Five big questions for Boise State's 2012 season opener against Michigan State

No matter what, you know our guys will be ready to play. But further analysis…

D-line still has up-and-comers in Worthy and Ash

Linebackers have Renaud

Our secondary is going to be nasty next year (if Gavins comes back) but both safety positions will be an interesting battle

Our O-line better start run-blocking better because I think we will run it a little more in the post-Kellen era which

The RB position is still stacked (barring injury/knock on wood). I think Ajayi wil have us not miss Dougie so bad…and we get Haroer another year

QB is still the most critical battle, but no matter who wins it the offense will adapt to the strengths of said QB—they all can run so maybe an attack similar to Oregon’s…??

… I say it goes to Dextrell Simmons. I expect him to play a lot at the nickel spot next year and watching the way they brought him off the edge so much towards the end of the bowl game, it created a lot of disruption for that O-Line. He didn’t get to close to the QB, but he created two sacks by drawing extra attention. Whether or not he is the one that actually takes the QB down, I say he will be in some way involved in the first sack.

QB- Grant Hedrick. From what Ive seen of him he is a better runner and the type the can force a defense to respect the run.
Ranking:
I think BSU will get disrespected on that front. Probably bewteen 15-20 in the polls. I hope Im wrong, but too many skeptics will perceive tha BSU has lost too much to graduation.
I defer on all other pedictions.
Note: I agree that WE MUST gear our O line to run blocking a lot more. If you can force the D to respect the run, then wonderful things open up in the pass game. Especially in the mid level where our Tight Ends can wreck havoc.

I’m gonna go with Joe Southwick as QB (unfortunately), Boise will be ranked somewhere between 20-25, Pete will still be here, Michigan State will be favored and Atkinson or Gavins with the first sack.

As a Boise fan from Ohio I can’t freaking wait for this game! August 31 can’t come soon enough.

But one thing is a certainty. Our secondary is going to be strong. Receivers better protect ya neck!

My prediction: Jerrell Gavins and Jamar Taylor at corner will be complete lock down defensive backs. My pick for the third corner would have to be Makinde. All three are going to be awesome if they stay healthy. Hightower at safety will be force to be reckoned with, destined to be a cross between a bigger Jeron Johnson and Gerald Alexander, can’t wait for his development into a truly solid player. The other safety spot has some competition! It will most likely be Ioane like previously stated, but there are many dark horses that could compete right out of the gate! It could be Agbaroji, Darian Thompson (I like what I see from him), BIG Taylor Loffler, or even a true freshman Chanceller James!

Bright future for our awesome secondary! These are the most athletic I think we’ve ever had at one time!

from what i can tell he gets what he wants with our program and loves the community. so with that in mind, i feel pretty good about next year…. as far as the polls go, i actually like when we are ranked lower…. 17-20 or so is my guess… instead of worrying who will jump us we get to see each week who we jump as they all fall down with losses…. if we are undefeated 1/2 way in the season we will be in the top 10, and if by mid November we will be top 5…. really the rankings dont matter once we pass 14 anyway…..

I have a news flsh for you! The next Bronco QB is going to be Nick Patti. I have a sports writer that I communicate with in Orlando, who has watched both Patti and Kellen play over the last four years. He tells me that Nick is Kellen with wheels, Lambourgini wheel! He passed for 3,500 yards, and ran for another nearly 2,000. He was a finalist for the Fla 8 A level Player of the Year. 8 A, that is like a Junior College . I think there are 4 to 5,000 students in an 8 A school, which means they had probably had500 to 1,000 guys, maybe more come out for 75 spots on the team, and to be a four year QB on a team like that, he already has college experience. Spring Practice is going to be velly intresting! Come On Spring!!!!!

Another new flsh! We have a Doug martin look and run alike coming in. His name is Jack Fields, and he is out of El Paso, TX 6’1" 200 plus. He has dougs slashing runinng style, and also has the speed to go with it. Type in the nameand town and see what he looks like action. This GRIZZLED OLD COACH has seen a lot of running backs, all the way back to Frank Gifford, and Paul Hornug, I knw a good one when I see one, and Fields is a GREAT on. He ran for over 3,000 thsi past season, and is anxious to get to BSU. LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!!

One more comment on Nick Patti. Coach Pete didn’t make a HOME VISIT, IN FLORIDA, to ask him how his day was going!

I have been around the game since the end of WWII. I started playing in 1950, I think. We had thick, molded cardboard helmets and shoulder pads. We did not have hip pads, or knee pads, and we wore what ever shoes we had. That was right here in the Treasure Valley. I was attending Greenleaf Grade School which was out south of Green leaf in the orchards. We played Pleasant Ridge, Apple Valley, Sunny Slope, and other grade schools around. I say this to show that I have been around the field a few times, and definitely ran windsprints, at Notus, under Coach Morford. I have followed certain players through their careers, to see where they went and what they accomplished. I am not quick on the trigger, unless I see there is a reason for it. My optimism for next season stems from a few very important things.

1st. The BSU coaching staff has been stockpiling linemen, on both sides for the last three years, giving them playing time when able, and allowing them to get in the trenches. So, REBUILD? NAW! just reload and move on with the next group.

2nd. In my estimation, having seen a whole bunch of coaches come and go, this group of coaches at BSU is right at the top as far as complete coaching goes. Coach Pete is, in my humble opinion, the best coach to ever walk the sideline, and I include Tom Landry and Lombardy among that lot. He has a way of dealing with the players that puts them at ease, and makes them want to bust their behinds to please him . I don’t see that in Gary Pattersen, or any of the other so called “great coaches” . I have never seen him scream and yell at a player. In fact, I see a player come off the field after a screw up, with his head down, and I see COACH PETE slap him on the back and say something, probably like, we all make mistakes. COACH IS A MAN THAT WAS MADE FROM A MOLD THAT DOESN’T EXIST ANY MORE. He is a PLAYERS COACH, PERIOD PARAGRAPH!!

3rd I look at the players they recruit, 2’s, 3’s some 4’s, rarely do they get a 5. All of these kids have one thing in common. They were too slow, too small, too short, not intense enough! We have all heard the excuses. Coach pete and his staff, take these players who arrive with a Redwood on their shoulder, and they turn that into a motivational tool that turns thes kids into pure beasts, when they step across that sidline onto the BLUE TURF. They start playing with pride, they realize just how wrong the other schools were, and they appreciate what COACH and his staff have don for them, hence the attitude they carry onto the field, and they leave nothing on the field when the game is over!

One more comment on Patti and Fields. I can hardly wait for spring practice to start, to see how the QB and RB slots turn out. Yes, we have three other notable QB prospects, and a couple of them can both pass and run. IF Patti is as good as my sports reporter friend in Orlando has tod me, and his stats show me, the QB spot will be highly contested. May the best on come out on top! For the RB slot, I realize that we have a full corrall of fast horses, and adding one more to the herd is probably good! Remember VA TECH, Harper went down. and here came Doug. There were several schools this year that went to their 3rd and 4th RB’s because of injuries. We might be thankful for that many going into the BIG EAST. I am not coaching any more, although my mind still ges through the plays, etc. simply because of one split second, a fall on gym steps that had no rail, and no light overhead. Three back surgeries later. I walk with a cane, a four footer in winter for the extra grip, and all I can do it the play by play. I see gross mistakes that the coaches are making, and when I try to tell them what I see from the booth, they shine me on, as if to say, you got hurt, its my spot now, go away, when I know I have more accumulated knowledge tan most of them around the valley. I ran the Wildcat before Miami ever thought of it. All it is is the old single wing from Tom Landry and Frank Gifford days I just filed it away in case I might need it someday.

JUST SAYIN
GRIZZLED OLD COACH

If I had a nickle for every fan that yelled at me," What kind of a bone head play was that?
or Why don’t you run, or pass the ball"!! All coaches have had to go through the diatribes, then when something turns I out right, they claim ownership for the play. WE could be in for a transition, especially going to the BIG EAST, and having to play new teams that we have never played before, Rutgers, UConn, Houston.
GLASS HALF FULL, YOU MAY BE RIGHT, AND
BSU GURU YOU ARE DEFINITELY RIGHT.
The REAL fans will still come out, but the FAIR WEATHER FANS are like geese and ducks in the fall. They all go south, and they won’t come back until the team is winning again. HONK < HONK> WE’RE BACK, THAT IS WHEN WE ANSWER, OH! YOU WENT SOMEWHERE, THAT IS WHY IT WAS QUIET IN THIS SECTION LAST YEAR.
JUST SAYIN
GRIZZLED OLD COACH

I do believe that coach pete will pick the best guy for the job at QB, that said I am sorry, I have to say that I sure hope it isn’t Joe Southwick. Outside of Kellen Moore has had the most time on the field as QB over the last couple of seasons and I have seen more 3 and outs for him when he goes in than anything else and being picked off by New Mexico is kind of embarrassing. Don’t get me wrong, I would definitely rather have Southwick as a backup than a number of others. Hedrick can run the ball but definitely needs to work on his passing game, the other two haven’t been proven yet.

Nick has the tools but if Kellen had already bought the BSU playbook and did not have enough to start as a true freshman then neither will Nick. No slight on Nick but if the most prepared guy ever to play college football could not pick up all the formations & plays his first year no one but his offspring will be able to either. BSU will not be favored against MSU but that is how we want it – correct? Blue collar under-dogs.

Trapperpk,
I agree, different packages for different QB’s and RB’s. How aabout two of those QB’s in the backfield at the same time? Now, how do you defend that? Which one is going to pass, maybe one will get a pass and re-pass it. I can think of several scenarios with this cadre of QB’s Coach Pete, with his unfamomable ability to draw up trick plays, you can bet he is already thinking about how to absolutely scare the jockstraps off opposing backfields. The RB situation is pretty much the same, different packages for all of them. Maybe three of them at once, Harper, Wright and Ajayi, or several other combinations. you can bet COACH and Pease will go to the drawing board, and whatever they come up with will be exciting, mind boggling and fun to watch. I, ass a coach, would love to have this dilema facing me. I would laugh my nasty laugh, and say here it comes, stop it if you can! COME ON SPRING BALL!!!

Bluesport,
I can see where you are coming from, and COACH might redshirt him, heck, he might grayshirt and redshirt him, but it will be interesting to see how it comes out, in spring and summer training. Who ever it turns out to be, they will be following in the footsteps of THE BEST THAT EVER WAS!