The Boise State Broncos will begin spring practice on March 12, and OBNUG will begin overanalyzing spring practice today. More overanalysis to come.
THE story of Boise State spring practice will be the quarterback battle between incumbent backup Joe Southwick, incumbent No. 3 Grant Hedrick, and newcomers Jimmy Laughrea and Nick Patti. Daily updates on the QB derby are going to be like tasty manna from heaven, no matter how speculative they may be.
But there's one spring practice nugget that will be 100% speculation-free: Who starts at quarterback in the spring game on April 14?
The broader, more cynical question is: Does knowing the spring game starter get us any closer to knowing the season opener starter? Yes, the spring game means something and the positions and depth will be determined by practice performance. And no, we are not going to know who the next Kellen Moore is four months before the season starts.
But oh the summer celebrating / teeth-gnashing we can do when we get our first look at the new-look first team O in April.
The frontrunner for now is Southwick, considering offensive coordinator Robert Prince said as much last month. Hopefully Hedrick is fully recovered from a knee injury suffered in a game last year, and hopefully Laughrea and Patti know enough of the offense to make the spring interesting. And while I'm hoping, would it be too much to ask for Dustin Lapray to come out of retirement, take a break from birding, and pen an epic yarn blog about this QB race?
Yeah, it's probably asking too much. I won't plan on getting everything I asked for above, and I'll even go so far as to plan for Southwick to be taking first-team snaps in the spring game, beginning a long summer of my talking myself into Joe Southwick. What say you?
Your turn
Who do you think will start at quarterback in the spring game? Whom do you want to start? Share your thoughts in the comments.