I’ve never heard of a Boise State “Inferno Day” during summer conditioning, but the world has changed. Last Thursday, the Broncos staff cranked up the heat in the Caven-Williams indoor facility and made it as humid as possible, the first prep for the season opener at South Florida in Tampa. It was a sticky, stifling sweatbox. That has only been a fall camp tactic in the past, including last year when the Broncos were getting ready for Georgia Southern. Not only did they get a June inferno, they still had to go out Friday morning and run the decks at Albertsons Stadium.
Meanwhile, player-run practices are still a thing, but now they’re in tandem with what are called Countable Athletic Related Activities (CARAs) throughout the summer. Football and basketball are allowed to have eight weeks of them, and coaches are allowed to be present for those. One of the key goals of PRPs every summer is the connection between quarterbacks and receivers. That hasn’t changed. Maddux Madsen, for example, is drilling diligently with guys like former basketball player Kobe Young.
A SOON-TO-BE IDAHO RECRUIT
We won’t be calling new Boise State commit Rasean Jones a local recruit at the outset, but the wide receiver will soon be considered such. Jones is from Baker City, just two hours up I-84, and he chose the Broncos over offers from Oregon State, Washington State and Colorado State. Not only that, Sports Illustrated reports that Jones is going to play his senior season in the Treasure Valley at Rocky Mountain. Jones is 6-2, 200 pounds, and did everything at Baker High, from wideout to wildcat quarterback to defensive back to kick returner. SI notes that his junior season was cut short with the Bulldogs due to injury, but he still amassed 53 receptions for 872 yards with 15 total touchdowns in only five games. Jones is also a track standout, having run a 10.84 seconds in the 100 meters.
BOTH SIDES LIKED WHAT THEY SAW
With the end of Boise State’s annual high school football camp came a wave of scholarship offers—more than I’ve ever seen in such a short period of time. And with that came a wave commits, including several we hadn’t talked about. There’s Paz St. John, a defensive lineman from Peoria, AZ, Beckham Hofland, a tight end from Los Alamitos, CA, Duece Alailefaleula, a D-lineman from Anchorage, AK, and Romeo Carter, a wideout from San Diego. And last but not least, tight end-slash-wide receiver Ryan Brekke from Owyhee High. Brekke is the son of Jim Brekke, a tight end for the Broncos from 1995-98. Jim was a good one—as a senior he passed the torch to future NFL-er Jeb Putzier. Boise State now has 15 commits for the 2026 recruiting class, even with the decommit late last week of quarterback Bryson Beaver.
DUCK CALL
Cause and effect. Beaver, the QB from Murietta, CA, who committed to Boise State in late April, just received an offer from Oregon. Beaver hasn’t gone with the Ducks yet, but he has indeed decommitted from the Broncos. He tweeted that early last week he spoke with coach Spencer Danielson and made the decision to reopen his recruiting. “This decision was a tremendously difficult one, because of how good the Boise State family has been to us,” Beaver said. When Beaver was first invited to the Elite 11 Quarterback Finals this week in Los Angeles, I honestly wondered if the Broncos would still have a commitment from him by the time that rolled around. Boise State has already covered its bases by offering (and getting a verbal three weeks ago from) QB Tradon Bessinger of Kaysville, UT.
ASHTON JEANTY, TRUE TO FORM
The Las Vegas Raiders mandatory minicamp ended last Thursday, and reviews are what you’d expect for Ashton Jeanty. The Boise State great was praised first and foremost for being a quick learner. “He’s such a coachable guy that you can do a lot of things with him,” offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said. “I think he can play in the slot (and) in the backfield.” Let’s just say that not every No. 6 overall draft pick is called coachable. That’s huge. Then again, it comes back to the basics of Jeanty’s genius. Fellow Raiders running back Raheem Mostert harkens back to watching Jeanty last season with Boise State. “The biggest thing that impressed me the most was that he was able to break and take it another 60 yards,” Mostert said. “That’s something that’s not necessarily going on out there in the world right now.”
A LONE STAR PRESENCE?
All signs are pointing to Texas State as the eighth football-playing member of the new Pac-12. The only question in conjunction with that—would the conference also add UTSA as a travel partner? If it’s the Bobcats only, there would be only seven league games unless the Pac-12 designates one home-and-home series per school. (Oregon State and Washington State are doing that this year, so there would be a precedent of sorts.) Let’s say UTSA is also brought aboard. That would represent one more slice of the media rights pie—not ideal from a revenue standpoint. This assumes the UNLV idea is off the table, which is the consensus right now. If the Rebels can overcome a debt-ridden athletic department and a loss of relevance in the Las Vegas market to realize their Big 12 dreams, more power to ‘em.
BOISE OPEN A TURNING POINT FOR SPAUN
There’s an Albertsons Boise Open tie-in to J.J. Spaun’s incredible story as U.S. Open champion. And it’s not just “he played here once.” Spaun, a former walk-on at San Diego State, lost his PGA Tour card during the 2020-21 season and needed a second-place finish at the 2021 Boise Open during the Korn Ferry Tour Finals to regain his playing privileges on the big circuit. The following April, Spaun won the Valero Texas Open. And you know what? That is his only PGA victory outside the U.S. Open on Sunday, capped by the breathtaking 64-foot putt to clinch it.
THE GEM STATE PRODUCES
The two Gem State highlights at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships were national championships from Borah High’s Nathan Green and Kimberly’s Peyton Bair. Green won his second NCAA title in the 1,500-meters for Washington, and Bair was tops in the decathlon, competing for Mississippi State. Also representing Idaho for the first time at nationals was Boise State’s Landon Helms from Emmett. Helms finished ninth in the decathlon, earning second-team All-American honors with a personal best of 7,696 points. He was one spot away from first-team status.
SEPTEMBER ICE
Idaho Central Arena has had a good sprinkling of NHL exhibition games over the years, and the Utah Mammoth will add to it with a contest against the L.A. Kings on September 30. Utah was considered an expansion team this past season even though it’s a new iteration of the old Arizona Coyotes. The team had a decent campaign, going 38-31-13 and finishing sixth among eight teams in the NHL’s Central Division. After playing their inaugural season as the Utah Hockey Club, the organization unveiled the Mammoth mascot in early May.
HAWKS CAN GET ON A ROLL
It’s kind of like playing the Colorado Rockies in the majors this year. The Boise Hawks have hopped up to Montana to face the Great Falls Voyagers, who went into this six-game series with a 3-21 record. Make that 3-22, as the Hawks pounced on them Tuesday night with a 15-8 rout. Third baseman Taylor Darden went 4-for-6 with four RBI, upping his season average to .430. Boise is now 14-11 and in sixth-place in the 12-team Pioneer League.
JAY TUST
Jay Tust joined KTVB Sports at an exciting time—the summer of 2011, when Boise State was coming off its second Fiesta Bowl victory and was looking forward to Kellen Moore’s senior year. Tust, not far removed from baseball and broadcasting at Washington State, came to Boise from a stint at KLEW in Lewiston. Immediately, he wanted to learn, so Mark Johnson and I took him out to lunch and gave him a “Broncos 101” cram course. Safe to say that’s all Jay needed. Before too long he was coming up with Boise State stats that the Scott Slant could only dream of. Tust is as hard a worker as I’ve ever seen, and just as local sports in the Treasure Valley have been the beneficiaries, now Boise State will be exclusively, as Jay joins the university to head up the Broncos’ expansion of their video and studio efforts. You da man, Jay!
This Day In Sports…brought to you by BBSI BOISE…payroll, process and prosperity for your business.
June 18, 2010, 15 years ago today: After five seasons, 217 wins, two Kelly Cup Finals appearances and one ECHL championship, Derek Laxdal resigns as head coach of the Idaho Steelheads to take the reins of the Western Hockey League’s Edmonton Oil Kings. Laxdal notched 40-win seasons in each of his five years in Boise. Laxdal’s team had a league-best record of 48-17-7 during his final campaign, earning him ECHL Coach of the Year honors (the Steelies fell to Cincinnati in the Kelly Cup Finals). He later served a three-year stint as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Dallas Stars and is currently head coach of the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the AHL affiliate of the Seattle Kraken.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
