Boise State’s Riddle happy to stay home; Koetter retires; Yotes announce spring schedule
Boise State tight ends coach Kent Riddle has been on staff with the Broncos’ past four head football coaches.
Dan Hawkins, who took over at UC Davis in 2016, hired Riddle in 2001 — a gesture Riddle thanked him for via text on Thursday.
Another former head coach at Boise State, Chris Petersen, was the Broncos’ offensive coordinator during Riddle’s first stint on the staff, which lasted until 2005. Petersen was the Broncos’ head coach from 2006 to 2013.
Riddle returned to Boise State in 2014 when Bryan Harsin took over for Petersen, and new head coach Andy Avalos announced Thursday that Riddle will remain on the staff for his 13th season.
“Part of the Boise State way is having Boise State guys around here so they can pass that on to the next generation,” Riddle told reporters Friday. “This has become my home. Outside of meeting my wife and getting married and graduating from college, most of the great stuff in my life has been here.”
He was on Harsin’s staff at Arkansas State in 2013 and worked with him the past seven years at Boise State. There was a thought that he might follow Harsin again, but Riddle said Friday that Avalos made it clear early on that there would still be a spot for him with the Broncos. Riddle also wished Harsin good luck at Auburn.
“I think he was looking for a new challenge, and I know he’d had plenty of opportunities over the years,” Riddle said. “If you’re going to leave Boise State, you want to go to the top. You want to go to a place where you get a chance to win championships, and Auburn is a place where they’ve won national championships. They’ve had Heisman Trophy winners, and they’ve been the best of the best.”
Riddle, 51, is very much the elder statesman on Avalos’ staff. He and special teams coordinator Stacy Collins are the only two members older than 40, but Riddle said wisdom comes with experience.
“There’s a new energy here, which comes with change,” Riddle said. “Andy said yesterday I cannot only mentor the players, but mentor the coaches.”
Riddle’s experience contrasts with one of the Broncos’ latest hires, cornerbacks coach Jeron Johnson, who has never coached at the collegiate level before.
“Connect with your players, study to make yourself better, make yourself an expert in your area and develop yourself in the other areas,” said Riddle, offering advice to young coaches. “If you can do those things, I think the sky is the limit.”
Riddle won’t have tight end John Bates to work with this year after he declared for the NFL Draft on Dec. 24. He has spent the past two weeks talking to NFL scouts about Bates, but he’s also excited to see what tight ends such as Riley Smith and Tyneil Hopper can do this season.
“The blue-collar mentality is going to be part of this program forever,” he said. “We’ll miss (Bates) and he certainly set the standard in that room, but it’s next man up.”
Koetter retires
Former Boise State football coach Dirk Koetter is retiring.
The 61-year-old, who spent the past two seasons as the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, posted on Facebook on Thursday night that he has decided to call it a career and move back to Boise — a move Avalos mentioned during his introductory press conference, saying “I told him to bring his whistle with him.”
“After 39 years of coaching football, it’s time to move on to the next phase of life,” Koetter wrote. “From 1982 at Highland High through the 2020 season with the Atlanta Falcons, it’s been nothing but football year-round, with not nearly enough time for anything else, especially family.”
Koetter went on to say he and his wife, Kim, will be relocating to Boise and McCall, and will get to experience fall in McCall for the first time.
Koetter was the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2016 to 2018 and the offensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2007 to 2011. His first stint as the Falcons offensive coordinator ran from 2012 to 2014, and he was the Buccaneers offensive coordinator in 2015.
The native of Pocatello went 26-10 as Boise State’s head coach from 1998 to 2000 and led the Broncos to a pair of Big West Conference championships and back-to-back wins in the Humanitarian Bowl. He was also the head coach at Arizona State from 2001 to 2006.
Yotes announce spring schedule
The College of Idaho football team will play a five-game schedule this spring, beginning March 13, the school announced Thursday night.
After the NAIA postponed its fall championships to this spring, the Frontier Conference initially planned to press on with a fall season, but it backtracked last August and opted to postpone the season.
The College of Idaho had already announced it wasn’t going to play in the fall.
“We are so excited that our football program will have the opportunity to play a conference schedule and compete for a chance at a postseason berth,” College of Idaho Athletic Director Reagan Rossi said Thursday in a news release. “Our coaches and student-athletes have worked hard through the fall, working through protocols due to COVID-19 and know that this spring will not be any different.”
The Yotes went 11-1 in 2019 and won the Frontier Conference championship.
They’ll open the spring season March 13 at home against Montana State-Northern and will play home games against Rocky Mountain (March 27) and Montana Tech (April 10). The Yotes go on the road to face Southern Oregon (March 20) and Carroll College (April 3).
This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 3:31 PM.
