One scrimmage into the Boise State football team’s fall camp, the Broncos are no closer to identifying their starting quarterback.
The Broncos staged a scrimmage Saturday at Bronco Stadium. It was closed to the media and public. No stats were provided.
The next scrimmage is at 7 p.m. Saturday. The public is invited to attend. Admission is free.
“They were average,” coach Chris Petersen said of his four quarterbacks. “It was good, get them into some live reps. It’s different than when you just practice. … We’ll be looking forward to coming out here next Saturday with a crowd and hopefully taking a step forward.”
Fans will get their first look at the quarterbacks — junior Joe Southwick, sophomore Grant Hedrick, redshirt freshman Jimmy Laughrea and true freshman Nick Patti — since the Spring Game, when Southwick starred.
Coaches haven’t identified a pecking order or front-runner this fall.
“There’s some separation, but it’s not enough to say, ‘OK, we’ve got our guy,’ ” Petersen said. “It’s not. Every time I start to think we might have our guy, we don’t have our guy. But we’ll have a guy.”
Meanwhile, the rebuilt defense put together an impressive showing after an up-and-down first week of camp.
“Never turns out like you think it’s going to,” Petersen said, “but it was back to your first natural, normal scrimmage — the defense did very well, created some turnovers and played hard. On offense, we had a few things going but we’d shoot ourselves in the foot with penalties, a turnover here or there. It was interesting. … I actually thought the offense would do more.”
Sophomore cornerback Deon’tae Florence, a late addition to this year’s recruiting class out of the College of the Desert, earned Petersen’s “camper of the day” honor. He made two interceptions, forced a fumble and returned the fumble for a touchdown.
On offense, true freshman tailbacks Devan Demas and Jack Fields each had a couple of nice runs, Petersen said.
“We did really good,” senior cornerback Jamar Taylor said. “We’ve still got a lot of things to work on, though. We’ll go look at the tape, fix it and try to keep progressing through the summer.”
SPOTLIGHT ON … OL JOE KELLOGG
Kellogg is a returning two-year starter at left guard but has spent part of fall camp as the center on the second-team line to make sure he’s ready to play that position if necessary.
The Broncos lost returning starting center Cory Yriarte to a knee injury during summer conditioning.
Junior Matt Paradis, a former walk-on defensive lineman from Council, is expected to start at center. He started one game at center last season.
But Kellogg and junior guard Spencer Gerke are working into the center rotation to build depth.
“It’s been fine,” Kellogg said. “It’s like second nature to me.”
Kellogg was the first-team center in spring 2010 and for part of fall camp, challenging injured incumbent Thomas Byrd for the job. Instead, he was made a starter at guard.
Kellogg has started 22 games in his career — and he says that spring at center helped his development.
“Definitely, it helped me learn the offense a lot better,” he said. “When you’re the center, you’re making most of the calls. That’s when I really figured out the offense.”
MEANWHILE, AT NEVADA …
Junior kicker Anthony Martinez, who made the game-winning field goal against Boise State in 2010, likely won’t play this season because of a hip injury that won’t go away. Martinez was injured early last season and told the Reno Gazette-Journal that his hip is worse now than in spring ball. Allen Hardison was 8-of-11 on field goals last season, so the Wolf Pack do have an experienced option.
Chadd Cripe: 377-6398Twitter: @IDS_BroncoBeat
Today in Bronco Beat
Boise State doesn’t practice Sunday. Check back Monday for the latest on the team.
Did you know?
Boise State forced 26 turnovers in 2011 and 27 in 2010. The Broncos forced 33 and 35 turnovers in the two previous years, when they posted back-to-back undefeated regular seasons.
