Monday, November 24, 2008.

It was quite the unique day for Kellen Moore. The Boise State freshman passed for 414 yards, the seventh-most in Bronco history, and his team clinched the outright WAC championship with a 41-34 win at Nevada. However, Moore had to overcome the worst 15 minutes of his young college career. In the third quarter in Reno, he was 5-of-12 with three interceptions, two of them returned for touchdowns by the Wolf Pack. It doesn't get much tougher than that. But Moore's body of work for the day made the difference, as in the other three quarters he was 24-of-36 for 357 yards and three touchdowns with no picks. Hard to believe it's only the seventh 400-yard game ever at BSU. By the way, Moore's 3,051 yards for the season are now fourth on the Broncos' all-time list.

On the other side of the ball, BSU defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox centered his scheme around what he called "the quarterback guy," and for the bulk of the day it worked. He said Doug Martin hadn't spent enough time on defense to act as a "spy" linebacker against a player the caliber of Nevada QB Colin Kaepernick, so Wilcox designed "quarterback guys" to track Kaepernick out of different alignments, mixing them up to confuse the Wolf Pack offense. It was mostly safeties Ellis Powers, Jeron Johnson and George Iloka filling that bill, with Powers and Iloka recording tackles-for-loss on the Nevada star. The net result was 144 yards rushing by the Pack, 181 yards below their FBS-leading season average.

The Broncos knew the game plan would sometimes hang their secondary out to dry, especially when dropping guys like defensive ends Ryan Winterswyk and Byron Hout into pass coverage. But pass defense is where BSU's bread has been buttered all season, and save for a couple explosion plays it was solid. The Broncos forced Kaepernick to throw an uncharacteristic 50 times, and he completed only 19, averaging 4½ yards an attempt. Against a better passer it might not have worked, but BSU knew what it was working with. With the Nevada defense scoring 14 points on picks, the Pack generated only 20 points of offense versus BSU.

As expected, there was no trophy celebration with Boise State's clinching of the outright WAC championship on the Mackay Stadium turf Saturday. Coach Chris Petersen wants to keep the Broncos hungry for Fresno State this Friday. They have their sixth WAC title in eight years (and eighth conference title in 10 years including the Big West), but the goal is to log BSU's fifth undefeated WAC season as well.

Utah's 48-24 spanking of BYU Saturday leaves BSU out in the BCS Bowl hinterlands. The Utes will get the one spot that goes to a worthy non-BCS team, with Ohio State in line to get the last at-large spot for the first week of January. A Bronco fan in the Salt Lake Airport yesterday was approached by a person decked out in BYU gear who said, "Sorry, dude." Maybe there's still some wheelin' and dealin' in the WAC back room that could place the Broncos in an attractive non-BCS bowl matchup outside Boise, like the Poinsettia Bowl, whether they're a 12-0 or 11-1 team. But if BSU--still ranked ninth yesterday in the BCS Standings and all the major polls--finishes undefeated this week, you know it'll be the middle of the debate over the fairness of the BCS system.

This trip to Nevada wasn't like the previous three by Boise State, when its fans took over Mackay Stadium and made it a home field. Not that BSU faithful didn't make a lot of noise (Petersen said last night on KTVB, "I mean it when I say we couldn't have done it without you"), but Reno folks wanted their stadium back. It was probably the best atmosphere in that place since some unnamed Wolf Pack-UNLV game early this century. There were about 7,000 Boise State fans in attendance, but this time 20,000 Pack rooters turned out to try to offset them. Call it a draw.

The effort orange-clad people make to attend this game is impressive. Take Tom DeGroot, for example. He was headed down the desert Saturday morning when the transmission gave out in his F-350 truck in Orovada. DeGroot hitchhiked to Winnemucca and found a used car lot, and he bought a vehicle on the spot, two hours before kickoff. Then he drove the rest of the way to Reno and somehow (gee, I don't know how) made it in time for the Broncos' first possession.

Idaho's season finale at Hawaii started brilliantly, with a crisp 74-yard opening drive capped by a Nathan Enderle-to-Peter Bjorvik touchdown pass. But it ended that way so many Vandal games have this season, with a 49-17 loss at Aloha Stadium. Idaho finishes 2-10. Meanwhile, the WAC has three locks for bowls now after Fresno State got past San Jose State 24-10 Friday night and Louisiana Tech edged New Mexico State 35-31 Saturday. Both sets of Bulldogs grabbed win No. 7. Hawaii will likely join them this week, as the Warriors host Washington State. Nevada hopes to become a fifth WAC team with seven wins--the Wolf Pack would then pray that Boise State goes bowling somewhere else to create one more postseason berth for the conference.

The psyche of the Boise State men's basketball team may have been a little fragile after the 30-point pounding it took at Siena a week ago, and that may have been in the underbelly of the Broncos' inability to beat Idaho State in regulation Saturday night. It took until the second overtime before BSU could finish, but it did in a 92-84 win at Taco Bell Arena. After his 25-point, 14-rebound effort against the Bengals, Mark Sanchez leads the WAC in scoring at an even 20 points per game. The Broncos are right back at it tonight, hosting Montana State, a team that lost by only nine points at home to Nevada in the season opener.

The Idaho Steelheads are still trying to figure out which team they are. The Steelheads would prefer to be the one that beat Stockton Saturday night, 3-1, behind efficient offense and workmanlike defense. The Steelies seek to shove aside that other version of themselves, the one that absorbed a 7-3 shellacking at the hands of the Thunder Friday night. Stockton put that one away early with three goals in the first 13½ minutes. The Steelheads go to Fresno Friday night.

This Day In Sports...November 24, 1953:

Walter Alston signs a one-year contract to manage the Brooklyn Dodgers, the first of 23 consecutive one-year contracts Alston would sign. Former manager Charlie Dressen was fired despite winning the National League pennant in '53--because he asked for a multi-year contract. Alston would lead the Dodgers to seven World Series in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, winning four of them.

(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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