-
1 of 10
-
2 of 10
-
3 of 10
-
4 of 10
-
5 of 10
-
6 of 10
-
7 of 10
-
8 of 10
-
9 of 10
-
10 of 10
New face of Bronco football:
Archive
Comments
Story
New season, new players and most importantly a new head coach. Despite undergoing a major turnover this past off-season, the Boise State University football program some how managed to keep a familiarity on the sidelines. Behind first year head coach Chris Petersen the Broncos will begin a new era of BSU football tonight against Sacramento State University.
Despite never working as head coach of a Division 1 program, coach Pete’s experience at BSU made him an obvious candidate as successor of Dan Hawkins. Hawkins, if you remember, left Boise following the 2005 season to try and clean up the troubled program at the University of Colorado. Petersen acted as the offensive coordinator for coach Hawkins from 2001-05. Coach Pete was twice a finalist for the Broyles Award while leading the Bronco offense. The prestigious award is given to the nation’s top assistant coach every year.
With Petersen in the booth, BSU fans saw the Broncos run an assault on the school’s record books. Under Pete’s tutelage, QB Ryan Dinwiddie finished his run at BSU as the NCAA career passing efficiency leader. Current quarterback Jared Zabransky finished the 2004 season thirteenth in the country in passing efficiency.
As a whole, the offense became one of the most feared scoring threats in the entire country during Petersen’s five years calling the plays. Since the 2000 season BSU has averaged the most points per game of any D-1 program scoring 42.1 ppg. Coming in at second is defending national champion Texas with 39.8 ppg: not bad company for coach Pete.
With Petersen’s first game in charge rapidly approaching, the nerves are undoubtedly rising for the entire coaching staff. However, Petersen is adamant the jitters inside the BSU locker room are nothing unusual.
“It’s game week, it’s game time,” Petersen said. “The feelings are the same for me. Of all the roles I’ve had throughout my career I kind of have the same feeling. I think our old guys are just as excited as our young guys. It’s football season, that’s what they’ve worked year round to do. When it’s time to play, this is what they live for.”
As far as this year’s team is concerned, Petersen is fortunate to return a bulk of last year’s offensive attack, which should make his transition much easier. Jared Zabransky will enter his third season as the Broncos signal-caller. Zabransky will be handing off to sophomore running back Ian Johnson, who emerged late last season as a major running threat. Johnson finished the year with 663 rushing yards and four touchdowns.
On defense Petersen will receive leadership on the field from senior linebacker Korey Hall. Hall is currently 13th all-time in tackles at BSU, but is quickly moving his way towards the top spot. Safety Marty Tadman will anchor the secondary, entering 2006 a pre-season All-Western Athletic Conference selection.
Petersen isn’t coasting one bit on his coaching job, however. Despite returning a large number of experienced players, coach Pete is expecting his young guys to impact the team right away. As it has become a tradition at BSU in recent years, a great “team” philosophy will once again be the standard for 2006.
“I think the roles are going to evolve and develop as the season goes on,” Petersen said. “I think some guys will play better and earn and deserve more playing time. Some guys may tail off, but we’re a big role team. We don’t just try and live with 11 guys on each side of the ball. We try and get 20 guys involved if we can. And so that continually changes as the season goes on.”
Sacramento State may be coach Pete’s first opponent as head coach, but its likely tonight’s game will be the first of many for Petersen as head of the program. The road this off-season has been a long one, but one well worth the wait for coach Pete.
“We’ve worked so hard the past week of practice, its time we get to go through with it,” Petersen said. “We’ve been preparing for so long. It’s exciting and we’re ready."
Jake Garcin
