George Kliavkoff, Larry Scott and Teresa Gould: Two failed leaders, one floundering leader.
Pac-12, UNLV quarterback and college football in the West: PR punching bags, failing and floundering in many respects.
Mountain West and Gloria Nevarez: Fighting back, with other’s money, wounded but definitely not failing.
Memphis, Tulane, USF and UTSA: Fighting off temptation to go west, smart enough to avoid this tug-of-war, conference-realignment, gross-greedy financial tornado otherwise known as college football in 2024.
Spencer Danielson, Maddux Madsen and Malachi Nelson: Quietly going about their business.
While chaos consumes college football, especially this week in the Wild, Wild West, the Broncos are keeping it simple and focusing on their biggest and most important home game since Chris Petersen’s return in 2015.
Mike Prater
The Boise State-Washington State game at soldout Albertsons Stadium on Saturday night is a hype game, a classic battle between two good teams and two future conference rivals. Both teams have star power and young, dynamic coaches. The game is a chance for Boise State to alter a lopsided series that favors Washington State 5-1 – and it has CFP consequences.
Danielson hears all the ugly college football noise from his office off Broadway, but his focus is clearly on this game, his program, and not conference wars, courtroom lawsuits, quarterbacks who quit on their teams or who’s next to join the seven-team Pac-12.
“On purpose, I try to stay away from social media as much as I can when we’re going through our work day, but it’s out there. The outside noise, we see it,’’ Danielson said Thursday. “I don’t control any of that. What I do control is our team and our messaging and making sure we’re developing our players.’’
Danielson preaches communication and transparency 12 months a year, two actions that obviously didn’t exist this week on the UNLV campus. Danielson is up front, from day one, which is why players like Nelson, the five-star QB transfer, don’t publicly whine about playing time or NIL money.
Danielson constantly sends a powerful message that his team, all 114 players, are on the same page. Hard to believe, but who’s doubting Danielson?
“Everything here is laid out. This is us. I don’t hold any cards. There’s no smoke and mirrors going on. They know that. The locker room knows that and, so, that’s been my message,’’ he said.
The approach leaves you appreciating Madsen, for winning the Broncos’ starting QB job with grace, supporting Nelson, then hitting the field to lead one of the nation’s top 10 offenses.
The approach leaves you appreciating Nelson, who had to be stunned that he didn’t win the starting job in fall camp. In public, he’s handled the situation like a pro.
Neither quarterback has a known public NIL deal with Boise State or its collective. Both are getting the same modest living-expense money that is given to many other players. Danielson doesn’t play many NIL games, especially in-season, isn’t fond of giving freshmen extra cash, and firmly believes in earning the right to get paid.
For whatever reasons, the UNLV quarterback quit on his team this week.
For all the right reasons, Boise State’s quarterbacks are simply doing their jobs.
I can’t say the same about what’s going on inside Pac-12 headquarters.
Public strategies to rebuild the conference, and private decision-making behind the scenes, have been strange and disastrous. UNLV, Memphis, Tulane, USF and UTSA have turned down a chance to join Washington State, Oregon State, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State.
Now the Pac-12 is suing the Mountain West over $55 million in poaching fees, desperately hoping for financial compromise. It’s needed, unfortunately, but it’s another bad look for a conference that has been making poor leadership decisions for years.
Today, unless somebody in the AAC changes their mind, there are limited targets for the Pac-12 to land an eighth member with media-market value. The next member could be dead weight, which is what the Pac-12 was trying to avoid by spending up to $150 million to ditch the bottom half of the Mountain West.
What’s next? Who knows? For one weekend, who cares?
There’s a game to be played Saturday night – and it’s far more important than the nonsense of this week.
WHAT I WANT TO SEE SATURDAY NIGHT
Last week, I wrote that I wanted to see Nelson play in the second half against FCS Portland State. We all wanted to see what the fan-favorite QB could do in a live game for the first time in 22 months.
He played.
He did not disappoint.
Nelson looked smooth during two TD drives, though Madsen clearly remains the starter, and should.
This week, against Washington State, my attention turns to the defense. Specifically, interceptions.
Boise State had only 11 interceptions in 14 games last season, and now the Broncos have played four straight games without a pick (including the UCLA bowl game). That covers the past 128 passes from opponents. In that same time frame, opposing quarterbacks have completed 64 percent of their passes and tossed seven TD passes.
Defensive coordinator Erik Chinander said interceptions are coming.
“I’d love to be able to tell you exactly why,’’ he said this week. “We need to attack the ball a little bit better in practice, in my opinion, because guys are in some positions to make those plays. But I definitely think they’re coming. I definitely think they will come. They need to come if we’re going to continue to progress. … We’ve got talented defensive backs, so their time is coming.’’
Washington State averages 31 pass attempts and one interception a game, so opportunity exists Saturday night.
Will it turn into interceptions?
Or will the secondary continue to be the weak link of this football team?
Mike Prater is the Bronco Nation News columnist who co-hosts Idaho Sports Talk (KTIK 95.3 FM on Monday-Friday from 3-6 p.m.) and the Boise State football postgame show (KBOI 670 AM). He is on Twitter @MikeFPrater and can be reached at mikefprater@gmail.com
