Chris Petersen took to the office desk yesterday (literally an office desk, not a podium) for his final press conference of the spring where he touched on topics ranging from Boise State's spring game on Saturday (5:00 p.m. at Bronco Stadium) to Boise State's historic haul of NFL Draft talent and everything in between - except the quarterback competition. Naturally.
You can listen to the full audio above, or you can read my recap below and assume I covered everything like a good journalist-major-turned-snarky-blogger should. Your call.
No red jerseys for quarterbacks. Spring game is getting real. All four Boise State quarterbacks will be "live" on Saturday, meaning Mike Atkinson can sit on them. This is good news for all those Bronco fans who want to see Joe Southwick, Grant Hedrick, Jimmy Laughrea, and Nick Patti perform under pressure - well, pressure other than the judgy eyes of 20,000 fans.
There is no pecking order for the quarterbacks. Or is there, skeptical question mark? I assume this means that playing time will be determined via winner-takes-all Hungry Hungry Hippos, which would serve as a metaphor for the quarterback competition. "Who is hungrier?!" Robert Prince will yell.
Kickers. Pffft. The acknowledgement by Coach Pete that the Boise State kicking game is struggling was too vital to contain in an article. It received its own FanShot with its own loud noises comment thread. Also, we now know who to blame for our finding out about the kicking conundrum through a press conference and not through our first-hand experience of field goal after field goal missing wide right by 30 yards. Tom Scott is responsible. Him and his probing questions.
No D.J. Harper on Saturday. He's fine, you guys. No need to panic. He's just fragile and has been around for like a billion spring games, so what's the point?
Winners take showers. The format will be offense versus defense, wherein the offense scores points the conventional way and the defense scores points with sacks, three-and-outs, turnovers, and etc. The winning side gets to shower and eat teriyaki bowls, probably not at the same time. Losers go home smelling like sweat and regret.
Petersen on rebuilding vs. reloading:
We're not slowing down one second. Our expectations aren't changing one bit.
Quickly.
- There is no magic formula for churning out NFL players like Boise State did this year. At least, there's no formula that Chris Petersen knows about. (If you find a formula, please e-mail it to breakyakey@uidaho.edu.)
- Chris Petersen will not be crashing motorcycles while carousing with betrothed, blonde office assistants any time soon. Someone asked this (in a roundabout way).
- Hope you can run 5,000 kilometers in under 30 minutes. That's what it will take to Beat Pete on Saturday.
- According to Petersen, spring ball hasn't been "great or off the charts." Classic coaching mind game, if you ask me.
Your turn
What did you learn from Chris Petersen's press conference? Who do you think will get the first reps at quarterback on Saturday? Share your thoughts in the comments.