Wake Up, Bronco Nation: McNichols makes an Athlon list

How was your Monday after the Super Bowl? Any Broncos fans still in euphoria? Any Panthers still bummed? If I was in either camp, I would totally be feeling the same way. I am just sad that football, as far as we are concerned, is done till the fall. But the one positive is every day that passes is another day closer to the famed OBNUG numerical. Just keep up the faith folks!

McNichols one of Athlon's top 75 running backs

Because obviously. I won't add the brief write up (the author deserves the clicks) but I will tell you McNichols is number 14. Just ahead of Myles Gaskin of Washington and just below Donnel Pumphrey of San Diego State. McNichols is going to set himself up for a lot more recognition in the coming years.

The top two are probably in the correct order, but I have no doubt there are some that are going to debate who should be number one. Both running backs would have decent arguments for the number one. Want a hint who is in the number two slot?

A lot more names on that list. You should check it out.

Speaking of McNichols having some good years ahead

The Touchdown Club of Columbus (ye organization of the Kellen Moore Award) has McNichols and Sperbeck on their watch list. Now, the watch list came out last December, but these two studs, along with Lee Marks, just recently went to Columbus to hob knob with other honorees.

On our Way to the Touchdown Club of Columbus 2016 Players to Watch Banquet!!! #BroncoHonors#13#82 pic.twitter.com/5qpGHE6V4h

— Lee Marks (@CoachMarks_BSU) February 5, 2016

Boise State fans should not be concerned about the athletes on the offensive side. It is in good hands with a lot of returning starters. And they are getting the recognition they deserve.

And speaking of being in good hands...

A better way to look at college football's returning experience

Barring anything unforeseen happening next year, Boise State is going to return 87% of offensive production next year. The defense? 53%. That is not bad per se, but the defensive line is going to be... thin. Hence the mad grab by the Broncos staff to grab as much defensive line talent as they could muster. Overall 70% of total production is going to be back.

Some notables? Idaho is going to return 82% on offense, 76% on defense, and 79% overall production. That is good for 21st. Another, more concerning, ranking? New Mexico brings back 76% on offense, 80% on the defense and 78% overall. Yuck. Air Force only brings back 34% of their offensive production back. That is something to be happy about, right?! RIGHT?! But they do bring back 85% of their defense. So. That is delightful. BYU: 67% offensive, 73% defensive for a 70% total. Washington State: 72% offense, 79% defensive, and 76% total.

Numbers only tell part of the tale, of course, but there is something to be said about experience and expectations. Luckily Boise State will be breaking in a new defensive coordinator, amiright?! Hopefully there are going to be some leaders that step up next season. As we just saw in the Super Bowl, an offense can struggle but if you have a superb defense, you can still win when it matters.

Twitter kind of, sort of, becoming more like Facebook

But, from the sounds of it, you can opt out of it if you do not like the new feature. Which is a good thing. While the guys at Twitter probably have good intentions, it feels as though they are monkeying with a product that is pretty 'ok' the way it is.

For those that don't use Twitter, explaining what, exactly, is going on can be complicated. The nature of Twitter is how fast it moves and the topics, conversations, and events that happen can unfold pretty darn quick. For "power users" (and I kind of consider myself one of them) you can get addicted to that instant knowing and feel like you are missing out when you're not using it. So Twitter has devised a way of rearranging your time line so people can "catch up" relatively quickly by letting you see more "interesting" tweets first, and then back to real time.

Following events unfold (coaching change, a direct message mishap, etc) can be an exciting thing to watch. It is good to see that they will be making it possible to keep it the same.

Use Google products at all? Get free 2 gigs of permanent storage

In honor of Safe Internet Day, Google encourages users to update their profiles and check on certain security permissions. If you already use Google products, this will give you some extra storage on Google Drive. Which is nice (along with at least a cursory safety check across their platforms).

Miscellinkeous

Want to watch some pixels fight?

Like pretty dots?

Have a great Tuesday folks!