08/16/2006 — Boise State football coach Chris Petersen said Wednesday that the backup quarterbacks have narrowed the gap on starter Jared Zabransky.

Junior Taylor Tharp and sophomore Bush Hamdan remain Nos. 2 and 3, but Petersen says both are good enough to play.

Zabransky also has made strides, Petersen said.

“There’s not so much separation,” Petersen said, “… which gives you some comfort.”

Tharp and Hamdan struggled with turnovers in practice Wednesday. Petersen says he wants to see improvement in Friday’s scrimmage.

“We’ve got to clean up those penalties we had in the first scrimmage,” Petersen said, “and we’ve got to hang onto the ball.”

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Tomorrow in the Idaho Statesman we begin our position-by-position look at the 2006 Broncos. We’ll start with the defensive line, and a profile of senior defensive tackle Andrew Browning.

Browning is a former walk-on who will start for the third straight year.

“He is as blue collar as they come,” Petersen said. “… We have some guys who work very, very hard around here, and he’s probably the tip of the iceberg in terms of setting the tone and the mentality.”

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It’s obvious that Boise State fans’ loyalty is to the program and not the coach.

A poll at IdahoStatesman.com/BSUfootball showed that fans overwhelmingly think current BSU coach Chris Petersen will have a better year than his three predecessors — Dan Hawkins of Colorado, Dirk Koetter of Arizona State and Houston Nutt of Arkansas.

Petersen, in his first year, received 80.1 percent of the votes from the 1,012 respondents.

Koetter was second at 11.1 percent. Hawkins got 6.9 percent, and only 1.9 percent liked Nutt.

Today, vote on which WAC team is the biggest threat to BSU this year.

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The Boise State offense unraveled early in Wednesday’s practice during the daily hurry-up-offense session.

Backup quarterback Taylor Tharp, running the first team, threw an interception to safety Marty Tadman.

Third-stringer Bush Hamdan, running the second team, was stripped of the ball on a blitz. Cornerback Kyle Wilson scooped up the ball for an easy touchdown.

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Today’s links:

Fresno State has worries about its secondary: http://www.fresnobee.com/sports/bulldogs/story/12594116p-13301910c.html

Boise State was the only team to allow more TD passes than Oregon State last year: http://www.oregonlive.com/beaversfootball/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/sports/1155695152169090.xml&coll=7

Columnist says it's time for Utah to pick a QB: http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_4188552