One Bronco Nation Under God: All Posts by Kevan Lee

The greatest story ever told?

2013-05-09T16:29:13Z

When Drew asked for fan origin stories in a post two months ago, little did he know to what lengths people might take him up on it. For instance, how about a 21-part series on how kcam came to be fan?

That series, replete with pirates, international travel, hallucinogenic dreams, and a cast of thousands, recently came to its stirring conclusion over in the comments section of Drew's original post. It now exists in its entirety in an e-book I made.

Download it here:

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2601457/seeing-blue-kcam.pdf

View the online version here:

Seeing Blue: The kcam story

Give kcam a rec or two or three in the comments.

Download it here:

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2601457/seeing-blue-kcam.pdf

View the online version here:

Seeing Blue: The kcam story

Give kcam a rec or two or three in the comments.

Petersen's post-spring interview looks a little weird in Ukwuachu context

2013-05-07T21:10:47Z

This is video of Chris Petersen's post-spring-game interview with the local media where Statesman reporter Dave Southorn specifically asked Petersen if Ukwuachu's absence from the game was going to affect his status for the upcoming season. Petersen said not to worry (3:15 mark of the above video).

In other news, Brian Douglas has not, I repeat, NOT been sold for parts. Probably.

The Big Board of Boise State’s 2013 football roster

2013-05-03T15:00:08Z

Mel Kiper scouts 100,000 million college football players each year and narrows that list down to a Big Board of 25. He is a machine - like a printing press for the World Book Encyclopedia or a train locomotive from the future. I am a machine, like a toaster. The best I can do is make a Big Board of Boise State's current roster.

What follows is my list of Boise State's best players, ranked by their ability in college football not NFL businessball. I defy an NFL team to draft Matt Paradis in the first round!

1. Demarcus Lawrence
2. Matt Miller
3. Charles Leno
4. Matt Paradis
5. Jay Ajayi

Aside: Is Matt Paradis too high? His first-team All-Mountain West plaque and coupon book would beg to differ. Seriously, he was the only Bronco to make the team on offense last year, so I give credit where credit's due. I also am biased toward centers with mullets.

6. Ricky Tjong-A-Tjoe
7. Joe Southwick
8. Blake Renaud
9. Darian Thompson
10. Jeremy Ioane

Aside: An Amsterdamian defensive tackle over franchise quarterback Joe Southwick? What am I? A Nick Patti fan? Well, yes. But I also think that Tjong-A-Tjoe is truly a difference-maker in the mold of Billy Winn or Mike Atkinson, circa September 2012. You can put Southwick higher on your Big Board if you'd like (but then we can't be friends).

11. Sam Ukwuachu
12. Shane Williams-Rhodes
13. Kirby Moore
14. Spencer Gerke
15. Holden Huff

Aside: Full disclosure, I pretty much lost control of this thing starting at No. 14. I am willing to hear arguments for absolutely anyone below Kirby Moore. Above Kirby Moore, you are an idiot for even questioning me! Just kidding. I'm the idiot. I'm always the idiot (see: every prediction I've ever made on this site, including "Jeremy Avery over Doug Martin.")

16. Bryan Douglas
17. Dillon Lukehart
18. Corey Bell
19. Geraldo Boldewijn
20. Gabe Linehan

21. Jake Broyles
22. Jack Fields
23. Donte Deayon
24. Jonathan Brown
25. Tyler Horn

Aside: I thought about putting a kicker in here. April fool's! No I didn't.

List: Squally Canada's under-recruited relatives

2013-05-02T21:22:11Z

Boise State has offered Milpitas (Calif.) running back Squally Canada...
— Brandon Huffman (@BrandonHuffman) May 1, 2013

The fabulously-named Squally Canada, a running back from Milpitas (Calif.), picked up an offer from Boise State on Wednesday. Onomatologists are stupid with glee.

The offer is the first for Mr. Canada, which got me thinking: Does he have any other Name of the Year friends or relatives in need of a place to play? Here are some I hope exist.

Homely Nicaragua
Tuffy Mexico
Ballsy Amsterdam
Mildly Kenya
Fancy Quebec
Gingerly Geneva
Portly Asia Minor
Handsy Tanzania
Baggy Cuba
Clumsy Jupiter
Nippy America
Zippy Pangea
Clammy Vatican
Skimpy Easter Island
Lumpy Mir
Greasy Gibraltar
Stinky Moscow
Wheezy Downton Abbey

Boise State has offered Milpitas (Calif.) running back Squally Canada...
— Brandon Huffman (@BrandonHuffman) May 1, 2013

The fabulously-named Squally Canada, a running back from Milpitas (Calif.), picked up an offer from Boise State on Wednesday. Onomatologists are stupid with glee.

The offer is the first for Mr. Canada, which got me thinking: Does he have any other Name of the Year friends or relatives in need of a place to play? Here are some I hope exist.

Homely Nicaragua
Tuffy Mexico
Ballsy Amsterdam
Mildly Kenya
Fancy Quebec
Gingerly Geneva
Portly Asia Minor
Handsy Tanzania
Baggy Cuba
Clumsy Jupiter
Nippy America
Zippy Pangea
Clammy Vatican
Skimpy Easter Island
Lumpy Mir
Greasy Gibraltar
Stinky Moscow
Wheezy Downton Abbey

Boise State’s Mountain West schedule, reviewed

2013-02-18T16:00:08Z

Here is my review of Boise State's MW slate.

Plot

Boise State plays some bad teams, then Boise State plays some okay teams. Will there be a hotly-anticipated, Top 25 matchup in there somewhere? Something that ESPN might want to get its grubby little hands on? I'm not telling because SPOILERS. Also, I blacked out after the Wyoming-New Mexico-Colorado State tripleheader in the opening act. Needs more explosions! Needs more Vin Diesel!

Fine, you want a spoiler? I'll give you one...

//entrance music

//Missy Elliot's "Milkshake" (radio edit) sung by Mormon Tabernacle Choir

It's BYU! Back from independence purgatory and looking for revenge!

//crumples up schedule

//starts from scratch, December 2013

Grade: Incomplete

Process

How does one come up with a futures schedule? Computers, according to the Mountain West, the same forward-thinking conference that tapped into the buzzworthy world of Doctor Who and Nintendo 64 to create its new logo.

The formula that the MW used to decide who plays whom remains top secret. But judging by the outcome, their computer modeling involved heavy doses of Angry Birds and typing random stuff into a spreadsheet, emphasis on Angry Birds. "You play three teams home and away for two years, then you play the other three teams home and away. Everyone cool with that? Good! Now on to more pressing matters. Pigs have stolen eggs!"

Grade: C-

Cinematography

The Rocky Mountains are indeed beautiful. You know what else is beautiful? California and Hawaii - places that the Broncos will be seeing less thanks to the MW's time-zone-biased configuration. Beautiful San Diego and beautiful Honolulu are on the travel agenda once apiece in the next four years. Albuquerque and Fort Collins are on there four times. Four! Are you ready to enjoy Albuquerque's No. 1 Yelp-reviewed restaurant, Carl's Jr.?

Also, minus points for Wyoming being hell's wind farm.

Grade: 60%

Editing technique

The schedule appears to have been edited by a bipolar Boise State fan, one who alternately hates then loves the Broncos. In years one and two, Boise State plays the three toughest teams in the West division while fellow Mountain division favorite Utah State gets the three easiest ones. Then in years three and four, things switch. I remember a similar tack in the movie Freaky Friday, and that movie wasn't bad at all, except in hindsight Lindsay Lohan is a human trainwreck and Jamie Lee Curtis is a yogurt poop pitchwoman.

Grade: 5/10

Character development

The duration of this schedule serves as a roadmap for Nick Patti's career. By 2016, Patti will be a redshirt senior on the cusp of a darkhorse Heisman campaign and a future career as the Cleveland Browns' attempt at doing a "Russell Wilson." Also by 2016, cars will drive themselves and San Jose State will have regressed tremendously. So much will have changed, you guys.

Grade: 90%

Intangibles

Protected rivalries would have been nice. Also, a relegation system where the MW's top team goes to the Pac-12 and the bottom team goes to football independence and a 12-game season of home-and-aways against Idaho.

Grade: Unsatisfactory

Overall

I'm all for scheduling things way in advance, which is how I'm still on the hook for 2011 Rose Bowl tickets. The Mountain West gets points for being proactive, and loses points for creativity, tradition, and fairness. But hey, when BYU and UTEP join a year from now, we'll all forget this schedule ever existed.

Final grade: 11 Zone

No Chris Petersen-to-Oregon rumors? Where's the fun in that?

2013-01-17T17:19:45Z

For what seems like decades now, Bronco fans have been nervously following the offseason musical chairs of coaching firings and hirings, donning tin-foil hats and preparing Chicken Little speeches every time a non-WAC program needed a new head man. Me? I've been hoarding my fears and loathings for the day when Job Zero becomes available: when Chip Kelly leaves the University of Oregon and makes my life a living hell mess of worry, fear, regret, and desperation.

Friends, my day of reckoning has arrived. OH THE HUMANITY! COACH PETE IS GONE, I MAY AS WELL STOP SHOWER--

What's that?

Oregon has a replacement hand-picked to succeed Chip Kelly?

They're staying in-house to promote the offensive coordinator?

My investment in a Chris-Petersen-themed bat signal was for naught?

Uh, okay.

I guess this news is supposed to make me feel good, right? Boise State still has its head coach, I still have my role model, Joe Southwick still has someone to yell at as he comes to the sideline.

But I would be lying if I said there wasn't a little part of me that was disappointed that the Oregon Coaching Scare didn't stretch into more epic proportions - or any proportions, really.

My fears were scuttled before I could even track a single airplane from BOI to PDX. I was fully prepared to journey deep into Twitter to find the latest rumors paired, grammatical errors, and Scientology links. I would have stalked Chadd Cripe, who would have stalked Chris Petersen, who would have had a restraining order on Mark Johnson. This predestined series of events - Petersen to Oregon, me to tears - seemed so inevitable that I had already worked my way through the first two stages of grief.

I had a "Welcome to the land of unrealistic expectations, Coach Kwiatkowski; now what are you going to do about Joe Southwick?" post in draft!

Is Petersen's staying in Boise and Oregon's dismissal of a job search the healthiest outcome for me? Probably.

Was it a waste of five years of pent-up anxiety? We'll see.

I guess there's still the possibility that new Oregon coach Mark Helfrich only lasts a couple years before heading off to the pros to re-energize the Jaguars or a Jaguar-equivalent. If so, I might yet get my opportunity to throw caution to the wind and rent billboard space on Broadway Ave with a "For Pete's sake, don't go!" billboard (featuring a sad David Augusto petting a corgi).

Or maybe there is a bigger lesson for me to learn here. Maybe worrying about coaching rumors is futile when you're dealing with the most loyal coach in America. Maybe no job will ever be better for Coach Pete than the one he's got. Maybe Oregon will keep promoting from within for perpetuity.

Or maybe I should start making connections at the Boise airport, you know, just in case I need to stage a dramatic, airport-runway "please don't go" scene.

Yep, that's totally what I'm going to do.

Boise State 28, Washington 26: Broncos earn last-minute Vegas win

2012-12-23T00:11:34Z

Clutch Boise State field goals? Joe Southwick MVP-like performance? Boy, bowl games are weird.

The Broncos held off Washington 28-26, with the winning points coming on a final minutes field goal by Michael Frisina, to win their third Las Vegas Bowl in three years. Jeremy Ioane's interception sealed the deal on the game's penultimate play, and Joe Southwick's 26-for-38, 266 yards, and 2 TDs were the best thing the Bronco offense had going for it.

Game MVP went to Washington RB Bishop Sankey who 279 rushing and receiving yards total and single-handedly kept the Huskies alive in the first half.

Box score

It was over when ...

Ioane picked off a Keith Price pass with 14 seconds left and the Huskies driving for the winning field goal.

Box score MVP

The best stat line of the afternoon clearly belonged to Sankey. Southwick had the Broncos' best numbers, but I'll throw a bone to Holden Huff (two TD receptions), Matt Miller (6 catches, 90 yards), and the BSU defensive line (constant pressure, 4 sacks, FF).

Gamblers Anonymous question

Boise State did not cover the five-point spread. Sorry, investors.

Next up

Spring football, a million years from now.

Boise State edges Washington, 28-26, in Las Vegas Bowl

2012-12-23T00:10:24Z

Clutch Boise State field goals? Joe Southwick MVP-like performance? Boy, bowl games are weird.

Game MVP went to Washington RB Bishop Sankey who 279 rushing and receiving yards total and single-handedly kept the Huskies alive in the first half.

Box score

It was over when ...

Ioane picked off a Keith Price pass with 14 seconds left and the Huskies driving for the winning field goal.