Boise State football coach Chris Petersen completed the overhaul of his staff Wednesday with the hiring of former Bronco linebacker Andy Avalos.
Avalos, an All-WAC first-teamer in 2003-04, will coach the defensive line alongside defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski, who has coached that group since 2006.
Avalos joins newcomers Jonathan Smith (quarterbacks) and Jimmy Lake (defensive backs). Tight ends coach Scott Huff adds special teams to his duties and linebackers coach Bob Gregory folds the nickels into his group.
“These are exactly the guys that we wanted,” Petersen said.
Boise State lost three assistants who were original members of Petersen’s staff, dating to 2006 — offensive coordinator/QB coach Brent Pease (Florida), defensive backs coach Marcel Yates (Texas A&M) and special teams/nickels coach Jeff Choate (Washington State).
Petersen said the six coaches who stayed had other job opportunities, too.
“Sometimes it’s just time for guys to take the next step,” he said. “Marcel has been here longer than me as a player and as a coach, and done a great job. I’m really happy for him to be able to take the next step. He’s got a (co-defensive coordinator) title, so I think it was time. Brent Pease wanted to get into the fast lane back there in that SEC and double his salary. And coach Choate wanted to take a different direction in terms of his focus away from special teams. So all of them make sense.
“Part of my job is to help guys achieve, not only our players but our coaches, achieve the goals they’re after.”
Avalos coached linebackers at Sacramento State in 2011. Before that, he was the defensive line coach at Nebraska Kearney (2009-10), a graduate assistant at Colorado (2006-08) and the linebackers coach at Corona (Calif.) High (2005) in his hometown.
“We’ve been laying in the weeds waiting to get a chance to get Andy here,” Petersen said. “It almost happened one other time and it didn’t. As soon as that correct opening happened, I knew we’d get him back here. Andy has been really a special person since we first came across him.”
WALK-ONS REWARDED
Tailback Drew Wright and special teams dynamos Josh Borgman (cornerback) and Hazen Moss (safety) have been placed on scholarship. All three are seniors.
That leaves 18 open scholarships for the 24 new recruits. The team usually loses a player or two through the offseason, but some players will need to grayshirt unless Boise State wins its NCAA appeal.
For the second straight year, the Broncos are operating with 82 scholarships — three fewer than the NCAA max because of rules infractions. Petersen said even if he had more scholarships, he probably wouldn’t have signed more players.
MALCOLM JOHNSONGONE AGAIN
Tailback Malcolm Johnson is not enrolled in school, Petersen said. Johnson returned to the program as a walk-on last fall after leaving for a year to work on his academics. He impressed in camp but missed the season with a torn ACL.
ON TO 2013
Boise State already has one commitment for next year’s class. Linebacker Joe Martarano of Fruitland High committed last June but can’t sign until February 2013.
