Monday, August 18, 2008.

The battle is in the eyes of the beholder. And the eyes that count in the contest between Bush Hamdan and Kellen Moore for Boise State's starting quarterback job are those of the coaching staff. Some of the fans at the Broncos' final public scrimmage Saturday night noticed that Hamdan was working primarily against the first-team defense, and Moore mostly against the two's. That makes Hamdan's numbers, 9-for-14 for 214 yards and three touchdowns with one interception, all the more impressive. Others noticed Moore's propensity to connect on timing routes, his poise and lack of hesitation, as key ingredients. Moore was 13-of-21 for 159 yards and a TD with one pick.

What the coaches have to evaluate is how each player did against the competition he faced. The defense was missing three starters, Kyle Wilson, Jeron Johnson and Joe Bozikovich, and two key reserves, Dallas Dobbs and Ellis Powers. One of Hamdan's TDs came when he caught the defense in a blitz and found a wide-open Austin Pettis for a 68-yard score. Was it a great read by Bush or a blown assignment on the other side? Moore's touchdown pass was the throw of the night, a fade down the right sideline to Jeremy Childs that went for 49 yards. It's looking like BSU will wait until after this Friday's final fall scrimmage to name that starter.

Reno and Boise are similar in size but dissimilar in culture. Especially football culture. Attendance at the final public scrimmages for Nevada and Boise State were telling of where each "nation" is right now. The Reno Gazette-Journal estimated the Wolf Pack's crowd at 250, while at Bronco Stadium Saturday evening, the east side lower deck was virtually full, with a lot of fans watching from the shaded concourse. I conservatively put the BSU count at 6,500.

With little fanfare out of Boise State, the Broncos' 2009 schedule was released Friday, and it contained a nice little surprise--the road game at Tulsa next October. Since leaving the WAC, the Golden Hurricane have become a mid-major power in Conference USA, witness their 63-7 win over Bowling Green in the GMAC Bowl last season. It's the front end of a home-and-home series between BSU and Tulsa. With a road game at Hawaii, the Broncos are allowed to play 13 games in 2009, and they will, starting with the landmark home game against Oregon. They do have two games against MAC schools, though (at Toledo and home versus Miami of Ohio) and another is versus a Division I-AA school (UC Davis). On the other hand, that allows BSU to have seven home games next year, and every nickel and dime count these days.

The Broncos have a higher hill to climb in the polls this year, as they were ranked 36th in the preseason AP Poll Friday (when you count down through those "also receiving votes"). Fresno State is in good position for a BCS run provided the Bulldogs can handle their schedule. They're bubbling under the Top 25 at No. 27. But Fresno State has nothing' on BYU. For the Cougars, It's "just win, baby." BYU has a huge head start on a possible BCS charge, ranked 16th on the preseason list.

After suffering a knife-through-butter experience in scrimmage No. 1 last Tuesday, Idaho's defense turned things around Saturday in the Vandals second scrimmage of fall camp. The most encouraging stat was against the run, with the offense managing just 65 yards on 43 carries. The Vandal "O" was again missing tailback Deonte Jackson and his sore back. There are lots of fingers crossed up north--getting Jackson back on the field in time for the opener at Arizona a week from Saturday is going to be important.

Try as he might, Derek Schouman can't avoid the injury bug in Buffalo. The former Boise State star was hit by a teammate while running downfield to cover a kickoff in the Bills' 24-21 exhibition win over Pittsburgh Saturday night and suffered a strained left knee. Schouman had been competing for Buffalo's starting tight end job, but the Bills say it'll be several weeks before he'll return. The Eagle High grad, a seventh-round draft pick in 2007, saw his rookie year end early last season when he injured his calf in mid-November.

The Boise Hawks have dropped two of the first three games in their five-game series at Vancouver, making it a little more difficult to keep Spokane in their sights. Yesterday the Hawks rallied with two in the eighth inning and one in the ninth to tie the game at 3-3, but the Canadians won it on a walk-off double by Dustin Coleman in the bottom of the ninth. The Hawks are still six games behind the Indians in the Northwest League East Division, but there are just 17 games left in the season now. After two more games in Vancouver, the Hawks go to Spokane Wednesday for a pivotal three-game series.

With Kristin Armstrong's wild ride in the books, including her victory celebration with a couple thousand of her closest friends in Downtown Boise Saturday, we now check in on Nick Symmonds. The Bishop Kelly grad has been training and resting in Beijing for his first race in the men's 800 meters on Wednesday. Before he left the U.S., Symmonds said on his blog that he had "one of the best speed-endurance sessions of my life." He was blown away by all the Olympic gear he received, including the suit he was issued for the Opening Ceremonies. But Symmonds said he was "anxious for the day that I swap it for the USA singlet and shorts."

This Day In Sports...August 18, 1934:

The late Roberto Clemente is born. Clemente, inducted posthumously in 1996 into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame in Boise, was a Baseball Hall of Famer who collected exactly 3,000 hits in his major league career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. While still a marquee big leaguer, Clemente was killed in a plane crash while trying to help deliver supplies to victims of a Nicaraguan earthquake on New Year's Eve, 1972. Roberto Clemente would have been 70 years old today. Another World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Famer, former Olympic decathlete Rafer Johnson, turns 6x years old today.

(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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