What happens in Vegas—MWC media days: Day 1

MWC media days began in earnest today in Sin City and the sinning started early when Boise State didn’t land a single player on a preseason player of the year list (San Diego State swept’em) and landed just 3 players a pre-season All-MWC honor (Brett Rypien, Thomas Sperbeck, and Tyler Rausa). Of course, like some things in Vegas...it wasn’t all bad. Sure, we struck out at the craps table, but the buffet has all-you-can-eat shrimp and is just $8. By this—of course—I mean that Boise State was picked to win the Mountain division by a near unanimous margin. The vote breakdown can be seen below in its entirety, courtesy of Harvey Bryan Levin:

As you can plainly see, SDSU again got the most MWC love, and were picked unanimously to win the West division. Boise State, nearly got there...but some don’t believe that they actually can defeat Air Force at this point (and I may be one of those “some”...don’t hate).

Depth chart kinda released

A pre-fall camp depth chart is about as accurate as a drunken Vin Crosby, but since one is expected at the MWC dog and pony show, Boise State relinquished one. Let’s start with offense (and these screen grabs courtesy of @KTVBSportsGuy, as he had the straightest cell phone shots—try harder, Dave Southorn).

@ktvbsportsguy

No BIG surprises here, unless you are the type that gets surprised over JuCo transfers being named a preseason starter at X receiver. I suppose some people would register mild surprise that we shirked the two-deep and the “OR” for the five-man tight end rotation...but not I! Now for the defense:

@ktvbsportsguy

This one is a bit more interesting. First, you’ve got redshirt frosh Sam Whitney listed as an “OR” in the two-deep for both DE and STUD. Then of course, you have the inclusion of JuCo transfer Daniel Auelua in the two-deep at tackle even though he was not here in the spring but a fella named Matt Locher was. Also, Darren Lee listed as basically co-starter with Joe Martarano at middle linebacker is a nice leap for the senior and you’ll also notice a 3rd LB spot occupied by Tanner Vallejo...a spot that was reserved for “nickel” a season ago under the Yates regime. I tried to think of an appropriate money related term that could explain how the SLB was really just the nickel with a new name, but alas...I could not. It looks like Boise State has brought back the SAM backer and with it, the 4-3. (Note: I am okay with this until such time as Winston Venable returns to The Blue). On that note, look at Mr. Kam Miles inhabiting the #2 spot at SAM...he was at strong safety in DSG’s stead last year. Also, for some reason we have the strong safety position noted as “BS” on the depth chart. Does that stand for “boundary safety” or something more sinister?

I’d post the special teams chart, but you’ve pretty much seen it. The only real change there is Jonathan Moxey penciled in on the punt and kick return teams. Stay healthy!

Numbers game

Just in time to blow up our countdown, there are several number changes listed on the roster and like we noted last week, David Moa is now #55 instead of #48. Jabril Frazier, wisely took notice of Demarcus Lawrence and Kamalei Correa’s draft positions and grabbed the #8 jersey. Cedrick Wilson will wear the coveted #1 jersey...not unprecedented for a JuCo receiver, as you may remember Jerard Rabb wear the blue and orange uno. Furthermore, several true frosh numbers were revealed and for some reason the fact that they were single digits blew Jay Tust’s mind:

That’s about it for now...but media days are sure to bring more fun and frivolity, so we’ll keep you posted on the goings on there as they...go on.