Boise State 2014 Spring Football Wrap Up

Strengths & question marks coming out of spring

It’s always a little hard to tell where strengths and weaknesses lie after Spring ball. The media access is limited, the playbook isn’t thrown wide open, and there are plenty of players nursing injuries.

That said, I think one clear strength is the running attack, led by Jay Ajayi. If Ajayi can stay healthy, I think he’s easily the best back in the Mountain West this season, if not one of the best in the country. His primary backup has yet to be determined, but Boise State has a stable of versatile backs that should give Ajayi enough of a breather to wreck stuff when he’s in the game.

On the other side, I think the linebacking corps looks like a team strength coming off the Broncos’ Spring scrimmage. A few of Boise State’s best linebackers didn’t even compete in the final public scrimmage, but the LBs that were given playing time came up big, led by seniors Blake Renaud and Corey Bell (a hybrid safety/linebacker).

Question marks lie on the interior D-line and defensive secondary…the former because the Broncos are not loaded with experience and will probably need to wait until Fall Camp to determine a real pecking order, and the latter because no unit has more to prove than the secondary, which uncharacteristically were torched last season.

Playmakers abound on both those units, but they’ll need some players to really step up and distinguish themselves as clear leaders.

Name a few breakout players to keep an eye on in 2014

Shane Williams-Rhodes (WR) had a good season last year despite never being fully utilized by OC Robert Prince. From the Spring game, it looks like the new OC Mike Sanford will find more creative ways to get SWR the ball…and once he has the ball, he’s a scoring threat every time.

Dylan Sumner-Gardner (S) is the highest-rated recruit Boise State has ever signed, so there was a lot of buzz around him going into Spring Camp. Sumner-Gardner—an early graduate—could’ve been enjoying his senior prom, but instead was putting in 5:30am workouts to get a jump start on his true freshman campaign. The fact that he played himself immediately onto the 2nd team defense shows that he’s picking things up quickly, and he will definitely see the field in 2014—adding a physical presence to the secondary that’s been missing of late.

Jonathan Moxey (CB) played sparingly last season as a true freshman, but many (myself included) wondered why he didn’t get a larger share of the playing time. The secondary suffered last year due to a lack of physical play by the corners…soft coverage and inability to get off blocks. Moxey looked great in press coverage and seemed to have the physical tools to not get manhandled by downfield-blocking receivers. In Spring ball, it looked like he’d asserted himself as a potential starter. I hope that’s where he sticks.

Grade each position group

Quarterbacks: B-

Grant Hedrick played pretty well last season after taking over for an injured Joe Southwick and looks like he’s continued his upward trending through the Spring. Hedrick also has another seldom-used dimension as a very capable runner. If he can improve his downfield strikes and get a better sense of when the pocket is collapsing and tuck and run…he could be a big weapon. Backup Ryan Finley is coming off shoulder surgery and is still not 100%, but looked pretty good this Spring, but there’s just zero live D1 experience behind Hedrick, so I’d grade this unit out as a B-.

Running backs: B

Again, the only knock on the unit is consistency behind the starter. Jay Ajayi is an All-MWC returner and could be one of the nation’s best backs this year, but the departure of Aaron Baltazar leaves a bit of a void in the backfield. The Broncos have some capable backups in the stable, but haven’t found their true #2 back yet. Derrick Thomas and Jack Fields have struggled to find a rhythm and Devan Demas has showed impressive flashes, but isn’t necessarily an “every down” type back and may do more damage in the short passing game. Walk-on Charles Bertoli looked great last season at times, so could make an impact as well. The bottom line is that right now, there’s Ajayi and then a question mark…that question mark keeps this unit from getting anything higher than a B until Fall.

O-line: B-

This unit has the tools to be great, but have been somewhat one-sided. Pass protection has been pretty good, but the run-blocking hasn’t been dominant like in year’s past. Luckily, the Broncos have an elite RB in Jay Ajayi…but when Jay is on the sidelines, we need the big guys up front to get a better push (especially on the goal line). I didn’t see much in Spring ball to suggest that they’ve really turned a corner in that aspect of the game. Losing Matt Paradis, Charles Leno and Spencer Gerke will sting a bit too. Right now, these guys have a lot to prove.

WRs: B

The Broncos have two big time playmakers returning—senior Matt Miller and junior Shane Williams-Rhodes, but also had a lot of injuries this Spring and will need to find a reliable 3rd WR. That third man may be true soph Thomas Sperbeck—who the staff raved about this Spring. The Broncos need to find a true deep threat for the Fall (and may do so once signee Sean Modster hits campus), but for now, they just have the two really proven guys, so I’d tag them with a B.

D-line: C

The D-line probably lost its two best defenders to the draft and graduation (Demarcus Lawrence and Ricky Tjong-A-Tjoe, respectively) so will need to have some reliable guys step up in a big way. There are high hopes for RS frosh Nick Terry on the interior to be a solid 4-year contributor and junior Armand Nance could be penciled in at one starting DT spot, but the DEs currently are a bit of a question mark. I like the young talent we have across the board, but there just isn’t a wealth of experience there to confidently put this unit above a “C”. Some JC help will arrive in the Fall and hopefully bolster this unit. Luckily…

LBs: B+

The LBs look to be one of the strongest position groups on the defense…and would mark the first time in a few years that I’ve thought that. Ben Weaver and Tanner Vallejo had breakout campaigns last season as freshman and though they were dinged in Spring ball, give no indication that won’t continue. Further confidence can be drawn from the fact that neither Weaver or Vallejo played in the Broncos’ Spring Game, but backups/co-starters Blake Renaud and Chris Santini made some great plays for the D and put forth a pretty dominating effort. Last year, the only real deficiency I saw in the LBs was in pass coverage. If that gets tightened up, I think the Broncos will have a GREAT year from that unit.

Secondary: B-

Last year, this unit took a monumental step back but have enough talent from top-to-bottom that if they get the kinks worked out can be back to their dominating ways. This Spring, Donte Deayon continued to impress (he was All-MWC a year ago and registered 5 INTs in 2013), but finding someone to lock down the opposite corner spot was a bit of a question mark. By the end of Spring ball, it looked like Jonathan Moxey had found a bit of an edge and I thought performed pretty well in the Spring scrimmage. Cleshawn Page is a physical specimen and one of the faster guys on the squad and Bryan Douglas probably has the most experience of anyone in the unit…both will factor into the secondary race and will play regardless of their depth chart position. Overall, I think this unit is the one that needed the biggest “attitude adjustment” and our new secondary-oriented DC Marcel Yates will certainly give it to them. New DBs coach Julius Brown was happy with the progress of the group this Spring, so I’m cautiously optimistic that they’ll have a decidedly better year than last.

Special Teams: B-

The punting in the Spring game from Sean Wale did not look terribly good or consistent, but it was a windy day and that could have been circumstantial. Dan Goodale, the presumed starting placekicker, hit most of the opportunities he was given but will need to atone for missing the only true “big kicks” of his career. This unit always gives Bronco fans hives because in the last few years, they’ve misfired at the LEAST opportune moments (and usually against San Diego State). I didn’t see anything to indicate that this group had taken a big step back or huge step forward. I’ll tag them with a B-.

What can we expect from Boise State in 2014?

While the departure of Chris Petersen is kind of the X-factor here, I’ve never seen so much excitement or enthusiasm about a season. I’d probably advise Bronco fans to temper their expectations a bit as a wholesale change in offense and defensive philosophies can lead to some growing pains…but the schedule does set up MUCH better than last season’s (which was BRUTAL).

I think a lot of people felt something was just “off” last season and it didn’t have a lot to do with the talent on the sidelines. Maybe Harsin and crew can coax the full potential out of this group and the Broncos can cruise to the MWC title.

At any rate, I think it would be hard to duplicate the disappointment of a season ago, I think the Broncos could win all the games on the slate or could lose 3 of them…but either outcome is better than a year ago. If the Broncos don’t make the title game in 2014, fans should be a little let down—we’ve lost some cogs, but not as much as some of the other title contenders (Utah State, Fresno State etc) and the most difficult games on the conference slate look to be home games.

---

Drew Roberts of the Boise State blog One Bronco Nation Under God provided the information for our Boise State 2014 Spring Wrap Up. For more Bronco football information, commentary and analysis, you can follow Drew on Twitter @mybrainissmart.

---