Presented by BACON BOISE.
Wednesday Weekly…February 12, 2025.
With Kellen Moore reaching his personal NFL mountaintop Tuesday as head coach of the New Orleans Saints, I wanted to see what we said about him when he first committed to Boise State in high school. It was in September of 2006, the week of the Broncos’ game at Utah (which would be a 36-3 win, launching their Fiesta Bowl push). From the Scott Slant: “The next time Boise State faces Utah, in 2011 in Bronco Stadium (note: that game didn’t happen), there’ll likely be a senior on the roster named Kellen Moore. And he could be the starting quarterback. Moore attended the BSU-Hawaii game last Saturday, and that was enough to bring a commitment out of the standout QB from Prosser High in Washington. At 6-1, 180 pounds, Moore has Ryan Dinwiddie-type size. And he could have Dinwiddie-esque numbers.” Little did we know.
IN HIS GENES
Moore always dreamed of being a head coach. Like father, like son. Moore’s dad, Tom, coached him in high school in Prosser, WA, where he threw for a state record 173 career touchdowns. When Kellen got to Boise State, he may as well have been an assistant on Chris Petersen’s staff. And I’ve mentioned this before: on a questionnaire for the team’s summer softball game going into his senior year, Kellen wrote that his future job would be “Head Coach, Boise State University.” But once he got to the NFL, even though he was a backup for six years and played in only three regular-season games, Moore knew that he could flourish there as a coach. Everyone around him saw it, too—the sky-high football IQ. And now here he is. “Kellen Moore, Head Coach, New Orleans Saints.” I think it’s all just too, too cool.
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR US LATELY?
After the way Philadelphia’s offense crossed up Kansas City in the Super Bowl Sunday night, the Saints could have gone ahead and made the announcement when the clock ran out, even with Eagles coach Nick Sirianni pleading on the podium to Kellen to “run this (thing) back.” Moore’s offense was in classic “take what they give us” mode. The Chiefs didn’t give Saquon Barkley anything, so the Eagles took everything else. Kellen’s signature call was on first down late in the third quarter with KC squeezed in—again—to stop Barkley. Boom: a 46-yard Jalen Hurts touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith.
COACHABLE ON CAMERA, TOO
We got confirmation in the Super Bowl pregame that Ashton Jeanty’s 2024 season at Boise State has staying power. Jeanty appeared in a Pizza Hut commercial on FOX with Rob Gronkowski and Howie Long, bursting through a living room window with his trademark smile. The graphic said “leads in rush deliveries.” Otherwise, Jeanty needed no introduction, which is amazing. A running back from a Group of 5 school on a Super Bowl Sunday spot? A guy who hasn’t played a down yet in the NFL? The world knows about him—and the expectations that he’ll be a first-round draft pick in 2½ months.
FERTILE BRONCOS RECRUITING GROUNDS
National Letter of Intent Day isn’t what is used to be with the early signing day and the transfer portal turning college football on its ear. But Boise State still had a nice day last week, as Texas continues to be very, very good to the Broncos. Five more players signed, including running back Greg Ard from McKinney North High, about 30 miles north of Dallas and 13 miles from Frisco, where Jeanty happened to come from. Gabe Brooks of 247 Sports sees Ard as a nice replacement for fellow Texan Brendon Haywood, who decommitted from the Broncos during the early signing period and wound up at Missouri. Brooks notes that Ard’s final recruiting rating of 89 is the highest possible for a three-star prospect at 247 Sports. As a senior, Ard rushed for 1,644 yards and 22 touchdowns and averaged 9.0 yards per carry.
AND HE’S ONLY A JUNIOR-TO-BE
There’s “way-too-early” everything right now for next football season. With Jeanty gone, you may have not thought to check out ESPN’s 2025 Way-Too-Early college football All-America team. Well, Boise State’s star tackle Kage Casey is on it. Casey is second-team behind Miami’s Francis Mauigoa, and he’s one of only two Group of 5 players among the 30 listed on ESPN’s two-deep. How about Casey’s rise the past two seasons? As a redshirt freshman, the Broncos thought so much of him that they plugged him in at left tackle, the all-important protector of a right-handed quarterback’s blind side. Casey was second-team All-Mountain West and a second-team Freshman All-American. He upped it a notch this past season: first-team all-conference and a full fledged second team All-American.
DEGGIE FROM DEEP
San Diego State awaits Boise State men’s hoops Saturday night at Viejas Arena. We’ll find out what the Broncos’ four-game winning streak means. Tyson Degenhart made it look easy again last Friday, scoring 22 points in the 79-52 thumping of San Jose State. Perhaps a good sign moving forward—and probably most satisfying to Degenhart—was a confident 3-for-3 performance from three-point range. That’s important to him, as he’s shooting 33 percent from beyond the arc for the season. Degenhart has a thing he does when the team comes out of the locker room at halftime. As soon as he hits a three, he sits on a stool near the bench for the rest of warmups. Superstition, I guess. But if that part of Degenhart’s game hits full-stride down the stretch for the Broncos, look out.
ONE INCREDIBLE SEASON FROM CARDENAS
We’ve never seen a Boise State point guard quite like Alvaro Cardenas, and the stats obviously bear that out. With nine assists in the rout of his former school, San Jose State, the senior transfer out of Granada, Spain is one assist short of Boise State’s single-season record of 165 set by La’Shard Anderson 14 years ago. And there are still at least eight games left to play. Cardenas has one “points-assists” double-double and has been in double-figures in assists three times this season. You have to be uber-confident to play the way Cardenas does, bursting into the paint and still seeing everything and everyone around him. And his scoring has become efficient and consistent, as he is the Broncos’ second-leading scorer at 12.0 points per game. Cardenas is averaging 15.6 points over the past five games.
IS THIS UGBO’S BREAKOUT?
Talk about a guy making the most of his minutes with Boise State. That’s Emmanuel Ugbo. And last Friday they were extended minutes in the romp over the Spartans. Ugbo has started six of the past seven games, but outside of the blowout of Wyoming four weeks ago, he’d generally see time only at the beginning of each half. Against the Spartans, he played 17 minutes and scored 12 points, his most against a Division I opponent, and added five rebounds. Ugbo insists that’s the real him. The Broncos are 4-0 with their current starting lineup. It’s been part strategic, part karma. Now, as Boise State takes advantage of the mid-week Mountain West bye ahead of Saturday’s crucial game against the Aztecs, you wonder if Ugbo might get minutes like a real starter does.
BAYLOR WOULD BE IMPRESSED
I wrote in Tuesday’s “This Day In Sports” feature about College of Idaho renaming its home facility “Elgin Baylor Arena at the J.A. Albertson Activities Center.” The late L.A. Lakers legend and one-time C of I Coyote would be proud—and even his jaw would drop at the way his first collegiate team is playing right now. The Yotes are 22-2 overall, are 17-1 in the Cascade Conference and have won 12 games in a row. In the most recent one, last Saturday, C of I doubled up Walla Walla. We’re not talking 80-40, or even 100-50. The Yotes won 133-66, putting up 73 first-half points while shooting 83 percent from the field. They got 84 points from their bench in the game. I guess you’d call that momentum as C of I plays road matchups this weekend at Warner Pacific and Multnomah.
STEELIES HANGING IN THERE
The Idaho Steelheads were swept on home ice last week by the Rapid City Rush. Two of them were in shootouts, so the Steelheads collected two points in the standings. But they’re still playing with fire in the Kelly Cup Playoffs—squarely on the bubble for the postseason. Coach Everett Sheen continues to wheel and deal, trying to find the right roster mix to make a run. The latest addition is Ryan Foss, a forward whose rights were held by the Reading Royals while he’s been playing overseas in Slovakia this season. The Steelheads now face a three-game holiday weekend series on the road against the Utah Grizzlies on Friday, Saturday and Monday.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by HIGH DESERT HARLEY DAVIDSON…let’s ride!
February 12, 2002: Sun Valley ski legend Picabo Street races in her final competitive event—the women’s downhill at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Street had made an impressive comeback from a devastating knee injury in a World Cup crash shortly after her gold medal run in the Super-G at Nagano in 1998. But Street finished 16th on the Wildflower course at Park City—then announced her retirement. She won the silver in the 1994 Olympic downhill at Lillehammer. (And Picabo did a marvelous job as ESPN’s guest picker during College GameDay on the blue turf in 2010.)
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
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