Wednesday, November 7, 2007.

Rewind back to spring football. Among the 22 departed seniors off Boise State’s Fiesta Bowl championship team was kicker Anthony Montgomery, who rebounded in 2006 from an average junior season to make an indelible mark. To be sure, there was some nervousness on the blue turf, as the heir apparent appeared to be an untested redshirt freshman, Kyle Brotzman. The BSU staff brought in JC transfer Brock Jaramillo during the summer for competition’s sake. It must have worked, because suddenly Brotzman is one of 20 semi-finalists for the Lou Groza Award that goes to the nation’s best kicker.

The Meridian High grad has been perfect on 44 extra points and has hit 11 of 12 field goal attempts. Included are two field goals and one point-after that would have lost the Nevada game had they been missed. Brotzman’s only missed three-pointer of the season was on a 51-yard try that was blocked at Washington. He’s one of only three freshmen on the list, and he joins a couple other esteemed BSU kickers at this level. Former Bronco Tyler Jones was a finalist for the Lou Groza Award in 2004 and attended the awards ceremony in Orlando. BSU’s Nick Calaycay was a semi-finalist in 2000.

Brotzman is more concerned with long snappers than awards right now. The sprained ankle suffered by Dallas Dobbs against San Jose State last Saturday casts a shadow over the former. Dobbs has been invaluable as the Broncos’ long snapper all season, making life a lot easier for Brotzman and punter Brad Elkin. If Dobbs can’t go at linebacker this week at Utah State, David Shields gets his old starting spot back against the Aggies. There’s a possibility Dobbs could still long-snap even if he’s deemed not ready at ‘backer. But if he’s out altogether, that moves Jeff Lowe into that key special teams spot. Lowe is a senior who walked on as a defensive end/long snapper this year from College of the Siskiyous.

Here’s your water cooler fodder du jour. From his Forde’s Dash column at ESPN.com comes “Pat Forde’s Best And Worst, By Record”. Says Forde: “Worst one-loss team: Boise State. Loses coin flip with UConn. (The Dash still believes that the nation's worst one-loss team is better than the nation's worst undefeated team; it'll be decided in Honolulu Thanksgiving weekend.) Worst nine-loss team: Idaho and Utah State will settle this on the field in Moscow on Nov. 24. Be there. Or not. (Florida International is absolved for having scheduled Penn State, Maryland, Miami and Kansas in non-conference play.) And we pull one more from Forde: “Best five-loss team: Colorado. The Buffaloes beat a top-five team (Oklahoma) and have played a big-time schedule (Arizona State and Florida State non-conference).”

Any thoughts of Fresno State, already a 17-point underdog, upsetting undefeated Hawaii Saturday at Aloha Stadium have taken a hit via the Bulldog injury list. Tailback Ryan Mathews is questionable after suffering a sprained ankle in Fresno State’s win over Utah State last Saturday, and tight end Bear Pascoe is considered day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. If Mathews and Pascoe can’t play against the Warriors, that takes away the Bulldogs’ top rusher and receiver. It was hard enough to imagine the Fresno State offense having enough firepower to keep pace with Colt Brennan and company to begin with.

Over the next week, one of Boise State basketball’s key issues picks up where it left off last March. The Broncos’ substandard attendance will be under a lot of scrutiny this season, and what happens next Tuesday will tell us a lot. Opening Night is Friday against Utah Valley State, and expectations would be in the typical 4,000 area for that. The two-dollar ticket promotion will pump that number up a bit, as will the doubleheader aspect (the BSU women open at 6:15 versus Loyola-Marymount).

But Tuesday brings in Washington State. The fact that the Cougars come out of the Pac-10 is almost beside the point. This is a Top 10 team in the Coaches Poll, one picked to finish second in the Pac-10 behind UCLA. Wazzu’s power ranking in Sports Illustrated is No. 8. The attendance number in Taco Bell Arena will be under the microscope. If BSU really aspires to bigger things someday, as in conference affiliation, its fans need to show they don’t go only to football games.

Other basketball notes: former Boise State standout Jermaine Blackburn, who left the Idaho Stampede in mid-March for personal reasons, has resurfaced in the CBA with the Yakama (not Yakima) Sun Kings. Outside of Yakima and the Albany Patroons, the CBA bears no resemblance to the league of two years ago, having spread all over the country with 10 teams in small gyms, falling a notch in talent. Blackburn played in 36 games for the Stampede last season and started 20, averaging 7½ points a game and shooting 53 percent from the field. Meanwhile, NNU was trampled last night in an exhibition game at Utah, falling 88-43. Next stop for the Crusaders is the United Heritage Classic next Tuesday in the Idaho Center against the College of Idaho.

The Idaho Steelheads have outscored their opponents 10-4 in the second period so far this season. Now, for that third period. The Steelheads will go to work on that tonight when they open a three-game series against Alaska. The Steelheads have lost a third period lead in three of their last five outings, going winless in those games. They’ve also cooled considerably on the power play, denied on their last 11 opportunities. Now they face the team they stunned in the ECHL National Conference Finals last spring. The Aces had finished the regular season with the league’s second-best record (49-16-7), but were dispatched by Idaho four games-to-one.

It’s fun following 2004 Kelly Cup MVP Dan Ellis these days. The former Steelheads goalie has been called upon often by the Nashville Predators as frontline netminder Chris Mason struggles. Ellis was first star of the game in a 4-1 victory over Edmonton last Friday night, stopping 30 of 31 shots to up his record to 4-0. He' has two shutouts in the last four games and has a sparkling 1.35 goals-against average and a 95.2 save percentage. In the middle of the 2004 season, Ellis became the only Steelheads player to have played in an NHL game in the same season as he played for the Steelies. We’ll see what tonight brings; Nashville plays on the road at Detroit.

This Day In Sports…November 7, 1959:

Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain play against each other for the first time as the Celtics beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 115-106, at Boston Garden. The numbers? Chamberlain had 30 points and 30 rebounds—Russell scored 22 points and pulled down 35 boards. It’s still probably the greatest man-to-man rivalry in the history of pro basketball.

(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.)

---

---