Fans, football, competition and ... meat? Boise State, Avalos ready to spring into action
Boise State football players will compete for more than a spot on the depth chart in the spring game on Saturday.
The winning team will enjoy a steak dinner.
The losers will have to settle for hamburgers.
“What we want to see most is the guys compete on Saturday,” Boise State football coach Andy Avalos said Wednesday. “We want to build on the first two scrimmages from a standpoint of really being able to lock in with a certain consistency, and compete and do their job.”
Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at Albertsons Stadium, and admission is free. The Broncos will have the chance to play in front of a full stadium in this annual game for the first time since 2019. It was canceled because of COVID-19 in 2020, and a limited number of fans were admitted last year because of social distancing guidelines still related to the pandemic.
It will be a new experience for several players on the roster, including six freshmen who enrolled early and six transfers, all of whom joined the program in January.
“The way these guys have competed with nobody out here is way different than last year,” Avalos said. “But it will be good for the guys to learn and understand when you practice a certain way with a certain purpose, it doesn’t matter if there’s people in the stands or we’re on national TV. It’s all the same.”
The spring game will also be an opportunity for Avalos to show his growth as a coach.
The Broncos finished last season with a 7-5 record, but Avalos said he has seen changes this spring that give him confidence heading into year No. 2. Avalos was hired at his alma mater in January 2021 after two seasons as defensive coordinator at Oregon.
“There’s a certain standard that is understood now in how we’re going to operate every single day,” Avalos said. “Not just on the practice field, but in meeting rooms.”
Avalos said he’s already seen that increased sense of competition pay off in two scrimmages. The defense got the better of the offense in the first one, he said, but the running game looked better than it had all spring last Saturday in the second scrimmage.
The highlight of that second scrimmage was a 65-yard run from freshman Ashton Jeanty, the coach said.
“That’s where it’s really shown, in those live situations, how he can break tackles and how he can make people miss and the physicality he brings for a young guy,” Avalos said of Jeanty.
Jeanty is one of several young players taking the field Saturday. The Broncos have been without a long list of likely starters this spring because of injuries — including left tackle John Ojukwu, guards Garrett Curran and Ben Dooley, edge rusher Shane Irwin, cornerback Markel Reed and tight end Riley Smith — leaving the door open for underclassmen.
Spring game breakdown
▪ The game will be offense vs. defense. The offense will wear blue uniforms, the defense will be in orange, and quarterbacks and specialists will wear white.
▪ The first half will feature two eight-minute quarters, with the clock operating as it would in a regular season game. The second half also will be eight-minute quarters, but there likely will be a running clock, depending on snap counts, according to Joel Schneider, Boise State director of football operations. He is acting as commissioner of the spring game.
▪ The game will feature a nontraditional scoring system. As usual, the offense gets six points for a touchdown, three points for a field goal and one point for an extra point. But it also will get one point for a running play of 12 yards or more and one point for a passing play of 16 yards or more.
The defense is awarded six points for a touchdown, four points for a turnover, three points for a fourth-down stop, and two points for a sack or a three-and-out series. The defense also gets four points if it holds the offense to a field goal attempt in the red zone. Those points are awarded whether the kick is good or not.
▪ The Broncos will open the second quarter with a game called Lock Out. The offense will get the ball on the defense’s 15-yard line and have four plays to score. Points are awarded in the same manner as the regular spring game, and the winner will be the first team to 18. All points scored during Lock Out will count toward the final score of the spring game as well.
▪ There will be a Bronco Walk before the game, beginning at 2:45 p.m. at the Hall of Fame plaza.
▪ Fans will be allowed on the blue turf in Albertsons Stadium after the game.
This story was originally published April 7, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
