Boise State QB Bachmeier played through knee injury; Kellen Moore a hot commodity again
After Boise State was forced to pull out of the Arizona Bowl on Monday because of a spike in cases of COVID-19, quarterback Hank Bachmeier shed some light on a knee injury he played through for most of the season.
Bachmeier damaged the meniscus in his right knee during the Broncos’ 27-3 win at Utah State on Sept. 25, he said in a post on Twitter. He also said he’ll “get it cleaned up now and then it’s on to gearing up for 2022,” suggesting that the injury will require surgery.
Boise State football coach Andy Avalos first mentioned a knee brace Bachmeier was using after the Broncos’ loss to San Diego State in the regular-season finale. Bachmeier acknowledged earlier this month that he was dealing with an injury, but he didn’t go into details.
Despite injuring his knee in the fourth game of the season, Bachmeier didn’t miss a start. After winning the starting job for the third year in a row, he led the Broncos in all 12 games and set career highs in completions (252), passing yards (3,079) and passing touchdowns (20).
“It was frustrating, but I’m going to do whatever I can to be on the field with my team,” Bachmeier said.
The 6-foot-1, 210-pound junior admitted that it’s hard to tell how much of an impact the knee injury had on his season. He said he felt as fast in one of the Broncos’ last games of the season as he was in the spring game when he was fully healthy.
Boise State’s offense finished in the middle of the pack in the Mountain West this season, ranking No. 7 in total offense at 381 yards a game and No. 5 in passing at 260.6 yards per contest. The Broncos averaged 29.2 points a game — not quite the half-a-hundred new offensive coordinator Tim Plough was looking for.
Bachmeier said the Broncos showed glimpses of what made Plough’s offenses so prolific at UC Davis, but there’s plenty of room to grow.
“When we do push tempo, we are really scary,” Bachmeier said. “It was a strategy by a lot of opposing teams to slow the game down a little bit and limit possessions. ... When we only get the ball X amount of times, we have to score on those drives.”
Bachmeier is 18-7 as a starter heading into his senior season, and he’s ranked in the top 10 in several categories at Boise State. His 6,151 yards of total offense rank No. 8 in program history, and his 35 career touchdown passes rank No. 9. Bachmeier’s 6,108 career passing yards and 485 completions both rank No. 7.
Moore a candidate to be Jaguars coach?
The Kellen Moore sweepstakes might be back on.
Moore — a former Boise State quarterback who has been the Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator since 2019 — was touted early this season as one of the most sought-after head coaching candidates in the NFL, but when the team’s offense went into a funk, that talk cooled.
On Sunday night, Dallas ran over Washington 56-14, scoring 42 points in the first half.
The Jacksonville Jaguars reached out to the Cowboys on Tuesday to request permission to speak to Moore about their coaching vacancy, according to reports from multiple outlets, including the Dallas Morning News.
The Jaguars fired head coach Urban Meyer earlier this month after he made headlines for all the wrong reasons this year and fielded the worst team in the NFL. Most recently, Meyer was accused of kicking former Jacksonville kicker Josh Lambo during practice.
Jacksonville (2-13) also requested permission to speak to Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, according to the Dallas Morning News. And the Jaguars also want to talk to Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, according to CBS Sports.
Moore was a candidate to take over at Boise State after former coach Bryan Harsin left for Auburn last December. He took himself out of the running after signing a three-year contract extension with the Cowboys in January.
Moore still holds program records at Boise State for career touchdown passes (142), passing yards (14,667), completions (1,157) and attempts (1,658), and his 50 career victories are the most by any quarterback in NCAA history. He ranks No. 2 in NCAA history in career touchdown passes, behind former Houston quarterback Case Keenum.
This story was originally published December 28, 2021 at 3:11 PM.
