Boise State QB Sears — once a marquee recruit — showed his talent in first Broncos start
Boise State quarterbacks Hank Bachmeier and Jack Sears knew each other long before Sears announced in May that he was leaving USC to finish his college career with the Broncos.
They met at a camp called Quarterback Collective the summer before Bachmeier’s freshman year at Murrieta Valley High in California.
Sears was an upperclassman at San Clemente High, which is about an hour west of Murrieta on California’s coast, and he was a “pretty big deal,” according to Bachmeier. But the elder on the combine circuit still found time to share some wisdom with the newcomer.
“He was gracious enough to spend time and talk to me, and I would just shoot him questions,” Bachmeier told reports last month.
Sears and Bachmeier came out of high school as four-star recruits, and their paths converged in the 2016 California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) championship game.
Sears was a senior who had committed to USC less than a month before. Bachmeier was a sophomore in his second season as Murrieta Valley’s starter.
“It was two great quarterbacks going back and forth and an offensive slugfest type of game,” San Clemente football coach Jaime Ortiz said by phone Tuesday. “Whoever had the ball last was going to win.”
Bachmeier led a Murrieta Valley offense that averaged more than 60 points a game in the playoffs and had home-field advantage in the championship game, but Sears stole the show. He threw for 231 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 178 yards and two more scores on the way to a 45-35 win, helping the Tritons claim the first CIF title in program history.
Of all the highlight-reel plays Sears made that night, a quarterback draw that he turned into a 67-yard touchdown stood out to Ortiz.
Not only did it give San Clemente a 10-point lead with less than 6 minutes to play, but Sears outran a host of defenders down the sideline, flashing the athleticism that Boise State fans caught a glimpse of last Saturday at Air Force.
“He’s tough on defensive coordinators because here’s a guy who can tuck it and run and make plays, and he can beat you with his arm,” Ortiz said.
Sears, a redshirt junior, made his first start as a Bronco last weekend and posted 280 passing yards and four touchdowns (three passing, one rushing) in a 49-30 win at Air Force.
It was his first start since 2018 when he filled in as USC’s No. 3 quarterback against Arizona State, and he savored every moment.
“The coaches preach ‘let loose, have a good time and just trust your training and trust your abilities,’” Sears told reporters after the game, “and I think that’s why I was able to play so freely.”
Bachmeier didn’t make the trip to Air Force for undisclosed reasons. Boise State said one player missed the game because of a positive COVID-19 test, but declined to identify the player. Starting safety JL Skinner also missed the game.
On Tuesday, Boise State coach Bryan Harsin said Bachmeier is expected back this season, but he wouldn’t say if he or Sears was going to start Friday against BYU (7:55 p.m., FS1).
Harsin has shied away from any talk of a quarterback controversy, but he also made it clear that he’s comfortable with Sears leading the offense.
“Jack has always been prepared to play,” Harsin said after the Air Force win. “I think Jack is a cool customer. I think he expects to score, and he really handles himself well.”
‘You’re a poker player’
Sears entered the transfer portal more than a year before his first start for the Broncos.
After sitting out the 2019 season at USC to focus on finishing his undergraduate degree, he wanted to take his time and thoroughly vet all the programs he was considering.
COVID-19 kept Sears from visiting as many campuses as he would have liked, but the virus also played a role in bringing him to Boise State.
He was teammates at San Clemente with current Boise State linebacker Riley Whimpey and offensive lineman Donte Harrington. He spent time with both after Boise State players were sent home this past spring because of the virus, and he said they had nothing but glowing things to say about the program.
“I wanted to go someplace that was competitive and had a winning culture,” Sears said. “Boise State has a pretty well-known system, it’s worked and has been successful.”
Sears is no stranger to successful programs.
In fact, Ortiz called him the most successful quarterback to ever play at San Clemente — a program that has produced three Elite 11 quarterbacks: Sears, former Utah starter Travis Wilson and current New York Jets starter Sam Darnold.
Sears followed Darnold as the Tritons’ starter and again to USC. Ortiz sees a lot of similarities between the two, especially when it comes to their even-keeled approach to the game.
“You’re a poker player. In the game of football, you can’t show a ton of emotion, even with all the highs and lows,” Ortiz said. “Jack is a little more stoic than Sam, but they’re cut from the same mold.”
After earning all the accolades that came with generating 93 touchdowns in two years as the starter at San Clemente, Sears appeared in just one game in three years at USC.
But he never lost faith in himself, Ortiz said, and now he has a chance to prove what he can do with the Broncos.
“It didn’t work out at USC, but he kept a positive attitude,” Ortiz said. “Sometimes the only thing you can control is your attitude and your effort.”
‘His mindset kind of flipped’
There was no easing Sears into the flow of the game with a couple of easy completions last weekend at Air Force.
His first pass as the Broncos’ starter went to wide receiver CT Thomas for a 75-yard touchdown.
“The biggest thing for me was to just give CT a chance,” Sears said after the game. “That guy goes up and makes plays. He’s done it his whole career here.”
Thomas said the play was predetermined based on the opening kickoff return, which was a touchback.
He had a feeling before the snap that the ball was going to come his way, and even went as far as to tell fellow wide receiver Khalil Shakir to meet him in the end zone after the play.
Thomas said his route was just OK, but a perfect pass from Sears made his job easy.
“Jack just did a good job of putting it on the money,” he said. “I didn’t even have to break stride.”
Sears and Thomas connected on two touchdowns Saturday. The second was a well-placed pass to the front pylon.
“He didn’t shy away from the moment,” Thomas said of Sears. “He stepped up because he knew Hank was out.”
Shakir admitted he was surprised by how quickly Sears absorbed the Broncos’ playbook, and he noticed a change in the quarterback the moment he found out he was starting.
“His mindset kind of flipped,” Shakir told reporters Tuesday. “A lot of us have been in the offense a lot longer than him, and it was like he was there with us every step of the way.”
Ortiz didn’t know Sears was starting last Saturday until he got a text just before kickoff, but he wasn’t at all surprised by the ease with which his former quarterback guided the Broncos’ offense up and down the field in his first start in more than two years.
“He’s a competitor, and he wants to win,” Ortiz said. “Sometimes what you don’t see in practice, you’ll for sure see in a game because the coaches don’t control the whistle, the referees do, and that’s when Jack is at his best.”
NO. 9 BYU AT NO. 21 BOISE STATE
When: 7:55 p.m. Friday
Where: Albertsons Stadium
TV: Fox Sports 1 (Aaron Goldsmith, Petros Papadakis). That’s channel 146 on Sparklight, 219 on DirecTV and 150 on Dish Network.
Radio: KBOI 670 AM/KTIK 93.1 FM (Bob Behler, Pete Cavender)
Records: Boise State 2-0; BYU 7-0
Series: Boise State leads 7-3 (last meeting: Boise State lost 28-25 last season in Provo, Utah)
Vegas line: BYU by 3
Weather: Low of 31 degrees, 50% chance of rain, 7 mph winds
This story was originally published November 5, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
