Boise State’s Avalos: Closure of fall practice not permanent, no leader in QB battle
Boise State football coach Andy Avalos said Sunday that the program had to close fall football practice to guests in an effort to best protect the players after a spike in COVID-19 cases in the athletic department, but he also said the program hopes it won’t be permanent.
“We didn’t want to start off like this with having to close practice,” Avalos told reporters. “We don’t plan to keep it that way. As soon as we can switch it back, we will. We’ve just got to work through a few things and stay on the path we are on now so we can continue to grow and so we can be out on that field having fun and preparing for the season.”
Last Tuesday — the day before fall camp was scheduled to open — Boise State announced practice was closed to all guests, including media. Athletic director Jeramiah Dickey confirmed last Thursday that the department was aware of some positive cases prior to closing practice, and Avalos said the situation worsened last Tuesday, which led team officials to close practice. He also said visits by alumni and a large donor event were canceled.
Only about 160 individuals, who are designated as Tier 1, are allowed to be in close contact with players on a day-to-day basis right now, according to Avalos. That includes trainers, coaches, members of the strength staff and Boise State’s photographers and videographers.
“We don’t hope to stay on this path for a long time, but for right now it’s the most important thing,” Avalos said. “We’ll have to do this for as long as the situation requires us to.”
Members of the media were allowed to watch about 40 minutes of the Broncos’ fifth practice of fall camp from the stands in Albertsons Stadium on Sunday.
The Broncos’ coaches were all wearing masks Sunday, and players were equipped with neck gaiters, which they could pull up over their nose and mouth when in close contact with teammates or coaches. Offensive lineman John Ojukwu said Saturday that the team is limiting how many players can be in the facilities at the same time in an effort to increase social distancing.
Avalos said nobody in the program wants a repeat of last season, which was initially postponed and shortened to eight games because of the virus, and the Broncos had two contests canceled during the season. But he also said the team is going to take whatever steps are necessary to make it to the season opener on Sept. 2 at UCF, especially if the hardest thing they have to do is wear a mask.
“It’s uncomfortable at times and it’s annoying when we’re in the building,” he said, “but at least we get to be in the building.”
No leader in QB battle
On Sunday, media members got their first live glimpse at a practice this fall, and most eyes went immediately to the quarterbacks.
Junior Hank Bachmeier and redshirt senior Jack Sears are competing for the starting job for the second season in a row, but that competition has been slow going so far this fall.
Avalos said the Broncos were limited in terms of getting the whole team together during the first two days of camp. Despite the growth he said both quarterbacks have shown in new offensive coordinator Tim Plough’s system, Avalos said they haven’t been on the field in a team setting long enough for a leader to emerge.
Things also hit a snag Saturday when Sears suffered what he described as a “minor strain.” He didn’t go into specifics about the injury and was at practice Sunday, but he wasn’t in pads and was limited during drills. Avalos said he should return to practice Tuesday, following the Broncos’ scheduled day off Monday, and the competition will resume.
“It’s a challenge every day to go out there and go against the defense and those schemes and what they’re doing, but they’re both battling,” Avalos said. “They’ve grown from the spring time. How they operate the offense is way different.”
Bachmeier has an 11-2 record as the starter the past two seasons, and he’s had to earn it both years — beating out former Boise State quarterback Chase Cord in 2019 and Sears last fall. He’s grown from the experiences.
“You’ve just got to detach from the outcome and focus on the process,” Bachmeier said Sunday. “My freshman year, I think I got so emotional about one day or another, whether that was very high or very low. It’s going to happen. It’s happened already in this camp, but you have to be objective and just focus on the process.”
Bachmeier has also struggled to stay on the field. He missed time because of injuries as a freshman in 2019 and after contracting COVID-19 last year. He went 4-1 as the starter last fall and finished the season with 1,150 passing yards, six touchdown passes and two interceptions.
Sears joined the team last year after transferring from USC. He was impressive in his debut as the starter — racking up 280 passing yards and four total touchdowns against Air Force — but he suffered an apparent head injury the following week during the Broncos’ first drive against BYU and missed the rest of the season.
He had to adjust to a pair of new offensive coordinators during his career at USC, and after settling in to a new atmosphere and new scheme last year while dealing with COVID-19 protocols, he’s doing the same again this year. He’s not getting too stressed out about mastering Plough’s offense, though.
“An offense is an offense at the end of the day,” Sears said. “You have to learn the terminology, the X’s and O’s and why we’re doing what we’re doing. The why is a main focus of this coaching staff.”
Plough’s scheme features a faster tempo than Boise State fans have seen in the past, and at UC Davis, he engineered one of the most high-powered passing attacks in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Sears said the new system combines aspects of several different offenses he’s run, and he said the offense as a whole has taken huge strides since the spring.
“Right now it’s just Broncos on Broncos, and I think everybody is competing for a job,” Sears said. “Obviously as quarterbacks we’re going to get the spotlight, and that comes with the territory, but we’re just out there trying to get better ourselves and we know we’re going to make each other better, push each other and help each other grow wherever we can.”
A lot of quarterbacks wouldn’t be all that excited about going into fall camp with the pressure of having to win a job, but Sears doesn’t consider himself among them.
“It gets the best out of you,” he said. “You can’t be complacent and you can’t fall back on ‘I’ll get him tomorrow,’ because you never know what day is going to be the deciding factor. You never know what practice can be the turning point, and it’s fun to show up to practice every day and know we’re going to push each other to be the best we can.”
Fall camp observations
Here are a few observations from Boise State’s fifth practice of fall camp:
▪ After the defense won the day Saturday, Avalos said the offense put on its best performance of fall camp, and he and both Bachmeier and Sears praised the offensive line for its growth.
▪ Avalos also heaped plenty of praise on new offensive lineman Will Farrar — a 6-5, 322-pound transfer from Texas Tech, who is wearing jersey No. 75. He lined up at guard Sunday during team drills, but Avalos said he can play multiple positions.
“It’s very obvious that he is going to help us in a lot of ways, and he’s a joy to have around,” Avalos said.
▪ Defensive tackle Scott Matlock took center stage in the hype circle at the start of practice and got his teammates fired up. The Broncos began opening practices with the hype circle this spring. It was introduced by strength coach Reid Kagy.
▪ Freshman offensive lineman Cord Kringlen looks much bigger than the 6-4, 265 pounds he’s listed at on the Broncos’ roster. Freshman wide receiver Eric McAlister (6-3, 193) also looked physically impressive, and freshman quarterback Taylen Green (6-6, 215) continues to look like one of the most athletic players on the team. He enrolled early and joined the team in January.
▪ Transfer cornerback Caleb Biggers is wearing jersey No. 26, and he looked smooth and confident running through individual drills, which is likely a product of his 19 career starts at Bowling Green.
▪ Cornerback Jalen Neal — a transfer from San Bernardino Valley College — is wearing jersey No. 39. He looks a little smaller than the 5-10, 172 pounds he’s listed at on the roster, but he showed a burst of speed during individual drills. His defensive coordinator at SBVC was Kenneth Lawler, who coached defensive backs at Boise State from 2000 to 2002.
▪ Freshman quarterbacks Colt Fulton and Colton FitzGerald — both of whom joined the roster just before fall camp began — will wear jersey Nos. 8 and 9, respectively. Avalos said the coaches are going to refer to FitzGerald as “Fitz” because the quarterbacks have such similar first names. He also referred to them both as potential diamonds in the rough and was especially complimentary of FitzGerald’s arm strength.
“Fitz has got one of the strongest arms that we’ve seen in a long time,” said Avalos, who compared FitzGerald’s arm strength to that of freshman quarterback Taylen Green, who took snaps with the No. 2 offense while Sears was limited on Sunday.
This story was originally published August 8, 2021 at 3:54 PM.
