This lineman almost left Boise State. He and the D-line were bright spot in loss
Less than half a year ago, Braxton Fely was intent on becoming a former Boise State player.
After last week’s season-opening loss to South Florida, the coaching staff and fans are glad he changed his mind and stuck around.
“He may have played one of his better games,” defensive coordinator Erik Chinander said Monday.
In Boise State’s 34-7 road loss to South Florida, there weren’t a whole lot of positives. But one of the plusses was the play of the defensive front. The Broncos sacked USF quarterback Byrum Brown four times for 27 yards and managed seven tackles for loss for a total of 31 yards.
Fely, a senior defensive lineman, was thick in the middle of that effort. He had seven tackles, two tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.
“Brax has earned every bit of what he’s getting right now,” head coach Spencer Danielson said. “Not only his humility when he came back with this team, (but) he’s earned the right to continually work himself back into being a leader on this team.”
Fely entered the transfer portal last April but reversed course a month later. Shortly after Fely entered the portal, Danielson said, “All my heart hurts that (Fely) left.” The coach said he did not “believe that’s the best thing for his life.”
The Broncos let Fely return to the team, and the need for him to earn back trust was not unexpected. He spoke to the entire team about why he entered the portal at the start of summer workouts, and he sat in the back of the room for team meetings until he earned the right and respect to sit back up front.
His play last Thursday backed everything up.
Fely, unsurprisingly, didn’t have much positive to say after the team’s collapse at USF, noting that everyone on the team has things to work on before the home opener against Eastern Washington on Friday.
But if there’s one thing he can be pleased about, it’s how he and his fellow defensive linemen played. After saying he entered the portal because the Broncos were losing their veteran presence up front — defensive end Ahmed Hassanein and interior linemen Herbert Gums and Michael Callahan — the new group showed its ability.
Redshirt senior tackle Dion Washington, a transfer from Hawaii, had three tackles and a sack, while junior defensive end Max Stege enjoyed two tackles and half a sack.
“They’ve done a phenomenal job, Coach (Frank) Maile and Coach Chinander,” Fely said. “They’ve done a great job with training us in technique and being aggressive. So I think one thing to watch this, for us as a whole group, is how aggressive we’ll be in the little things that people might not see, but we’re going to do well.”
Boise State vs. Eastern Washington
- When: 7 p.m. Friday
- Where: Albertsons Stadium (33,000, turf)
- TV: FS1 (Noah Reed, Robert Smith)
- Radio: KBOI 670 AM/KTIK 93.1 FM (Bob Behler, Pete Cavender)
- Records: Boise State 0-1; Eastern Washington 0-1
- Series: Boise State leads 13-6.
- Weather: 94 degrees, partly cloudy, 12% chance of rain
