Spring break, or as it's known to college graduates more work, is officially over and the Bronco football team has returned to the grind of Spring camp. With the departure of so many talented seniors, position battles are sure to be catching fire soon, and with the Spring game looming, now is the time for the hopefuls to start making their move. Football is only back for a few more weeks, so let's soak up what we can from local media reports, shall we?
Marcel Yates the new Simon Cowell
Boise State defensive backs coach Marcel Yates must be starting to feel like the acid-tongued American Idol judge, as he's got to sort through a host of young talent to find some stars for the 2011 Bronco defense. Brandyn Thompson vacated one corner spot that he'd held for 3 seasons and graduation forced Jeron Johnson to relinquish his kung fu grip on the strong safety spot. Just who will end up filling those important holes in the secondary still remains to be seen, but the picture is getting somewhat clearer.
At cornerback, the media's—and more importantly, Coach Yates' favorite still appears to be senior-to-be Jerrell Gavins. The slight JC-transfer has two years in the system, speed to burn, and plenty of experience in dime situations. Strangely, not many other names are picking up much starter buzz this Spring...even though Ebo Makinde "has always been a guy who practices hard" and redshirt freshman Bryan Douglas was a highly-touted prospect in the 2010 class. The summer arrivals of Lee Hightower and Eric Agbaroji could make the race even more interesting...but for now, I'd say that Gavins has the inside track.
At strong safety, you'll be happy to note that the Statesman finally uttered the name of Jeremy Ioane as their pick to replace Jeron Johnson. You may be slightly less happy to note that Ioane has played extremely sparingly this Spring and the Statesman just picked his name out of the ether on nothing more than a 'gut feeling'. Still, the prospect of Ioane starting for four years for the Broncos is an exciting one. Ioane's main competition for the spot will be Johnson's primary back-up for the last few years, walk-on Travis Stanaway or Holland-product Cedric Febis. Febis' name has been bandied about this Spring as a possible dark-horse at the position, but he too has been hampered by injury and unable to make an early move.
The other secondary positions are my "locks of the week", with 3-year starter, and returning All-WAC performer George Iloka at free safety and junior returner Jamar Taylor at corner #1. Iloka has been rock-solid at FS since starting as a true frosh in 2008 and Taylor is a physical corner who is learning to be "more consistent" according to Yates.
“Last year, he would take some plays off. Now he’s starting to play every snap hard.”
Hey, everybody's gotta take a play off now and again...those Funyuns don't get themselves.
Tsunami doesn't stop Hosei Tomahawks
For the fourth Spring in a row, the Hosei University football staff are in Boise to learn coaching techniques from some of the best in the biz. Hosei University, as far as Japanese football goes, has quite the program and have honed their play calling skills in no small part thanks to the Boise State staff. To read more about the special relationship between the schools, The Arbiter posted a nice little article about it in 2008. That article can be found here.
Secret of Doug Martin's success revealed
The Magic Valley Times crack team unearthed the source of Doug Martin's otherworldly strength...watching a lot of network programming.
"My sophomore year of high school, I heard about a guy who did 10 push-ups every commercial break," Martin said. "So, I started doing that and it really helped me get stronger quicker."
Obviously, Doug Martin never watches PBS.
Dustin Lapray made-up quote of the day
Since former Magic Valley Times scribe Dustin Lapray's talents were taken from us far too soon, I've decided to create my own Dustin Lapray quote of the day as if he was still covering Spring ball and dipping his toes in the Boise River. Here goes:
The white hot intensity of the Bronco defense is like a firestorm consuming Dresden or the inside of an overcooked Hot Pocket. I watch in awe as Billy Winn brushes aside a double-team to lay his enormous paws upon the hapless quarterback and I wonder to myself if Zeus himself has come down from Mt. Olympus to alight our azure field.
More to come?
I'm not all gears and clockwork inside like Kevan so I don't get up at 3 AM to scour the interwebs for late-coming Spring camp news. If any additional (or actual) details of day whatever of Spring camp are released, they'll be sure to end up here.