BY MIKE PRATER
@KTIK.COM
The kids of today … you hear those words, and you’re really not sure what to think anymore. Mostly … hopefully … it’s a good thing, as is the case with Kekoa Nawahine and DeAndre Pierce, two of the so-called kids on the Boise State football team.
Nawahine (photo below) and Pierce (photo above), both sophomores in their first seasons as full-time starters, couldn’t have come from different backgrounds.
Nawahine graduated from Rocky Mountain High School in Meridian and went to Canada for a two-year LDS mission. Pierce graduated from Long Beach Poly, a high school football power in Southern California, wants to become a video game developer and is the son of NFL veteran and Super Bowl champion Antonio Pierce.
Now, everything about them is eerily similar, from their good-guy demeanor, the positions they play on the field, their all-academic status and their futures as professional football players.
Nawahine and Pierce are safeties in the Broncos’ defensive backfield, and both made their college debuts in the 2016 season opener. They both played in 12 games last season, and started one.
This season, they have started every game, two of only eight players on the Broncos’ roster who have started every game at the same position.
They are physical big hitters and two of the best tacklers at Boise State, though combined, they weigh about 375 pounds, or roughly the equivalent of some offensive linemen they’ve battled this season.
Going into this Saturday night’s important Mountain West Conference game at Colorado State, even their career stats are similar: Nawahine and Pierce have each started 21 games, and they have 78 and 77 tackles, respectively. Nawahine leads Boise State with three interceptions through nine games, while Pierce has one, though it was a big one against future NFL quarterback Josh Allen of Wyoming.
Picking off NFL quarterbacks is something that could be in the future for both Nawahine and Pierce. They’re young, with more than 30 potential games remaining in their college careers, but they already have the football IQ and hard-hitting, playmaking abilities to reach the next level.
Nawahine has the size.
Pierce has the professional football pedigree from his father.
Besides, in case you haven’t noticed, Boise State, a school typically known for its high-scoring offense, already has four defensive backs in the NFL, playing in New York, Cleveland and Cincinnati.
The kids of today … yep, they can do some pretty amazing things.
Mike Prater, editor of The Opinionator, co-hosts Idaho Sports Talk with Caves & Prater weekdays from 3-6 p.m. on KTIK 93.1 FM The Ticket and can be heard on Bronco GameNights after BSU football games on KBOI 670 AM and KTIK 93.1 FM. He can be reached at [email protected], and found @CavesandPrater(Facebook) and @MikeFPrater (Twitter).
