By Chadd Cripe
ccripe@idahostatesman.com
The Boise State football team has picked up an oral commitment from a junior-college player who might be able to play the safety/linebacker hybrid position that has become a staple this year and turned senior Ellis Powers into an All-WAC first-teamer.
Safety Winston Venable (6-foot, 210 pounds) was an all-conference performer at Glendale (Ariz.) Community College. He also played cornerback, linebacker and punter.
“He is the best defensive player I’ve coached at Glendale,” said Glendale coach Mickey Bell, who has been with the team for 13 years.
Venable canceled trips to Colorado State and UTEP when he committed last week, Bell said.
Venable is from San Rafael, Calif. He will join the Broncos in January and has three years to play two seasons, Bell said.
Venable is the 17th commitment for the 2009 recruiting class confirmed by the Idaho Statesman.
•••
Boise State football coach Chris Petersen has been named one of 10 finalists for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award.
The other finalists are Mack Brown (Texas), Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern), Brady Hoke (Ball State), Urban Meyer (Florida), Joe Paterno (Penn State), Nick Saban (Alabama), Bob Stoops (Oklahoma), Jim Tressel (Ohio State) and Kyle Whittingham (Utah).
Petersen was selected in part based on fan voting. Fans also will have a say in the winner through online voting, beginning Friday at www.coachoftheyear.com.
Petersen is on the watch list for the Paul "Bear" Bryant College Coach of the Year award. He won that award in 2006.
Petersen is 35-3 in three seasons at Boise State.
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My vote
My vote would go to Whittingham, Petersen or Paterno. If push came to shove probably Paterno due to his age and everyone writing him off as a relic for years.
how
How on earth do you give a guy a trophy for his age??? Sorry, I give him a B- for sitting up in the Booth the whole year. Get out if you cant be on the field.
Uh, No Brainer...
Peterson, of course.... Did anyone expect this team to go undefeated??
Paterno gets to direct a prominent program in Penn St. and has been sitting in his cushy spot in the booth all year... What exactly has he accomplished that would deserve the award?
As for Whittingham, he's done a good job but considering the close wins this year, he's very lucky that his team is still undefeated. I wish them luck in the Sugar Bowl but they will lose by two touchdowns to the Crimson Tide.
We Should narrow the selections
First of all, take Stoops off this list. Next probably Meyer. We could probably get rid of saban as well. Maybe Mack Brown. Their combined salaries from their contracts could fix our roads in idaho. Do the math if you want to but between those four coaches we could fix all the roads in idaho(hundreds of millions of dollars). In fact Nick saban makes more than the entire athletic budget for boise state... Coach of the year? yeah right
Nick Saban.
I dont see how him making a lot of money disqualfies him from being COY. Sure he is a jerk and a liar, but you cannot deny the man is a great coach.
He's two years in and just had his team a few plays away from the NC game.
aside from coffee two of bamas biggest stars on offense are freshman. plus its not like he got the best QB in the world when he took the team over.
I'm not sure why Jim Tressel is a finalist? is it because his football team gets good TV ratings?
Well the point i would argue about saban
Is that in college football, where money and a seemingly infinite budget can get you almost anything you want. The best gear, equipment, and facilities. Not to mention, you have the ability to recruit anyone in the country because you have better scholarships and facilities for students. BSU campus offers jack squat compared to an Alabama campus. Why would the best high school player in the nation want to turn down a free ride at a much better university. In respect to recruiting ability, it is like they get a first round draft pick every year in prospective student atheletes.
I don't think it disqualifies him from being nominated, i just don't believe that is that major of an accomplishment.
Tressel
Well of course Tressel is on the list. HIS TEAM S IN A BCS GAME! (SAID WITH TONGUE IN CHEEK THROUGH CLENCHED TEETH).
GO BRONCOS. WIN BIG and show the MWC that they are only a superior conference in their minds.
By the way, why should BSU go to the MWC. Let's export UofIdaho, Utah State, and New Mexico State.
Export?
Great Idea to export those teams? Who would you replace them with? There is not a team in D1 that would want to join the WAC.
with them gone...
...maybethe WAC could pull itself up? The bottom feeders from MWC, PAC-10 and WAC should form their own conference. It can be the one that the rest of us warm up on at the beginning of hte season! That way we all avoid DII games, and they get to claim sos by playing all of us.
WAC vs. MWC
Where would U of I, USU, and NMS go? It is clear from the BCS conferences that a championship game can be huge, adding an additional game against a likely ranked opponent. If the Mountain West were to add Boise State, Fresno State, and someone like Tulsa/UTEP/Rice and add a championship game with some crazy requirement that the game be between the two highest ranked teams, this would give the MWC Champ an additional win against a ranked team (assuming the more highly ranked team wins). It works for Florida and Oklahoma. Seriously, if you stepped back and looked at things objectively, judging based on loses, is the better team the one that lost to Mississippi? The one that lost to Texas? The one that lost to Texas Tech? The one that lost to Florida? The one that lost to Oregon State? The on that lost to Iowa?
Of course there was no chance for any of these teams to actually lose to someone out of conference because none of them, especially in the SEC actually play outside of their conference. Most also play 7 or 8 home games. That's crazy.
I'm just sayin'.
http://www.ktvb.com/xtra/broncos/blog/
BIG 12 vs BIG 12
If the big 12 didn't have a championship game, then it is entirely possible we could have seen texas in the NC Game. But it seems that the big 12 is the one conference where teams beating each other up doesn't lower their rankings, just merely boosts the ranking of the team that wins the conference championship game.
Malcolm Johnson (RB)
Kid is a stud! Just had 450+ yds on 36 carries AND we've got a solid verbal from him. Our recreuiting classes are getting better as time goes on. Keep up the good work Broncos!!
say "no" to joining the MWC
They have their own TV network which does not get national air time. This seriously limits the number of people (and recruits) that get to watch BSU around the country. Outside of the cities that have colleges in the MWC, who would get that network? No one. Football games wouldn't even be on in sports bars.
BSU is very lucky that ESPN loves the team. When BSU has a Thurs or Fri night game, it is nationally televised! The MWC had Utah vs TCU and BYU, where both teams for the games were ranked and neither were televised nationally. It hurts recruiting of both talent for the team and money for donations.
Keep BSU out of MWC unless the conference gets rid of its lousy network. BSU gets more dap from being in the WAC.
giumri totally right
I think a lot of us have written about the same exact thing regarding that joke of a tv contract the stupid MWC has.
I just keep going back to Kyle Wilson from New Jersey. It's this simple - he'd NOT be a Bronco if we did not have a great ESPN contract. I waiver with my opinion about leaving the WAC, but one thing is certain, we CAN NOT LOSE THE TV COVERAGE.
Is there any way on earth we can just get rid of the bottom feeders in the WAC? That would help so much. The only reason we would leave the WAC would be because of them. But WHY is it WE have to leave? Why don't THEY leave?! This conference could be a pretty darn good bunch of schools if (I won't say names!) would go away. We could bring in two other schools (of course I have no idea who - but I am sure they exist) and turn this conference into a respectable bunch.
Oh well. GO BRONCOS and make Wolf11 and Mark May eat their words! ha ha ha ;)
WAC bottom feeders
WAC bottom feeders = 9 teams. Not much difference between the nine.
LOL
OK. Now I know you are completely devoid of intelligent input on this site! Not much difference between Utah and Nevada? Wow.
Hey - here's an idea. Try WATCHING the WAC games next season. (And we all cannot wait to hear your witty reparte in response to that last sentence. I'm sure it will be a zinger.)
HERE IS WHAT
sucks about this whole thing. WE (the non-BCS conference teams and fans) are left to scrub over crumbs that drop from the BCS table. All this.. this is better than that team is really a bunch of nothing. I'm a BSU fan and in my opinion BSU will the game against TCU becuase I don't really think the talent level is as far fetched as many think. I have watched Utah and TCU play and I know that they have special teams with alot of talent, but much like BSU they both have weaknesss as well. IMO we should hope for the best from Utah they will need it, that being said I'm not so sure that Alabama is as good as most people think. So good luck to Utah. AS for TCU this crumb is mine and I'm taking it. OOOOOOO one other thing for all the TCU bandwagoners spare us the whole argument about you holding Oklahoma to a season low in points. It always cracks me up listening to a fan say well we're good becuase we only lost by 25 and held one of the best offenses to a season low of 35 points. BSU has played 2 of the top 5 rushing offenses in the country and WON both those games.
Repeat
BSU has played 2 of the top 5 rushing offenses in the country and WON both games. Booyaa...Horra, are you taking initials after kickin azzzz? I'll help you Wolf11, ute...etc.
you guys rock
I love reading your posts! For each lame-o argument from ute, wolf11, bboyr, etc, I can bet on Horra, bluephan, marcsulf, etc firing back with FACT filled counter points that blow the idiot haters out of the freakin' water! Don't stop!! (And PS: I think bboyr is gone. I noticed a post from the queen hater earlier today which is GONE now. Wow. Statesman grew a spine! That's news right there lol!)
GO BRONCOS GO BRONCOS GO BRONCOS! Beat TCU by a td! Wilson - return a punt for a td. D-Let's see some interceptions returned for huge yards and a few td's too! Winn - stuff 'em up! and GO KELLEN! Show them what you're made of! Pretend it's Oregon again!!!