In The World…

Yesterday , Ryan Clady became Boise State’s all time highest NFL draft pick. He was taken at twelve by the Denver Broncos. He doesn’t change colors or mascots when going to the pros. I think he will do really well in Denver, because their scheme fits his strength. <football geek speak>They run a zone-blocking scheme which requires some more athleticism than just a straight line up and play smashmouth </football geek speak>.  I wasn’t able to watch a large chunk of the first day of the draft for a reason that I will have to tell you more about later.

Clady will always have a place in Boise State lore. You may remember a little play called “statue left”, aka. the game winning 2 point conversion in overtime in the Fiesta Bowl vs Oklahoma. His block helped seal the left end of the line (along with current Buffalo Bill Derek Schouman) to allow Ian Johnson to scamper across the goal line.

I’m going to be perfectly honest. As good as Clady was for us, I still don’t think he was the best offensive linemen that Boise State has ever had. I can recall numerous times where he was whistled for a drive killing penalty or him missing his guy and giving up a sack. I can’t back this up with numbers, but I trust my own eyes.

Still the best OL I have seen here is Daryn Colledge. Now a starter with the Green Bay Packers he graduated 3 years ago. I think he flew a bit under the radar because Boise State was not as well known then as they are now in this post-Fiesta Bowl universe.

Daryn was a 4 year starter for us. He owns both the consecutive games played and consecutive games started records at BSU, with 52 straight. We went 45-7 in his years here. One of his biggest wins was in that Hawaii game where he blocked 2 fourth quarter kicks, both returned by Orlando Scandrick and directly gave us the win.

Whenever he was matched up against a defensive end who had a lot of hype, he destroyed them. Specifically Bill Swancutt of Oregon State and Mathias Kiwanuka of Boston College. Neither of them did ANYTHING against Colledge.

When one is comparing offensive linemen, there is really very little hard data to go on. They don’t acrue many stats. I don’t think you can even use draft place as a guage either. So much goes into where a player is taken in the NFL. They don’t draft for how good a player is, they draft to how they project their game will translate to the pros. Which are not the same thing.

Then again, I’m just a fan, not an NFL scout. As a fan watching the games, I never had the confidence in Clady that I had in Colledge. So, in my book, Colledge will always be the best left tackle to ever come through the school.

All that being said, this is still a great thing for both Clady and Boise State. Having a player drafted in the top 12 is huge. It shows every single recruit that if you’re good, you can play at Boise State and still be drafted high. You don’t have to go to a Pac-10 school. You will play on national TV 5 or 6 times a year here. You will get seen.

Speaking of Orlando Scandrick, I just saw him get picked at place 143 going to the Dallas Cowboys.

In other ex-Bronco news, Chris Carr made news recently that might have been missed by some of you. He is the defensive back/kick returner who has been with the Oakland Raiders for the past 3 years as an undrafted free agent. He recently signed a contract with the Tennessee Titans for $2 million for 2 years. That is awesome. Despite being with the Raiders only 3 years he is their all-time kick return yardage leader. That is pretty impressive. Congrats, Chris.

It’s a good time to be a Bronco.

This morning, like I do most mornings, I jumped on the web to check the stats from my blog. I always like to stay on top of what sorts of traffic I get. Granted, it’s never a lot. I average maybe 50 unique visitors a day or so.

Well, this morning was different. When I first checked, I had some 300+ visitors since midnight. Wow… what the hell is going on, I wondered. I checked where these hits were coming from and most of them were coming from a comment I made on ESPN.com a few days ago on a story about Super Bowl foods. I simply posted, “I’m personally going to whip up some Stroganoff Dip. It is ALWAYS a hit.” with a link to my blog post with the recipe.

Lo and behold, somehow that quote got “featured” on their main page. Check the image to the left, bottom. I have no clue how or why. All I know is that as of right now I’ve gotten 374 unique visitors and over 800 page views. The most interesting part is that I’ve gotten a big spike in traffic from Google from people searching “Stroganoff Dip Recipe” and finding my site that way as well.

The web is an amazing thing.

So, welcome folks from ESPN. Stick around if you like. I’ve written about Sports in general and Boise State specifically quite a bit.  Maybe you’ll find something you’ll enjoy.

Why You’re A Fan

Which is the halftime score of the Hawaii Bowl. Boise State is on the losing end.  Ouch.

I’ve seen the Broncos play like this before.  It makes me sick to my stomach.  They played like this against Washington.  They played like this against Nevada.  Uninspired.  Confused. Pathetic.

Tharp is more confused than the first time he started.  Running around and panicy.  I think having Childs sitting at home suspended hurts him a LOT.  I mean, he is either not finding open guys, or is throwing it up for grabs. Horrible. The receivers are dropping balls and worse, fumbling.  Ian obviously isn’t the same since he tweaked his ankle in practice this week. Avery limped off the field just before half.

The defense is missing tackles left and right. Which isn’t good when you are also missing assignments.

Unless they pull their heads out of their collective asses, we are in big trouble.

Honestly, it looks to me like the team went to Hawaii for a vacation… not to win a football game.  They are not focused.  They are not sharp.  Unless things turn around, we’re gonna lose bad.

Bah Humbug.

No, the title of this post does not have to do with something you would pay extra for with Vietnamese prostitute. Instead, it refers to my weekend.

Straight away, I would suggest that any of my female readers just back away slowly now and not read this… for one simple reason. I’m going to bitch and moan about my fantasy football team and I fully expect that you will not only not understand, but will actually think less of me for my whining about something you find to be so ultimately stupid. Thank you.

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Sometimes, I really hate sports. I do.

Why? Because one damn game can ruin my whole day.

I wish it didn’t affect me so much. But, there is nothing I can do. I’m just going to be salty for a while.

Happy friggin birthday to me.

*sigh*

No, the question is not what the final score of the Boise State v. Hawaii football game on Friday.

Instead the real question is “What was the halftime score of the Boise State vs Montana Tech basketball game?”

In fact, the game was so out of hand, we actually left at the half.  I haven’t left a BSU game at half in a long time.  But, we were bored and were both feeling that we would rather chill out on the couch in our jammies.  So, that’s what we did.

Now, I’m as big a fan of one sided blowouts as the next guy… probably more… but in basketball it’s just not fun.  I will take 60 to nothing every single football game, especially conference games.  But basketball?  Meh.

Besides, there were very few people there.  The cheerleaders, and I’m assuming a bunch of fans, are in Hawaii for the big game.  The atmosphere was kinda dead.  As was the opponent.  By the way, the final score was 107-53.

Anyway, tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I can’t wait.  Great meal.  Hangin out with the fams.  Watchin some football.  Sounds like a great day to me.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

This Friday is the “Big Game” in the WAC as the top two teams, Boise State and Hawaii face off on the island for all the marbles.

I’ve had a feeling about this Boise State football season that has been banging around in my head for the past few weeks.  I have been unable to put my finger on just what it was.  Maybe it was because I was so busy and didn’t have time to think.  Maybe its because the very thought of it was distasteful to me as a fan, and I felt less of myself for even harboring the possibility.  I’m torn.  I’ve agonized personally but, I’ve spent some time deep in thought and I have came to a realization…

I would prefer Boise State to NOT play in a BCS game this year.

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Today was the day. Rivalry game. Boise State University vs. University of Idaho.

Let’s just say it was interesting. For those of you who don’t know, I am a gigantic Boise State Bronco fan (and an alumnus), Jess is a life long Idaho Vandal (an alumnus). This is the first game day since we have moved in together.

Like I said, it was interesting.

This whole week has been very easy. Neither of us discussed the game much. We have both been so busy lately, we just haven’t had the time to gently jab each other about this upcoming weekend. I guess part of that is that the teams are so unevenly balanced at the moment. I try not to rub it in too much, specifically because I still remember when BSU sucked, and its not fun. So, we’ve been remarkably civil to each other.

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I haven’t written in awhile.  You may have noticed this.

It’s not that I haven’t had anything to write about.  Quite the contrary.  My head is busting with ideas and topics.  The real enemy here is time.  It is simply that time of year when events get ramping up and there just isn’t anything I can do about it.  For example, here is my schedule since the day before I left for Vegas with Jess on the 28th of October.

• Saturday - Party at Friends
• Sunday - Vegas
• Monday - Vegas
• Tuesday - Vegas
• Wednesday - Return from Vegas (Halloween)
• Thursday - blessed rest
• Friday - BSU Basketball
• Saturday - BSU Football
• Sun - Leave again for Vegas
• Mon - Vegas
• Tue - Return from Vegas, exhausted
• Wed - Steelheads Hockey
• Thurs - a little more rest
• Fri - BSU Basketball
• Sat - Drive to Logan, UT (and back) for BSU Football Game
• Sun - Dinner at Jess’ folks
• Mon - Finally, nothing
• Tue - BSU Basketball
• Wed (yesterday) - Friend’s B-Day dinner and Steelheads Hockey.

For those of you scoring at home, that would be 3 separate trips, 7 sporting events (3 basketball, 2 football, 2 hockey), 3 dinners out (not counting travel days) and a grand total of 3 evenings of rest where I had nothing going on.

Of course, those ‘rest’ days weren’t even all that restful since they landed on weekdays and because in the midst of all this, work has been absolutely crazy.  Not bad-crazy by any stretch, just super busy.  Everyone is trying to get sites I’m working on done before the Thanksgiving holiday, and its putting a pretty good crunch on me.

To be perfectly honest, I’m kinda surprised I’m still fully functional.  This does sort of resemble my previous life except for a few crucial differences.  a.) Before, this sort of schedule would go on for weeks or months at a time.  b.) Also, back then, most of the events we’re not ‘my’ things… All of this stuff I’ve been doing has been stuff I wanted to do.  Not events to which I was committed and had no say at all, but was still expected to attend and have my game face on.  That makes a big difference.  c.) Top that all off with the fact that I really like my job now, and the whole world has changed.

So, yes, some things have suffered.  The blog for one.  Dad, your website for two.  I ain’t seen Georgie or Hillman in weeks.  There’s been a bunch of movies I’ve wanted to see, and my TV sports watching has fallen off dramatically.

At least, with ye olde birthday coming up, I should be able to catch up with just about everyone then.  For anyone that hasn’t heard, I’m heading to Busters on Broadway on my birthday (6:30pm, Saturday the 24th) for finger steaks and beers.  Anyone and everyone are welcome to stop by, even if only to have a drink and laugh at me for getting old.

And if you think I’m not looking forward to a most relaxing Thanksgiving, hanging out at the parents, watching football, drink in hand, before gorging myself on mom’s excellent dinner, you’re crazy.

Stay tuned.  Maybe I’ll get a few spare seconds to write some more.  No guarantees.

There are guys in the world that I am amazed by. I love their work, their personalities, everything. Jess calls them “Man Crushes” (click for Urban Dictionary definitions). Now, before you go getting the wrong ideas, let me make one thing perfectly clear… this does NOT mean I love these men in a unnatural sense. Absolutely not. By definition, “Man Crush” means if you could sit in a bar and have beers with a guy and shoot the shit for 4 hours, that would be a great time. All of these guys have personalties such that if they were normal guys who lived around me, I would think that I would definitely be their friends.

Without further ado, here are my man crushes.

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