Monday, September 29, 2008.

"Memo to everybody!" That's the message Boise State coach Chris Petersen had Friday for anyone who would listen after Thursday night's Oregon State toppling of USC. And that was before the weekend upset onslaught. Navy over Wake Forest? Ole Miss over Florida? Houston over East Carolina? Those last two have the most pertinence to the Broncos' game Wednesday night against Louisiana Tech, and not just because one involved former BSU coach Houston Nutt and the other ECU, conqueror of the Broncos last December in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl. Ole Miss and Houston were unheralded conference opponents going into the dens of heavy favorites. Petersen doesn't care if it's a cliché--it's one game at a time, y'all.

Not that it's in crisis mode, because last week the BSU offense just took what Oregon gave it. But the Ducks gave the Bronco rushing attack virtually nothing, and Wednesday night they want something out of it. The running game has gone from 230 yards against Idaho State to 160 versus Bowling Green and 38 at Oregon. The Broncos averaged just 1.1 yards per carry in Autzen Stadium. How different will it be versus La Tech? Maybe not a lot. The Bulldogs are allowing only 93 yards a game on the ground, and they're yielding 348 through the air. BSU would love to show off that much-ballyhooed depth at running back. And it may finally include Doug Martin, the redshirt freshman who is said to be healthy again and ready for his first carry as a Bronco.

You wouldn't think of Louisiana Tech as quarterback-challenged when it comes to Bronco Stadium with a signal-caller it inherited from Georgia Tech--and one who was once the fancy of Boise State. But Taylor Bennett is taking awhile to adjust to a new system. The guy who started the Roady's Humanitarian Bowl for the Yellowjackets on New Year's Eve has completed just 41 percent of his passes for 163 yards a game and has an abysmal pass efficiency rating of 82.8. Bennett departed Georgia Tech after Paul Johnson took over as coach. Normally he'd lose the next year of eligibility, in this case his senior year, but he got an NCAA waiver because he's a graduate student in business information, a curricula not offered at Georgia Tech.

As you probably know, Bennett was recruited by Petersen and BSU in late 2003. They first saw him at Stanford's high school combine, according to Petersen, and started pursuing him in St. Louis. In the process the Broncos discovered Bennett's teammate David Shields, then a running back, and they signed him and converted him to linebacker. Bennett committed to Boise State but changed his mind and went to Georgia Tech. Shields re-injured his shoulder in the loss at Washington last year and never fully recovered--he was forced to give up football during the offseason. Shields is now helping out around the football offices as he prepares to graduate in December.

Nothing like kickin' back, watching college football on TV Saturday, and seeing yourself jump two spots in both polls Sunday. Such was Boise State's world over the weekend, as the Broncos are now 17th in the AP poll and 18th on the Coaches' list. BSU benefitted from losses by Wisconsin, Wake Forest and Clemson. TCU dropped out of the Top 25 after its loss to Oklahoma, but there are still four non-BCS schools in the rankings, including Utah at No. 15 in both and Fresno State at 22nd in AP and 21st among coaches. And BYU is in the driver's seat for the automatic BCS bowl bid that would go to a "non-qualifying" conference. The Cougars are eighth on the AP list and seventh in the Coaches Poll.

Following the win over Idaho State three weeks ago, the general consensus was that Idaho was staring three winnable games in the face. Turns out they were losable as well, as the Vandals wrapped up a nightmarish schedule against non-conference FBS teams with a 45-17 rout at the hands of San Diego State Saturday night. The previously winless Aztecs rolled up 603 yards as Idaho lost its 20th straight game to FBS opponents. Vandal quarterback Nathan Enderle, with the help of dropped balls in stunningly vacant Qualcomm Stadium, was just 12-of-26 for 112 yards with two interceptions. Idaho is now 19-70 since the beginning of the 2001 season.

Chris Carr had a big special teams day Sunday, helping Tennessee remain undefeated in a 30-17 win over Minnesota. The Boise State alum returned three kickoffs for 104 yards, including a 52-yarder, and returned four punts for 55 yards in his inimitable go-for-broke style. The Titans made a good decision in luring Carr as a free agent from the Raiders--and Carr made a great decision getting the heck out of Oakland. Topping the list of things we'd like to ask Chris Carr: "What's it like to try to run with former East Carolina star Chris Johnson in practice?"

Is it just the end of the season, or the end of the road for Kristin Armstrong in competitive cycling? It's been a long, albeit successful, year for the Olympic gold medalist from Boise. She wrapped it up by finishing 39th in the road race Saturday at the World Cycling Championships in Varese, Italy. After a fifth-place finish last Wednesday in the time trial, her specialty, the road race had to be anticlimactic. Armstrong had been to the mountaintop, with a world championship in 2006 and gold in Beijing. Now she has time to mull over her next move.

This Day In Sports...September 29, 1954:

Willie Mays makes what is still the most famous catch in major league history in Game One of the 1954 World Series. The New York Giants centerfielder ran down a 440-foot drive by Cleveland's Vic Wertz in the spacious Polo Grounds, making an incredible over-the-shoulder catch on a dead run. The Giants swept the Indians in four games--the last time the Giants have won the World Series. On this day in 1957, the team played its last game at New York's Polo Grounds before moving to San Francisco 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 1350 KTIK/The Ticket. He also handles color commentary on KTVB's telecasts of Boise State football.)

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