Boise State’s Andy Avalos wasn’t sure he wanted to coach. What changed his mind?
It’s difficult to imagine now, but Andy Avalos didn’t think about coaching after his playing career at Boise State ended.
Avalos, a linebacker at Boise State from 2000 to 2004, said he didn’t know exactly what path to follow. The first job that paid what he described as “real money” was being an extra in the movie “Gridiron Gang,” but he didn’t see himself having a future in acting.
Armed with a criminal justice degree, he gave some real thought to becoming a police officer. Avalos has some family members in law enforcement, and as a student, he even did some internships with a narcotics team from the Ada County Sheriff’s Office and the Ada Prosecutor’s Office.
“It was high-energy,” Avalos said. “Some of that work is pretty dangerous stuff, but how they strategize and how they work together — there were some things that are similar in football, and I thought that was pretty cool.”
But ultimately, Avalos’ flirtation with a career outside of football didn’t last long. He was away from the game for only about six months before he knew what he was destined to do. He was back on the sideline in the fall of 2005 as a linebackers coach at his alma mater, Corona High School in California.
“I missed it so much,” Boise State’s first-year head coach said. “I missed the camaraderie the most, and I missed the game itself in terms of schemes and strategies. I’ve grown up around it. This is who I am, and I love it.”
The 39-year-old began his college coaching career as a graduate assistant at Colorado in 2006. Fifteen years later, he’s preparing to lead his college alma mater onto the field, and he said he can’t think of a better place to begin the next chapter in his life.
From 2012 to 2018, Avalos held assistant coaching roles at Boise State, but he left to become the defensive coordinator at Oregon. He returned to Boise State in January when he was hired to replace Bryan Harsin, who left for Auburn.
“When we walked out of the door at Boise State to go to Oregon, it was one of the hardest things we’ve ever had to do,” Avalos said, referring to his family: wife Summer, and daughters Paityn and Paige. “I’ve left Boise State twice — once as a player and once as a coach — and both times it was like, ‘How am I going to get back?’ ”
A little more than eight months have passed since he inherited the corner office in the Bleymaier Football Center. Life is hectic — full of long hours away from that family, and high expectations from a fan base eager to compete on a national stage.
Avalos said he wouldn’t have it any other way. This Bronco is exactly where he wants to be.
“This is a special, special place that has shaped who I am as a man and as a father,” Avalos said. “To be able to continue to contribute to the tradition here at Boise State is an honor I take very seriously.”
Boise State opens the season Thursday at UCF in Orlando, Florida, (5 p.m. Mountain time, ESPN) in a game on national television, with the Broncos as an underdog. He’ll make his coaching debut against new Knights coach Gus Malzahn, who spent more than a decade at Auburn in the SEC earning a reputation as one of the brightest offensive minds in the country.
Avalos said players and coaches come to Boise State for high-stakes games on a national stage.
“Whether it was one of the Fiesta Bowls or any number of moments, Boise State made its name in big games,” he said. “We’ve never been afraid to take risks, and we’re not going to start now.”
The coaching tree for Boise State’s new leader
In terms of coaching mentors, the first name that comes to Avalos’ mind is Ron Collins, who was Boise State’s defensive coordinator and linebackers coach when Avalos played for the Broncos, and at Colorado when he was a graduate assistant.
“He really helped shape me early on in this profession,” Avalos said, “and he’s the reason a lot of former Boise State players have gone on to be coaches.”
Dirk Koetter was the head coach at Boise State when Avalos joined the program in 2000, but Dan Hawkins took over the following year and coached him for the rest of his playing career. Hawkins was the head coach at Colorado when he brought Avalos on staff in 2006. He taught Avalos that to build a program with a strong foundation, a coach first has to build a strong brotherhood.
“The biggest thing I learned from him was the camaraderie it takes to keep a team together,” Avalos said. “His staff taught us the meaning of brick by brick. It’s a blue-collar deal, where we’re going to build this thing brick by brick.”
Hawkins, who has been the head coach at UC Davis since 2017, said he knew Avalos was destined to be a coach before his playing career ended, and he said the program is in good hands.
“He has tremendous respect and understanding of Boise State and the process there,” Hawkins said. “Players love him, coaches love him and he’s a really good recruiter. He will attract a good vibe into the complex for sure.”
Avalos was first hired at Boise State as the defensive line coach near the end of former head coach Chris Petersen’s tenure, in 2012. They were rivals while he was at Oregon and Petersen was the head coach at Washington (2014-19).
Avalos said they didn’t begin speaking regularly again until last year, but he still takes advantage of every opportunity to glean any knowledge he can from the man known as Coach Pete.
“He’s been instrumental in my career, just as a person,” Avalos said. “He’s been very supportive. He’s been awesome behind the scenes, but that’s where he prefers to be right now.”
How to be a head coach
Avalos said it was Petersen who prepared him for how life is different as a head coach. There’s less time spent scheming a game plan for an opponent and more on managing every aspect of the program, from marketing to academics to everything in between, Avalos said.
“Coach Pete was like, ‘You’re only going to get 25% of that football time anymore,’ ” Avalos said. “But that’s fine. I totally enjoy the other aspects — logistics and creating plans — and not creating plans for third downs anymore.”
Harsin promoted Avalos to linebackers coach when he took over from Petersen in 2014, and then to defensive coordinator in 2016. Following those two as head coach adds to the pressure Avalos is under to produce a winning product right away, especially considering how their first seasons at Boise State went.
Petersen inherited a team that was coming off four straight Western Athletic Conference championships, and he not only led the Broncos to an undefeated record in his first season, but to the most iconic moment in Boise State history — a 43-42 win over Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl.
Harsin took over a team that was a year removed from a co-Mountain West championship and top-20 ranking in the AP Top 25. His first season ended with an outright conference championship and a win over Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl at the end of the 2014 season.
Avalos inherits a program that hasn’t been to a New Year’s Six bowl game since that 2014 win, and hasn’t even won a bowl game since it beat Oregon in the 2017 Las Vegas Bowl. The team’s First Responder Bowl was canceled in 2018 because of severe thunderstorms, and Boise State’s players voted not to go to a bowl game at the end of last year’s COVID-19-shortened season.
Boise State has been to four straight Mountain West championship games, though, and Avalos has a roster full of experienced players.
With UCF, Oklahoma State and BYU on the nonconference schedule, and a powerful Nevada offense coming to Boise on Oct. 2, Avalos knows getting back to a New Year’s Six bowl game will be anything but easy. But he also isn’t going to back down from the challenge, just like he refused to back down when he was an undersized linebacker for the Broncos. He earned first-team All-WAC honors in 2003-04.
“There are very high standards at Boise State,” Avalos said. “But that’s what you thrive on. That’s what you enjoy, and that’s where you want to be.”
Doing more with less, and bringing ‘a different vibe’
There is one thing that stands out about Avalos compared to the rest of Boise State’s coaches over the past 20-plus years. Koetter, Hawkins, Petersen and Harsin came from offensive backgrounds. Avalos was a linebacker, and he’s spent his entire coaching career on the defensive side of the ball, but he said he’s going to be involved in the offensive game plan.
Aside from that, his players say they have noticed a different energy around the facilities since he was hired. It’s almost as if he’s bringing the same intensity to coaching as he did when meeting a running back in a gap on third-and-short.
“He does bring a different vibe to the building,” Boise State defensive back Kekaula Kaniho said. “He’s been where we are and done what we’re doing. He’s someone who loves and cares about this program, and it shows.”
Former Boise State fullback Matt Strohfus (1999-2002) felt that intensity during one of the Broncos’ first padded practices when Avalos was a freshman. Strohfus took a handoff and expected to run over the young defender, but Avalos — who was at least 20 pounds lighter — met him in the hole and delivered a hit that Strohfus still thinks about from time to time.
“You knew right away this kid brought it and didn’t have any fear, and you appreciated and respected that,” said Strohfus, who is now working in real estate in Reno, Nevada. “He always had this balance between a cool demeanor and a really competitive intensity, and I think that bodes well for him as a coach.”
Avalos, who is 5-foot-11, weighed 220 pounds by his senior year, but he was never the biggest or fastest linebacker on the field, Hawkins said. He was, however, a guy who always found a way to get the job done.
“Andy was smart. He was intuitive, and he was tough,” Hawkins said. “He always knew what was going on. Some guys react and some guys already know what’s going to happen.”
Avalos finished his playing career with 355 tackles, which still ranks No. 5 all-time at Boise State.
“Andy did more with less, physically, than anyone could know,” said former Boise State defensive lineman Alex Guerrero, his teammate from 2002 to 2004. “It was because of his preparation and the way he lived his life. I never remember him being unprepared for anything, whether it was football or class.”
A players’ coach and a Boise State feel
Avalos has filled his first staff with former Boise State players: wide receivers coach Matt Miller, running backs coach Winston Venable, cornerbacks coach Jeron Johnson, defensive analyst Kharyee Marshall and graduate assistant Jabril Frazier. But there may not be a coach on the staff with a better understanding of who Avalos is than tight ends coach Kent Riddle.
Riddle has spent 13 years on the Broncos’ coaching staff and worked with Avalos at Colorado, too. Riddle was in his first stint at Boise State while Avalos was a player, and remembers him as a nightmare to coach against in practice.
“We were huddling at the time, so he certainly wasn’t stealing signals,” Riddle said. “But he’d be yelling, ‘The play is coming right here,’ and run right through the gap and blow it up.”
Boise State linebacker Riley Whimpey has watched clips of his coach’s playing days, and he learned a thing or two about being instinctual.
“If I could play anything like him, I’d be satisfied,” said Whimpey, who has led Boise State in tackles the past two seasons. “You may have a specific gap and the ball doesn’t hit that gap, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to make a play.”
A lot of former players who get into coaching get labeled as a “players’ coach.” Avalos falls into that category, Whimpey said, but it’s not just because he understands what players go through on a daily basis. It’s because he invests in the person beneath the shoulder pads, not just the player.
“He was a huge reason why I decided to come to Boise State in the first place,” Whimpey said. “He’s done a great job of forming relationships, and guys really do want to work hard, because we love him and want to succeed for him.”
