lose the arm? My arm?
Downtown is trouble
If anything happens downtown, it is never good. Even with googles on. Drunk kids are gasoline waiting for a match.
BSU don't need smoke and mirrors to get the job done, they got orange pants.
You just reminded me of Pita Pit.
The only thing that could go bad there is combining mushrooms and feta.
"Everyone counted us out. I don't know why they keep doing that." -- Kyle Wilson
Hmm
I just don’t think athletes should be hanging out in bars, particularly in their college career.
I don’t know how you could enforce something like that for a team unless it’s temporary.
"Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o'clock this afternoon... with nail polish."
Yeah.
It was mostly tongue-in-cheek. Ideally I only want that to happen because it means that my Broncos wouldn’t ever be seeing this type of thing. I rather see Oregon’s juvenile escapades and reading about Vandals falling out of windows.
Besides, this usually takes care of itself with the type of personality that Boise State recruits. Typically you don’t see this issue as much in Boise (recently) because there’s not much of a “ME” attitude. Anyway, this incident isn’t about that type of situation anyway. I felt Robinson was a good team player regardless of his retaliation in a bar. He’ll most certainly be missed.
"Everyone counted us out. I don't know why they keep doing that." -- Kyle Wilson
and, to be fair, if they're in college
the majority of the team should be out of bars and alcohol in general. you know, the whole, “minor thing”. after they’re 21, i don’t think you can really regulate that. i think we’d be going on an entirely different tanget on “rights”, etc, so it’d be a moot point.
i think, as coaches, you have to know how to motivate your players to NOT want to get in trouble. or something like that.
but i think for the most part, the bsu staff does a relatively good job at this. how often does this stuff come up?
Dr. William Block: You gotta lose the arm, Joe.
Joe: Lose the arm? What do you mean, lose the arm? My arm?
I guarantee jason's version will be guy was about to throw punch
If you’re going to taunt be ready to duck(right Byron?)
Very interesting stuff ...
There’s a FanShot about this topic up on the front page now if anyone else wants to discuss.
"Lunch has been canceled today due to lack of hustle." - Tony Perkis
Team Southwick
I’m pretty confident that Southwick will be the primary backup. If previous years are a good indicator, they tend to go with the younger guy. Zabransky won the QB battle as a sophomore. And the Kellen Moore beat out Bush Hamden. In both cases the QB’s were performing at very similar levels and the Bronco’s have gone with the younger guy. Makes sense to me if the younger guy is performing as well as the older guy, then the younger guy more then likely have much more potential and room to grow.
Plus Southwick is looking more and more like Kellen’s replacement in the future, so they may as well get him as much game experience as they can before he takes over. Plus that gives the coaching staff a better idea if Southwick really is the QB of the future.
"All we can do is win the games on our schedule" - Coach Pete
by givemesomemoore on Mar 16, 2010 9:56 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
so what game does coughlin start
and immediately throws a pick-6? Sr game, right?
Dr. William Block: You gotta lose the arm, Joe.
Joe: Lose the arm? What do you mean, lose the arm? My arm?
by Grindhouse on Mar 16, 2010 10:04 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
I don't know who will be #2 on the charts.
But there are several things that is needed to be a successful back up.
Leadership
This needs to be evident on and off the field.
Courage
You must be ready from the first snap to the last to take over
Trust
You have to have the trust of your teammates.
Ability to deliver
You may not have a better game, but you need to be able to bring home the win
Southwick for sure
I’d like to see Southwick get more playing time this year and get some experience under his belt, too.
by CaptainBronco on Mar 17, 2010 6:03 AM PDT up reply actions
Upon looking at Coughlin's stats...
They aren’t as bad as I thought. His completion percentage has gotten better each year peaking at 63.2% last year. That really isn’t too bad, but of course he has only had 38 attempts. The main thing I see with Coughlin is that he seems to really rush things. He doesn’t look confident in the pocket whatsoever. I’m sure if he was given the opportunity to be “the man” he could rise to the occasion, but given that he’s a senior this year and Kellen’s a junior…let’s just hope that never happens.
TE
Try this on…Gerke played tight end his sophmore year at BK and never dropped a pass. Have him drop 45lbs…down to 250 and I think he would make a great TE/FB hybrid…just a thought.
Sounds like ...
he could be a good goalline option. Like a hefty Mike Vrabel.
"Lunch has been canceled today due to lack of hustle." - Tony Perkis
Sorry..
Canadian Bacon has dibs on all ‘fat guy carries.’
Really want to see Bacon steamroll a linebacker on the goal line. Then then bounce into the Ickey Shuffle.
by ElPepeGrande on Mar 17, 2010 10:09 AM PDT up reply actions

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