Jared Dooley saw the picture and thought back to the baby photos. Two decades ago, Ben Dooley was this cute little chubby baby. And now?
“I am terrified,” Jared Dooley said.
Early this month, after offensive lineman Garrett Curran started the trend, Ben Dooley — Boise State’s redshirt senior left guard — shaved his entire head. He ditched the rugged look for something much more menacing. Bald head. A red beard thicker than the Amazon. All on top of his 6-foot-5, 315-pound frame.
Ben sent his dad the photo just after the sheering.
“I said, ‘You are going to look like an absolute nightmare when you put your eye black on and it starts to run,’” Jared Dooley said. “As a father, you think about holding him as a baby and how sweet he was. Then I look at him and he’s just a nightmare.”
Boise State has never been happier to have a nightmare.
Dooley might be the anchor for Boise State’s offensive line this season, the seasoned vet who most teammates and coaches would say is the best run blocker on the team. For a Broncos squad that likes to run the ball until legs start giving out, Dolley transforms from important to vital.
The proof of that came last season, when an infected bone spur in Dooley’s foot kept him out for the first eight weeks of the season. He stood on the sidelines as Boise State sputtered to a 2-2 record and probably too much blame fell on the offensive line.
“That feeling is awful,” Dooley said. “You just feel helpless.”
Injuries rarely affected Dooley in the past. He’d have the occasional ankle sprain during high school wrestling, but nothing that ever kept him out for months, nothing that required him to use a scooter to get around.
Dooley still showed up to workouts, only able to exercise one leg and then forced to watch one leg grow larger than the other.
“It just got to be really taxing for him mentally,” Jared Dooley said. “So as a father, when you watch your son go through something so incredibly taxiing, it just wears on you.”
Jared tried to share a consistent message with his son: Do what you can. Don’t focus on what you can’t.
Good offensive linemen do the little things right. Correct hand placement, footwork, timing. In rehab, too, Dooley stayed on top of the details. Taking all his meds. Showing up at physical therapy. Still sitting in every offensive line meeting.
“Taking that step back into leadership, instead of leading on the field,” Ben Dooley said. “It was a lot of film with the younger guys. … And then just coaching in practice itself. Getting their footwork right. Getting their technique right. Giving them reminders when they get onto the field, ‘This is what you’re gonna see. Be ready for it.’”
That training became far more necessary than Dooley hoped. The Broncos offensive line was a sitcom on its last legs, rolling with new combinations in search of something that worked. Boise State had seven different O-Line combos last year, including four different guys finding time at right guard.
This season, the revolving door has already begun swinging. Mason Randolph started camp at center. Nathon Cardona saw some time there. And, recently, Garrett Curran has been snapping the ball for Boise State.
The Broncos, though, seem more equipped to handle change this season. The depth stretches further and so many guys in OL coach Tim Keane’s room have the versatility to move to wherever they are needed. Tackle, guard, center, doesn’t matter.
Heck, Dooley is so adaptable that back when Boise State’s defensive line got ravaged with COVID before a 2020 game against Colorado State, the coaches moved Dooley to the D-Line three days before the game … and he racked up two tackles.
“That was unbelievable,” said defensive lineman Michael Callahan. “He was blowing the guards up. Like he came in and he did really well. He could 100% play nose tackle in Division I college football.”
Boise State is just fine with Dooley sticking on the offensive line, becoming a nightmare for defenses as Taylen Green, George Holani and Ashton Jeanty pound the rock.
“Our goal for every game is 150 yards rushing,” Dooley said. “I think we can easily achieve that. I’m hoping we can give our backs even more.”