By Chadd Cripe
ccripe@idahostatesman.com
© 2013 Idaho Statesman
Boise State senior quarterback Joe Southwick spent about 15 minutes with the media after Wednesday’s practice. Here are some highlights (audio link below):
— On spring ball: “The first two days I think have been good, both sides of the ball. Early on, it’s just moving around fast and attention to what we’re trying to get done in practice. We’re going through periods fast and playing fast and I think that’s what we’re looking for early on.”
— On the offensive changes: “It’s hard to compare. What the offense right now is worried about is what’s in front of us. A lot of it’s the same. There’s not a lot of differences.”
— On being a returning starter: “Being a senior, I think, even is more important. Something kind of changes when you become a senior. All of us seniors have been talking about it. This is our last go-round for us. We’re just all trying to get better. Coming in as a starter helps, too, just from a whole offensive perspective — there’s a little more structure, I’d say, more organization.”
— On coach Chris Petersen’s comment that Southwick was hungrier than ever: “That’s part of the senior thing, too, but yeah, we tasted success last year. We were 11-2, won a championship, won a bowl game. So now how do we get better? As a competitor, as an athlete, you’re always asking yourself that question. I’m excited to work with this team and see what we can get done.”
— On where the offense needs to get better: “Being more explosive as an offense jumps out first. There’s a lot that goes into that. There’s not just one thing that’s going to fix being an explosive offense.”
— On his success running the ball at the end of last season: “It’s just keeping that mentality. It’s definitely just a mentality of sticking with your reads but if things break down, take off. … I couldn’t tell you (why it improved). Honestly, playing this position, it’s just instincts.”
— On whether the playbook was too full: “Yeah, maybe a little bit, and then I think it’s tough to just, from me being here this whole time, going from coordinator to coordinator to coordinator. It’s tough to be on the same page with how much stuff we’ve had in the past and how much stuff we still have. (Offensive coordinator Robert Prince) has done a great job this offseason. I’m loving what we’ve got going right now. I think we’ve looked really crisp these first two days.”
— On his weight increase from 185 pounds last season to 202 now: “I did want to pack on a little more weight. During the season, you do lose some weight. That’s the way it goes. I’m up over 200 pounds. Hopefully I can sustain that through spring ball and fall camp is the big one. Fall camp is when you lose a lot of weight. I don’t feel any slower, which is the most important thing.”
— On center Matt Paradis: “That’s a really unsung hero, really, in my eyes. He’s awesome. Now we’re pretty much all shotgun around here. We didn’t have one bad snap last year. We didn’t have a snap that went over my head or behind me or anything like that — and that could not have been said around here the last couple years. So I let him know how much I appreciated that. He’s so dialed — he knows his stuff inside and out — and he’s just a good leader, too.”
— On how he plans to lead: “Try to be the example. Try to talk less and just be the example.”
— He said he had to learn to block out the outside “noise” as last season progressed. “It’s one thing to say it and another thing to actually feel it and go through it,” he said. “I’m in a great place right now. We’re having fun out there and we’re really excited about this season.”
— An interesting note: Southwick is lefthanded, but plays every sport except tennis (his dad’s a tennis pro) righthanded. “My dad actually takes the blame for that,” he said. “At a young age, he was always trying to put footballs and stuff in my right hand.” I asked if that meant we’d see a lefthanded pass. “No,” he said, “you’re not.”
Here is the Southwick audio, which I had to split into two files: part 1 and part 2.
•••
PRACTICE NO. 2
Type: Helmets only
Player spotlight: Junior Tyler Horn has spent most of the first two days of spring ball at defensive tackle but he’s still practicing at end, too. The preference seems to be to keep him at tackle. “He’s very athletic, he’s big, he’s strong,” defensive line coach Andy Avalos said. “We feel like he can handle himself in there as a three-technique (tackle) and then obviously he can do some things on the edge when we get in a three-man front.” That would give the Broncos an experienced starting front four with returning starters Ricky Tjong-A-Tjoe (nose tackle), Demarcus Lawrence (end) and Sam Ukwuachu (stud end). Horn made a nice play for a sack Wednesday against the first-team offense.
Play of the day: Early in the practice, Lawrence ripped the ball away from sophomore tailback Jack Fields at the line of scrimmage — it wasn’t so much a fumble as a steal. Lawrence forced four fumbles last season.
Notes: I was asked the other day about tailback Devan Demas’ quickness given his 25-pound gain. Demas, now 195 pounds and still the team’s smallest tailback, made a quick cut in the open field Wednesday that seemed to answer any quickness question. … One intriguing guy to watch this offseason will be redshirt sophomore safety Taylor Loffler. The Broncos were high on the Canadian out of high school but he came to campus with a torn ACL and never was healthy last year, either. He’s 6-foot-3, 212 pounds and ready to roll this spring. … I missed much of the 11-on-11 drills Wednesday to call into a teleconference with U.S. Davis Cup captain Jim Courier, so I don’t have much to report in terms of players who looked good.
Next practice: Thursday
•••
I originally planned to post the defensive line report today. I got behind and since it’s late in the day, I’ll post it tomorrow morning instead. Defensive backs will be posted Friday morning.
Chadd,
Is there any concern about Tyler Horn’s weight if he plays inside? He’s one of the few players who didn’t put on weight over the winter. Regardless of where he ends up, there’s no question about his strength and play making ability. Can’t wait to watch him and the D-line this year.
They don’t seem concerned about it — he was effective there last season — and 264 isn’t terrible for the position he plays. One of the assets he brings is his athleticism … But if he’s going to be there in August, I’d guess he puts on 10-15 pounds in the summer.
Bronco stadium capacity is 36,800 as of the 2012 season. Is there any current capacity being added for 2013 and if not, is there a timetable for how much and when and if not why not and what does it depend on? Having the Huskies here in 2015 would be a little embarrassing if real progress toward a significantly larger stadium were not undertaken.
Ron, Stadium expansion is a pipe dream until we move on to another conference.
It was a pipedream from conception.
There is not a solid timeline for any expansion at this point. Boise State only sold out one game last season and was 3,300 short for its home finale — and with the team staying in the Mountain West, there’s no reason to expect that to change in the next few years. Also, expansion requires money, and they chose to invest in the new football facility instead. That will have a bigger impact on the program. Boise State could fill a 40,000-seat stadium once a year — for BYU or a Pac-12 team. But not for the other five games.
That is a depressing thought in terms of ever escaping the MWC for greener pastures. TCU got back into the Big 12 with their $164 million remodel and stadium expansion, Louisville escaped the Big East with their adding 15,000 seats to their stadium and new basketball facility.
Is their a ground water problem negating the chance to ever lower the field and put the fans closer to the action in seats that command more money like @ Husky Stadium? That was shown to be one of the ways of expanding the stadium in the plans introduced in August of 2010. The end zone bleacher seats added in 2012 do resemble that plan either. Is that plan dead now?
Lowering the field is doable. The problem is it doesn’t add many seats and it’s expensive. And I don’t know about other people, but I wouldn’t pay a premium to sit there. You can’t see anything…
I have not gotten a concrete vision from Coyle on the future for the stadium. The plan Bleymaier unveiled a few years ago could still be done — the new football facility was built with the idea that a second deck of end zone seats can go on top of it. They decided to put in the additional bleachers because it was a quick, cheap solution that allowed them to add seats in the lower price categories, which is what they thought they could sell.
In the early 1980′s they took out the track at lowered the field 12-14 feet in Pullman and the capacity went from 27,000 to 39,000. It drastically improved the sideline viewing and made the existing lower tier seats more $ attractive. The same thing is being done now @ Husky Stadium lowering the field about 5-6 feet and again improving the view for all lower section seats. The same when they rebuilt Stanford with the idea being get rid of the track, improve the sight lines and make the place more intimate. Autzen is probably the best example of a no track ringing the field, close to the action -increasing the intimidation factor stadium that I have been in. I hope this is eventually done @ Bronco Stadium. I feel a bit removed from the action with the extra 12 yards of the track separating us from the action
Keep in mind that Washington State’s stadium seats about 33,000 and Oregon State’s is in the low- to mid-40s.
WSU currently seats 35,000 with long range plans to make it 50,000, although I don’t they could close to filling it. Spokane does not provide much support and Seattle is 300 miles away on a bad highway much like Moscow is from Boise.
Oregon State officially seats 45,600 with 47,000 @ the Oregon game last year and no crowds under 40,000 for several years.
Phase 3, is planned to redo the old grandstand and raise capacity to 55,000. That project is a few years away.
P.S. It would be a struggle today to admit WSU to the Pac 12 with their athletic records and support over the past several years, but they have one thing going for them, they already in the league , not trying to move up, and they are a natural rival for the Huskies.
I have an idea, how about taking away the dry stadium rule. Allow alcohol in the stadium and more people will go. Everyone wants to drink at the bars and watch the game there instead of being sober in the stands. Might just work. What does anyones else think?
Of course Joe is…
He’s on the field of Lyle’s under the Center of Steuckel.
PS Stop twitchin’ about the House and leave the kitchen to the cooks…
And HEY! As Least he’s not like Ogden Edsel and just lying in a field of POPPIES!
POPPIES! POPPIES! POPPIES! POPPIES! POPPIES! POPPIES!
OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD….:-p
HEE HEE
PS He’s not at DISNEYLAND, he’s missing out on something.
Dear Fairchild:
Drink before the game and quit harping about the no-alcohol rule. You seem to take absolutely NO inititive!