No Boise State players will skip Las Vegas Bowl; Hightower accepts all-star invite
There’s a growing trend in college football of potential NFL Draft picks skipping bowl games.
Boise State’s opponent Saturday in the Las Vegas Bowl, Washington (5:30 p.m. MT, ABC), already has had two players decide to skip the game: tight end Hunter Bryant — likely to be one of the first players drafted at his position — and left tackle Trey Adams.
Boise State has a potential first-round pick in STUD Curtis Weaver, a redshirt junior who could leave a year early. Left tackle Ezra Cleveland, also a highly regarded redshirt junior, and senior wide receiver in John Hightower, whose speed is sure to have him on plenty of draft boards, also are NFL prospects.
Amid the news of offensive coordinator Zak Hill’s departure for Arizona State, though, Boise State coach Bryan Harsin said Saturday that he’s had no discussions with players about skipping the bowl or transferring.
“I hope I don’t,” Harsin said.
Harsin said part of the players’ motivation may be that they didn’t get to play in a full bowl game last season. The Broncos accepted an invitation to the 2018 First Responder Bowl in Dallas, but the game was called with 5 minutes, 8 seconds remaining in the first quarter because of a severe thunderstorm.
The bowl game experience isn’t all that’s pushing the Broncos. Harsin also said Saturday that his players have seen how a dominant bowl performance can affect draft stock. He pointed to Leighton Vander Esch’s performance in the 2017 Las Vegas Bowl against Oregon when he racked up 12 tackles (10 solo), a sack, three tackles for loss and a fumble.
Harsin specifically pointed to Vander Esch’s forced fumble and the perfect tackling technique he used to dislodge the ball on a swing pass to former Oregon running back Tony Brooks-James.
“There’s one highlight that every coach in America has shown, the one where he tackled the guy in the open field. Not just us, every coach has shown that as a teach tape,” Harsin said. “Those guys created opportunities in that bowl game that, in my opinion, were a big difference in their future.”
Vander Esch was selected No. 19 overall in the 2018 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys.
Harsin’s comments about having no discussions about transfers should also be of particular interest to Boise State fans, especially with the uncertainty at quarterback. Sophomore Chase Cord appeared in four games in 2018 but missed the latter half of the season with an injury. He was beat out this fall by true freshman Hank Bachmeier, who started the first six games of the season and won all seven of his starts.
Neither Bachmeier nor Cord finished the regular season, though. Senior Jaylon Henderson won the final four games of the regular season, including the Mountain West championship. Bachmeier returned from a hip injury for the San Jose State game on Nov. 2 but suffered an apparent shoulder injury and hasn’t played since, despite returning to finish that game. Cord started the Broncos’ loss to BYU and their overtime win over Wyoming on Nov. 9, but he hasn’t seen the field since.
More All-America honors for Weaver, Holani
More All-America honors were announced Monday for Boise State STUD Curtis Weaver and true freshman running back George Holani.
Weaver, a redshirt junior, who leads the Mountain West and ranks No. 5 in the country with 13.5 sacks, was named second-team All-America by the Associated Press and ESPN, while Holani was named to ESPN’s True Freshman All-America team.
Monday’s announcement marks the fifth and sixth All-America honors for Weaver, who was already a first-team pick on the Walter Camp and CBS Sports teams and a second-team selection by The Athletic and USA Today. Holani, who leads the Broncos with 979 rushing yards and seven touchdowns on the ground, was also on The Athletics’ Freshman All-America team.
Hightower accepts East-West Shrine invite
After leading the Broncos this season with 923 receiving yards and eight touchdowns through the air, Hightower has accepted an invitation to the East-West Shrine Bowl.
The 95th rendition of the all-star game will be played at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 18 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Hightower will spend a week in Florida practicing and working out in front of NFL coaches. The head coach of the west team is Minnesota Vikings linebackers coach Adam Zimmer. The east team’s head coach is Carolina Panthers defensive line coach Sam Mills III.
Hightower caught just 13 passes in 2016 at Hinds Community College. Last season at Boise State, he caught 31 passes for 504 yards and six touchdowns. This fall, he’s second on the roster with 48 grabs, he ranks No. 6 in the Mountain West in receiving yards and he’s tied for third in receiving touchdowns.
Caples leads 2020 class
247sports.com updated its recruiting rankings over the weekend, and the highest-ranked high school senior in Boise State’s 2020 class is now wide receiver Latrell Caples. He’s No. 649 overall, No. 102 among the nation’s wide receivers and No. 85 in the state of Texas.
Defensive tackle Herbert Gums, who was the highest-ranked commit when he gave the Broncos his verbal on Thursday, comes in at No. 2 (No. 748 overall, No. 62 DT, No. 99 in Texas), followed by offensive lineman Brandon Hernandez (No. 959 overall, No. 74 OT, No. 81 in California.
Boise State’s 2020 class ranks No. 1 in the Mountain West and No. 68 in the nation, according to 247sports. Early signing day is Wednesday.
Mountain West title game audience dips
The Mountain West championship was one of the least-viewed title games of the season. Only 550,000 viewers tuned in Dec. 7 when Boise State beat Hawaii 31-10 to claim its second title in three years, according to sportsmediawatch.com.
The game took a 47 percent dip in viewership and received a .37 rating with an earlier, afternoon kickoff. The only conference championship that drew a smaller audience on ESPN/ESPN2 or the major broadcast networks was the MAC title game with 358,000 viewers. The Conference USA game was on CBS Sports Network, and viewership numbers weren’t available.
The SEC championship between LSU and Georgia drew a 7.9 rating and 13.7 million viewers, in the same time slot as the Mountain West. The Big Ten title game between Ohio State and Wisconsin earned a 7.6 rating a drew 13.55 million viewers.
The ACC championship drew the fewest viewers of Power Five conference title games with 3.97 million, while the American Athletic Conference championship between Memphis and Cincinnati earned a 1.9 rating and attracted 2.88 million viewers.
This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 10:53 AM.
