Tuesday, November 28, 2006.

I can’t think of a more worthy candidate for WAC Coach of the Year honors than Boise State’s Chris Petersen. He becomes only the second coach since 1900 to put together a 12-0 season in his first year, engineers a fifth straight WAC championship, and appears to be universally respected by his peers (Nevada’s Chris Ault was very classy at midfield after Saturday’s win over the Wolf Pack). But Petersen has company from the WAC among the nine finalists for the Eddie Robinson Award that goes to the national coach of the year. Joining him on the list is Hawaii’s June Jones, whose Warriors have a nine-game winning streak since losing at Bronco Stadium in late September.

The other finalists are former BSU coach Houston Nutt of Arkansas, Rutgers' Greg Schiano, Wake Forest's Jim Grobe, Houston's Art Briles, Michigan's Lloyd Carr, BYU's Bronco Mendenhall, and Oklahoma's Bob Stoops. Ironically, the award is presented in conjunction with the Fiesta Bowl, where Petersen and Stoops may both be present on New Year’s Day.

One Boise State senior spoiled Jeff Rowe’s Senior Day more than any other Saturday, and he’s the WAC Defensive Player of the Week. Andrew Browning sacked Nevada’s star quarterback three times and had another tackle-for-loss in the 38-7 rout in Reno. Browning, who’s on the Outland Award watch list this year, thus picks up his very first conference player of the week honor in the final regular season game of his career after leading the BSU defense to its fourth sub 200-yard effort of 2006. It’s the Broncos’ 12th WAC Player of the Week award this season—interestingly enough, BSU captured only four of those last season.

Nothing’s official with the Fiesta Bowl until Sunday at 6PM, when the BCS Selection Show will unveil the matchups on Fox. But 99 percent is a pretty safe number to throw out there when handicapping BSU’s chances of going to Glendale. At any rate, when the announcement is made, the Broncos want to share it. They’re opening up Taco Bell Arena at 5PM Sunday for a BCS Selection Party with the team and coaches. There’ll be a pep rally after the selection show is shown on the big screen, with speeches from Chris Petersen and the Broncos’ senior captains.

Petersen talked with former BSU coach Dirk Koetter Sunday after the latter was fired by Arizona State. Petersen says Koetter was upbeat as the conversation turned to one of Dirk’s favorite subject, the Broncos. Koetter mentioned a Phoenix newspaper article questioning BSU’s ability to travel like a BCS bowl team. Petersen says Koetter laughed, knowing what the scene was like in Reno last week. Not going to be a problem, it appears. The Broncos are allotted 17,500 Fiesta Bowl tickets, which are their responsibility to sell. If activity at travel agencies is any indication, BSU could actually approach that number. Hey, could Dirk be among them?

It’s official: Jake Plummer has been replaced as Denver’s starting quarterback by Jay Cutler, the first round draft pick out of Vanderbilt. Cutler hasn’t taken a snap since his sterling preseason performance, so you don’t know if he’ll flame out this Sunday against the Seahawks and open the door for Jake’s return. But Plummer’s predicament comes from his touchdown-to-interception ratio this year, which reads more like his Arizona Cardinals days: 11 TDs versus 12 picks. The Capital High grad has never been pulled from the starting lineup save for injury during his 10-year NFL career. As a regular season starter in Denver, Plummer is 39-15.

Daryn Colledge was as close to North Pole, Alaska, as he can get in the NFL last night, both geographically and climatologically, as Green Bay fell to the Seahawks 34-24 in Monday Night Football. The former Boise State star didn’t figure on feeling so much at home at Qwest Field—it was snowing like the Alaskan tundra in Seattle during the first half. Colledge and his offensive line colleagues allowed two sacks of Brett Favre, who started well but cooled considerably with three interceptions. The Packers ran off only 55 offensive plays in the game.

The Idaho Stampede is feeling its way after two games in the NBA D-League. After being swept on opening weekend by Colorado, the Stampede tries to bounce back tonight in Qwest Arena against the defending NBDL champions, the Albuquerque Thunder, coached by former Lakers star Michael Cooper. Idaho coach Bryan Gates will get a good early-season barometer from this one, as the Thunder is coming off a 114-69 annihilation of Anaheim Saturday. And Albuquerque’s season opener the night before was only slightly less decisive—a 101-77 rout of Austin.

Boise State’s non-conference basketball schedule is slowly upgrading—it’s not Big Sky-dominated like it was a year ago. It’s more of a Mountain West flavor this season, and the most attractive home game of the pre-WAC stretch is set for tomorrow night against BYU. At yesterday’s BAA luncheon, otherwise a coronation of the football team, athletic director Gene Bleymaier implored fans to come out for tomorrow night’s game, pointing to Saturday’s crowd in Reno as proof of what a difference an electrified crowd can make. That’s true—if those 6,000 happened into Taco Bell Arena, it could help fuel an upset of the Cougars. Unfortunately, the Bronco hoops squad is stuck in a chicken-and-egg situation with fans. It’s gotta win.

Blowouts-aren’t-us as far as the Idaho Steelheads go this year. The Steelheads have played six consecutive one-goal games, going 3-2-1 over the stretch. They started out red-hot in the close ones, winning five of six. The Steelies may need to go to the wire in the three games coming up against Las Vegas this week in Qwest Arena, as the Wranglers have won four straight on the road. Let’s throw in one of those “if the season ended today” routines: both teams are in first place in their respective divisions, so call it a November preview of the ECHL National Conference Finals next spring. If you want.

This Day In Sports…November 28, 1992:

One week after assembling what was then the biggest margin of victory in the Bronco-Vandal series, a 62-16 victory in Boise, Idaho falls to McNeese State 23-20 in the first round of the Division I-AA Playoffs in the Kibbie Dome. It marked the fifth time in eight trips to the postseason that Idaho lost the week following a victory over Boise State. John L. Smith and the Vandals would make the I-AA semi-finals the next season.

(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment Sunday nights at 10:30PM on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on ESPN Radio 1350 KTIK.)

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