Who will catch it?

BSU has had an impressive passel of wide receivers that past few years. But, this year will be anyone's guess as to who will stand up and shine. The only really expreienced wideout, Drisan James, has been suspended for the Georgia game (that's another story), so someone will have to step it up a bit.

Josh Smith (the man with the golden teeth) and Legedu Naanee both look promising, as does Cole Clasen, a transfer from Oregon State. I've not heard anything about the other players - yet.

Kicking woes?

Looks like the Broncos are going to have to score touchdowns with a vengeance this year, at least early on. That's because Tyler Jones is no longer around to play mop-up with his extraordinary foot. During the last couple seasons whenever the offense sputtered (not that often), TJ almost always saved the day.

One redeeming point - and I hope he doesn't have to be tested much - is the punting leg of Kyle Stringer. During last Friday's scrimmage, he punted a couple beauties. One of them, a spiral from the back of the end-zone, was a good 60 yards in the air. Pretty slick.

19, 18, 16.....

Those are BSU's respective pre-season rankings from USA Today, the Associated Press, and Sport Illustrated, respectively. Fresno State also made it into the AP, and SI polls, at 24 and 19.

Are the polls important? Yes, and no. Of course, being ranked does not guarantee anything, especially for a Mid-Major college. On the other hand, being on the radar screen before the season starts does improve chances for being noticed at the end of the season. And, the NCAA football championship series is, in the final analysis, all done with mirrors.

Scrimmage

First post.

Went to the final "public" scrimmage Friday night. I really liked what I saw. There's a lot of depth - especially at the quarterback position. I guess it says a lot when you move you "heri-apparent" QB (Legedu Naanee) to a wide receiver position. But, from what everybody says, he's probably the most athletic player on the field. (I swear he grew taller. I guess it must be the bulking up he did over the summer).

After the scrimmage we got a bunch of autographs from players (mostly starters) and Coach Hawkins. My boy Josh was ecstatic, and is now the proud owner of a 2005 BSU cap with 20 or 30 signatures. And, I got this wonderful idea to get all of their signatures on a poster/schedule I can put up at my office to really annoy the Idaho Vandal fans I work with (evil laugh).

Here's a great article from Sports Illustrated about the Broncos and Fresno State.

As the date for the opener at Georgia looms, I'll try to add material to this Blog.