By Chadd Cripe
ccripe@idahostatesman.com
© 2013 Idaho Statesman
Boise State football coach Chris Petersen held his press conference to preview spring football Tuesday. Practice began Monday. Below are some highlights from Petersen and here is the audio:
— On senior starting quarterback Joe Southwick: “Joe’s in a great groove right now. I think he’s as hungry as he’s been. I think he’s confident because he knows he got better as the season went on and he produced and did some very good things. I’m really excited to watch him, as much as anyone. … When you get a fifth-year senior at that position who has done some good things, the average fan may not see it, but as coaches we’ll know — if he can take that next little step, he’s going to be an extremely effective and efficient player and play at a very high level.”
— On the quarterbacks jockeying for the backup job: “You watch it day one, a couple guys are pressing, trying too hard. It doesn’t have to happen day one or even day 15. Just focus in one play at a time or one day at a time. You have time here. You’re not going to the Pro Bowl tomorrow.”
— On the Mountain West’s TV deal with ESPN, which hasn’t been formally announced but was reported by ESPN.com: “Love that. I think that’s great for the program, great for the kids.”
— On the cornerback competition: “It’s awesome to really watch those guys go at it because that is such a critical position.”
— On a position of confidence: “I don’t know if there’s one I’m most confident in. One I think we’re going to have some decent depth at is maybe running back — certainly in the summertime when we get Aaron Baltazar here as well. You need some depth there. It’ll be exciting. There will be a lot of competition.”
— On scheduling Florida State and Virginia: “It’s tough to get the ideal schedule. And you know, it’s probably not my preference. I know it’s very hard for us to put this schedule together. I know what we need to do to go where we want to go. We need to win all our games. Our job got a lot tougher with some of these teams we’re going to be playing.”
— On the importance of the strength and conditioning staff: “Tim Socha has done a great job with those guys. That, to me, is where the whole foundation starts, in the weight room. … The job that is done in our weight room is second to none. You look at (former cornerback) Jamar Taylor. Way back when, we weren’t sure when we were recruiting him if we thought he was fast enough.” Taylor was one of the fastest cornerbacks at the NFL Scouting Combine this year.
— On the quarterbacks all reaching 200 pounds: “As the season wears on, those guys, they don’t lift like a lot of the other guys. Sometimes they have a tendency to lose that weight. I think it’s good weight. It’s muscle weight. As much as we run around here, as long as it doesn’t slow them down, we like it.”
— On junior cornerback Bryan Douglas, who is recovering from a torn ACL: “Bryan has been doing a really good job. … He’s doing a really good job of helping the new guys that we have, whether it’s at punt returner or in the secondary. That’s hard to do. He wants to be out there so bad. Guys are competing for his position. … We’re real hopeful when we start in August he’s going to be ready to go or really close to it.”
•••
Boise State has agreed to a two-year, home-and-home football series with Troy of the Sun Belt Conference.
The teams will play Sept. 2, 2017, in Boise and Sept. 1, 2018, in Troy, Ala. Those games likely will be season openers.
The Trojans finished 5-7 last season but have a reputation for playing tough against big-name opponents. Last year, they lost by six and seven in two games against SEC teams. In 2011 (3-9), they lost by 10 at Arkansas. In 2010 (8-5), they lost by three to Oklahoma State. They were 9-4 in 2009, 8-5 in 2008, 8-4 in 2007 and 8-5 in 2006. Coach Larry Blakeney is in his 23rd season (169-98-1).
The first game in the series completes Boise State’s 2017 non-conference schedule with games at Washington State and BYU and at home against Virginia and Troy. The 2018 schedule still has two openings.
The Broncos also have two openings in 2014 (need a home and road game) and one each in 2015 (need a home game) and 2016 (need a road game). They could add a 13th game in 2016 because of the game at Hawaii.
The most logical way to fill the holes would be to sign a home-and-home for 2014-15 (road in 2014 and home in 2015) and a home-and-home for 2014 and 2016 (home in 2014 and road in 2016). The latter of those could have limited options, though, because BCS-conference teams don’t often play the road game first in a home-and-home series.
Here are Boise State’s updated non-conference schedules:
2013
at Washington (Aug. 31)
vs. Tennessee Martin (Sept. 7)
vs. Southern Miss (Sept. 28)
at BYU (Oct. 26)
2014
vs. Ole Miss in Atlanta (Thursday, Aug. 28)
vs. BYU (Oct. 25)
2015
at BYU (Sept. 12)
vs. Washington (Sept. 19)
at Virginia (Sept. 26)
2016
vs. Washington State (Sept. 10)
at Oregon State (Sept. 24)
vs. BYU (Oct. 15)
2017
vs. Troy (Sept. 2)
at Washington State (Sept. 9)
vs. Virginia (Sept. 23)
at BYU (Oct. 7)
2018
at Troy (Sept. 1)
vs. BYU (Oct. 20)
2019
at Florida State (Sept. 7)
at BYU (Oct. 12)
2020
vs. Florida State (Sept. 12)
vs. BYU (Oct. 17)
2021
at BYU (Oct. 9)
2022
vs. Michigan State (Sept. 17)
vs. BYU (Oct. 8)
2023
at Michigan State (Sept. 16)
at BYU (Oct. 14)
Troy’s legit. They’re just as likely to be a player as Washington State or Virginia.
Neither of those is a player! You could have substituted Wyoming or New Mexico. Wait a minute Boise already plays them.
“The latter of those could have limited options” should be the former instead.
No, the latter refers to the home in 2014, road in 2016 series. That’s the one that would have limited options.
A little exposure in the state of Alabama doesn’t hurt either. Maybe we can steal a player or two from Saban.
Oh Yea…we have Saban shaking in his pants…LOL…Ut oh..Betta Call Maaco…
Outside of the town of Troy, their name recognition and following is limited to friends and relatives of the players. Look at their attendance figures for home games. Many are below Idaho’s which are below most high schools in Texas
Maybe for a change of pace a trip to the Poulon Weedeater bowl in always thrilling Shreveport on a late Tuesday night before New Years for a date with Tulsa would really make your day?
A three-star or two…maybe. That wouldn’t disturb Saban’s arrogance with all of his five-star recruits.
And yet Boise State STILL has not one, but TWO, openings on their football schedule for both 2014 and 2015. And the 2014 football season is right around the corner.
Why are they focusing on scheduling games for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, when they actually need games for 2014 and 2015?
Actually the 2014 season is a year and a half away. If you’d been paying any attention to BSU lately, leaving a little schedule flexibility has worked out pretty well for us.
Oh, like plugging in Tennessee-Martin?
That’ll work out well in the SOS argument next year…
That decision was made when we were going to have AQ status.
Maybe we can still get Idaho State or BYU- Idaho.
This is a real let down. How do you put lipstick on a pig like this? Florida State is great but that is an eternity from now, Virginia is always mediocre, but this one is a real loser. 2013 is bad enough with UT Martin and Southern Miss and 2015 with a mediocre Washington team coming to town but having to wait 7 1/2 years before a team with recognition comes to town is a real drag. No wonder any stadium upgrade and expansion is going so slowly and on the cheap with just high school bleacher seats added to the end zones. Where is the plan to sink the field, add sideline seats and improve the atmosphere. The cheap black paint on the old track looks like a shantytown project.
Ya, what they should have done was schedule Alabama and Oklahoma home and home for those years. Or better yet, LSU and Ohio State. Let’s try to be a little bit realistic about the possibilities.
The fact that people see advance scheduling as “a pig” is exactly why the Broncos have such a weak schedule right now. It takes way, way more time and effort to pull of a million dollar exhibition game like Georgia or Virginia Tech than it does to plan out multi-year deals in advance. Bleybaier burned all his resources on matchups with no long term benefit, and because of that, they weren’t planning marquee matchups for 2013-2014 when they were hot in 2006.
As for the stadium, those future games are essential to making that happen. Boise State is a dirt poor school in a dirt poor state, so that money doesn’t come easily, and it goes a long way to tell the board that they’re sure to fill 50,000 seats with big name matchups ten years down the road, as opposed to getting a bigger stadium four years from now but not having any draw because the AD spent all his time on quick fixes.
What a pathetic non-conference schedule.
Compared to who? I’m just curious if you have an example of an actual good out of conference schedule some other college has in the future?
Perhaps you are comparing BSU to Ohio State in 2013 (Buffalo, SDSU, at Cal, Florida A&M). Or maybe it’s USC 2013 schedule you think of when you consider BSU’s ooc schedule “pathetic” (at Hawaii, Boston College, Utah St, at Notre Dame). Quite possibly you could be thinking of ooc gauntlet that Alabama will have to survive in 2013 (Virginia Tech (in Atlanta, GA), Colorado St, Georgia State,Chattanooga).
To my eyes at Washington, Tenn-Martin, So Miss, at BYU, while not being great, compares to other out of conference schedules.
Thanks in advance for your considered response SkiDoc.
when you play such a weak conference schedule you need to make up for it in your non league play. I do not condone what Alabama, Florida and the rest of the power conferences do. There were no top 25 teams on Boise’s schedule last year and slim pickins for this year. Next year Boise’s top opponents will be Washington, BYU, Utah State and San Diego State.
TCU will play LSU, Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor, West Virginia and Kansas State. Alabama has Virginia Tech, LSU, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Auburn-that certainly is not Wyoming, New Mexico, Nevada, add in UT Martin (not even Dean Martin). You must admit when your conference is a powder puff schedule you need to step it up. Look at what Gonzaga does in basketball. Quit being a blind defender of poor scheduling hoping for a few more wins against teams that are no attraction to your fan base.
ron-Gonzaga schedules well in basketball because basketball has something called PLAYOFFS. Football doesn’t have that(4 teams is not enough to make a real playoff), and when the powers that be are going to have the votes in their favor, they will always avoid BSU until BSU becomes a losing program. You’re basically suggesting that BSU do what Pat Hill and Fresno tried to do. Well, their attempt ended up making them one of the biggest failures in the history of football. You can’t just setup a schedule like on your NCAA Football video game where you delete a bad team and put in a good team. It doesn’t work that way. The other side has to be willing to comply. Why do you think Utah bought their way out of playing BSU after going to the Pac-12? Coincidence? No, it’s because they’re part of the old man’s club, which means avoiding BSU at all costs.
You should look at the schedule this year. Alabama does not play all those teams this year. LSU is the only on from that list they play. And everyone else should realize everyone does not want to play BSU, it is harder than what you think to schedule the bigger schools.
When you win multiple national championships and have 103,000 fans @ every home game, you can dictate what you want to do. Boise’s OCC is too weak for any national consideration. Even this year they hype Washington and BYU when they are nothing more than mid level quality programs and Southern Miss is no power, UT Martin doesn’t even rate a footnote. After, that bring on the New Mexico’s and Wyoming’s. Perhaps they will schedule up in 2014, we can only hope.
Yea but look who Alabama plays the rest of the schedule…OH BOY!
It is a pathetic non league schedule. No top 25 ranked teams scheduled until 2019 with Florida State. That is a long wait. If they come up with a Baylor, Kansas State, Iowa State, West Virginia, Stanford, UCLA, Arizona, Iowa or anybody with name recognition that would be good, but no highly rated non league games for another 6 years, that is pretty sad with the weekly list of no names from the MWC all that is left over. If it were up to Coach Peterson all you would see would be, UT Martin, Southern Miss, Bowling Green, Troy and the other weaklings college football.
ron – The 2013 OOC schedule is not strong, but it is not week either. Washington and BYU both will have competitive programs, even if they don’t end up in the top 25. Southern Miss and Tenn-Martin are going to be pour games, but I’d rather see the progress being made on future scheduling, than miss opportunities with Florida St and Virginia. I still think ESPN will work to get BSU a game to replace the Tenn-Martin game because they want content for broadcast, but that’s not going to happen until a contact is signed.
The weakness at the bottom 2/3s of the MWC is a concern and stronger ooc schedules will help. RIP notes that Gonzaga is 10-0 against team ranked 200+, and 6-0 against teams ranked 150-200. That’s more than half of their wins this year.
Some of you who think BSU should play all the heavy weights just have never coached or played college football, or tried to put together a schedule. It is very difficult to get a football team up to peak performance every week, and it is very difficult to go undefeated no matter who you play. All the teams today have great talent and are tough. No team in the Bowl Series went undefeated last year. Sometimes a team can go undefeated but it takes a lot of luck as well as talent, coaching and execution to do it regardless of the schedule.
Teams in the Mountain West are good and getting better. Playing two strong teams and two not as strong teams out of conference is a plenty tough schedule. I see the Mountain West being consistently one of the top five football confeences in the country, just as it is happening in basketball.
It is too bad Boise has what maybe the weakest non league schedule in 2013 in the MWC. Colorado State @ Alabama; Fresno State @ USC, Utah and @ Nebraska; Hawaii @ USC and hosts Oregon State; Nevada @ UCLA and @ Florida State (not 6 years from now); San Diego State @ Ohio State and host Oregon State: UNLV home and home with UCLA in 2015 and 2016; Utah State @ Utah, @ USC and BYU; Wyoming @ Nebraska; San Jose State @ Stanfor and @ Minnesota and Air Force hosting Notre Dame. Even the deaf and dumb will admit that UT Martin, Southern Miss and road trips to mediocre UW and BYU pales in comparison.
ron: those schools need money, something that BSU has been making plenty of over the last decade. Since BSU has been continuing to win more than any of the schools that you have mentioned over the last decade+, that means that BSU is intimidating and a consistent winner. The other schools in the conference(especially Fresno) don’t have any other choice because they have low attendance rates compared to Boise, and when your attendance is low, you have to find other ways to make money. Boise wins, making them intimidating. Everybody else loses their bowl games, making them less intimidating. Why would any big name school schedule a very tough Boise team when they can just schedule a weaker Fresno, SJSU, or Utah State for a more certain victory?
Boise needs the money too. Look at the snails pace work being done stadium seating-a few end zone bleachers is all that has been added in the last several years. By the way, both San Jose and Utah State were higher ranked at the end of last season, so maybe Boise’s dominance in the MWC is coming to end. With one of the weakest strength of schedules year in and year out, remember 113th last year out of 125 and this years prospects very similar, an argument for national recognition is weak when the bulk of your schedule are the have nots .
UW beat Stanford and Oregon State last year, BYU had a down year but will be back. But, I pretty much agree that the scheduling doesn’t hold up due to our weak conference. BSU is geographically and academically where it belongs, and the only hope is for further expansion by the Big 12.
I’m disappointed to hear Coach Pete talk down the tougher schedule. If their goal was just to win all their games, they could play in Div II against local colleges for a crowd of 10 fans. Think bigger, Coach.
Amen. Last year Boise’s strength of schedule ranked 113th boxed in between Kent State @ 112 and New Mexico @114th out of 125. Their marquee win was over 51st ranked UW. For the foreseeable future their strength of schedule will remain in the bottom 20% with such a weak out of conference schedule to go with the MWC little sisters of the poor. They need a big payday game once a year @ an Ohio State or Nebraska to help fill the cash register and prove that they can play with the big boys.
The 2013 schedule was put together earlier when the expectation was that Boise State would be playing Louisville, Rutgers, Syracuse, and Cincinnatti in conference. You cannot change the OOC schedule on short term notice without forfeiting huge failure to fulfill contract fees, and even more problematic is finding someone appropriate to play on short notice. BYU and Washington are going to plenty tough enough. Both have substatial talent coming back. BSU is likely to be at least a 7 point underdog at UW. Southern Miss was a 10+winning team in 2011 and I think finished in the top 25 after defeating undefeated Houston and winning Conference USA. When the game was scheduled, no one knew they were going to fall apart in 2012. They have a lot of talent and, with some good coaching, could be tough in 2013.
You can talk all the macho you want, but you guys are not the ones who have to go play and coach these games. The 2013 team does not have the talent and experience the 2010-11 teams had. Those teams were top 5 teams nationally. This year’s team will do well to reach the top 11-20 level. They will be a high acheiving team if they win a conference championship and play in a BCS bowl. As good as the 2010 and 2011 teams were (and both were good enough to have won in a national championship game had they got their, neither went undefeated in conference play. Football games are tough to win, even when you are the superior team.
I guess the moral to the story here, is always error on the side of weakness and schedule a cupcake home game that will draw poorly but insure a win instead of stretching for a money game on the road. BYU and Washington are not the powers that you proclaim. As a Husky season ticket holder, the past 12 years have been bad and the past 3 years under Sark have been very frustrating with annual thrashings by Oregon and any anybody of stature like LSU. The upset of Stanford was great, but they played their poorest game of the year. The win over Oregon State was a gift with all of their turnovers. The collapse @ WSU and the blown game against Boise in Las Vegas was more the norm.