Tuesday, October 23, 2007.

If you can’t call Jeremy Avery “Peanut”, call him B.J. Rhode. Avery is, in effect, playing the role of Rhode during the Ian-less stretch for the Boise State offense. This is the first time BSU’s had an injury to a featured star since Ryan Dinwiddie broke his ankle against Arkansas in 2002. Rhode came on to fill in for Dinwiddie, starting five games, and the Broncos won all five. But BSU had the advantage that year of a bevy of seniors to shore up the attack, including tailback Brock Forsey and receivers Jay Swillie, Lou Fanucchi and Billy Wingfield. Avery is a redshirt freshman coming in for a guy who’s become a national figure—and a target of every defense he faces.

Furthermore, the Broncos were otherwise injury-free during that stretch in 2002. Now they’re also missing wide receiver Vinny Perretta, who has a few pages of the BSU playbook stuck under his surgically-repaired shoulder. And just when redshirt freshman Jeron Johnson had become a major force in the secondary, he was struck with a hamstring pull that has kept him out three games. Coaches were hopeful Johnson could go at Louisiana Tech, but saw in pre-game warmups that he couldn’t. Beyond that, there are plenty of horses playing in some pain.

The main Johnson, Ian, desperately wants to go to the Fresno State game—but not to play, only because doctors won’t let him test that bruised kidney yet. Chris Petersen says if other injuries open up a seat on the plane, Ian could conceivably go be a cheerleader of sorts on the sidelines. How ironic, considering Chrissy and all. That’s not a likely scenario, though. Johnson would count against BSU’s 64-player travel limit. His targeted return remains the San Jose State game next week at Bronco Stadium.

First things first, of course, but it’s apparent that a win over Fresno State Friday night would propel Boise State back into the Top 25 after a seven-week absence, as the Broncos sit 26th in the Coaches Poll and 27th on the AP list. That would get the strength-of-schedule debate going again. BSU’s only loss was 24-10 in week No. 2 at Washington, who hasn’t helped the argument by losing five straight games since then. And Wyoming has hit the skids a bit—the Cowboys are now 4-3 after losses to New Mexico and Air Force. On the other side of the coin: Oklahoma got a mulligan for its loss at Colorado, and USC is getting a couple for its shocking upset at the hands of Stanford and its close call against Arizona. The downright craziness of college football in 2007 may yet give one to Boise State for the Washington game.

Fresno State coach Pat Hill is trying to keep his players on an even keel this week, because they realize the enormity of Friday night’s ESPN2 clash. Hill loves weeks like this. "Boise State is a good football team," he told the Fresno Bee. "It'll be great for our community. Great for our university and great for all the people who follow Fresno State football. But it's not about the hype. It's about the preparation here. And this team has to prepare and stay focused. It can't be about jumping around and talking about it. It's got to be about studying it and being prepared to play." The Broncos have won five out of six against Fresno State since joining the WAC in 2001, starting with the landmark nationally-televised upset over the eighth-ranked Bulldogs in Fresno that first year.

Fresno State has long been a special teams dynamo, and it has a little momentum along those lines, with punter Kyle Zimmerman being named WAC Player of the Week. Zimmerman averaged 49.8 yards on four punts in the 30-0 win over San Jose State last Saturday, downing two of them inside the Spartans’ 20-yard-line. Fresno State is dangerous on returns; A.J. Jefferson had a back-breaking 61-yard return of the second-half kickoff against San Jose State. And the Bulldogs’ only touchdown until late in the third quarter last year in Bronco Stadium was a 93-yard kickoff runback by Chastin West.

Nevada had a close call at Utah State last Saturday, escaping 31-28 in Logan. But Luke Lippincott wasn’t to blame for any Wolf Pack discomfort. Lippincott, six days after his 177-yard night at Boise State, ripped off a career-high 241 yards and two touchdowns on the ground to earn WAC Offensive Player of the Week honors. He carried the ball 36 times, 10 of them on one decisive third quarter drive that netted him 73 yards. Lippincott’s an inspired guy, telling the Reno Gazette-Journal that after the quadruple-overtime loss to the Broncos, "We all got together and made a pact to run the table. We want to make it to a bowl game and have a winning season." Next up for the Pack is Idaho this Saturday in Mackay Stadium.

So whatever happened to old Idaho Steelheads nemesis Steve Martinson, the former head coach of the San Diego Gulls? He’s back in the same league as the Steelheads, but they wouldn’t see him unless both they and he make the Kelly Cup Finals. Martinson, who had a spirited rivalry going with former Steelies coach John Olver, is the head coach for the expansion Elmira Jackals. Martinson coached Elmira in the United Hockey League last season, winning the championship before that circuit ceased operations. He led San Diego to the ECHL’s best record four seasons ago when the Gulls, Steelheads, and the rest of the old WCHL was absorbed by the league. Before that, his San Diego club topped Olver and the Steelies in one of the great WCHL Taylor Cup Finals, four games-to-three in 2001.

There’s going to be an innocent little family tennis match sometime today at Boise State’s Appleton Center. It’ll be Luke Shields against his brother Clancy, presumably for apartment bragging rights. But there’s more to it than that. Luke and Clancy both made it to the finals of the ITA Mountain Region finals over the weekend in Las Vegas. BSU coach Greg Patton doesn’t like his players to face each other in tournaments, especially the Shields brothers, since they’re so competitive. So Clancy was declared regional champion, and they packed and came home. But the ITA told Patton neither player would be able to go to the ITA Indoor Nationals at Ohio State next week if they didn’t finish the deal (they both qualified). So it’s brother against brother, Bronco against Bronco, mano a mano.

This Day In Sports…October 23, 1988:

Dan Marino has the biggest day of his NFL career, but it comes in a loss for the Miami Dolphins. When the New York Jets went up 30-10 at halftime, the Dolphins were forced to go to the air. Marino threw for 521 yards—second in NFL history at the time to Norm Van Brocklin’s 554 yards in 1951—and three touchdowns. But Marino was also picked off five times in a 44-30 Miami loss.

(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 1350 KTIK/The Ticket. He also handles color commentary on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football.)

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