Interview with OBNUG

I was approached this week by Kevan Lee, one of the contributors to the Boise State blog One Bronco Nation Under God. We exchanged sets of five questions with each other (no doubt while crossing our fingers and cursing each other under our breaths) and the following is what Kevan was kind enough to send back to us. You can find my responses to Kevan's questions here.

1. Describe your team's season to date in 100 words or less. "Potato" must be one of those words.

Boise State has had exactly the type of season that wildly optimistic OBNUG-type fans had hoped. The Broncos are undefeated, on the verge of BCS history, and dominating so thoroughly on both sides of the ball that it's borderline cruel. The potato in this season of bright, shiny apples has been the polls. Get rid of those suckers and Bronco fans couldn't be happier.

2. What's one thing you would change about your team's head coaching style? What's one thing you would change about the other team's head coaching style? Assume the changes that are made would both benefit their respective teams' on-field performance.

Based on the smallest body of evidence outside of DNA strands on Chris Ault, I would say that Boise State coaching could do better with its clock management. Rarely does this come into play, but there always seems to be the occasional burned timeout here and there for no real reason. Bad clock management is a pet peeve of mine, so maybe I'm hyper-sensitive. That, and it's really hard to find a flaw with this coaching staff.

I've heard that Chris Ault is full of himself, so getting rid of that would probably help. But I'm going to say that gameplanning is the one area where Nevada could improve. The Wolf Pack have the system and athletes to blow teams off the field without really trying, but when the opponent is an equal or better, the coaching edge just isn't there. When Greg McMackin is outscheming you, something's wrong.

3. Imagine you're in the Boise State locker room before kick-off and it's your job to give the team some final words before this game begins. What would you tell them?

I would probably make up some quote about a Nevada guy running his mouth and saying things he shouldn't. Oh wait. Brett Roy already did that. My bad.

First off, I'd make sure that the Broncos had a healthy respect for Nevada and understood that this was a very good team they were playing. Then I'd remind them of the team goals and that winning a WAC championship is always Priority No. 1. After that, I'd go over the past few weeks and tell them how I proud I was that they were playing so well. Then I'd play "Final Countdown," tear a phonebook in half, and brand each of their names onto various team assistants. That should do the trick.

4. Pick out three player-to-player match-ups that you believe will have the biggest effect on this game's outcome and explain why you believe they will.

I kind of already did this in a post on OBNUG today, but I thought of some more.

TE Virgil Green vs. NB Winston Venable. Oregon State's only real offense came on pass plays to the tight end, and Green may be the best tight end Boise State has seen since. Venable will have to walk a fine line between selling out to the run and covering Green, provided the Broncos leave him with that choice.

CB Isaiah Frey vs. WR Titus Young. Did you see the Fresno game last week? Young was abusing the one-on-one coverage, so it will be interesting to see if Frey does any better - or if Nevada even dares put him in that position.

HC Chris Ault vs. HC Chris Petersen. When the stakes are high like they are on Friday night, coaches often come into play with big decisions or crazy gameplans. I'm interested to see what develops and how each coach handles pressure.

5. On a scale of comedians, with Gallagher being "not at all" and Richard Pryor being "supremely", how confident are you that your team will win on Friday?

The strangest thing has happened over the course of the season: I have become supremely confident in Bronco victory week-in and week-out. This is strange because I am normally a skeptic, maybe a realist at best. But this Boise State team is something else.

The Bronco defense matches up so well with the Nevada offense that I really don't doubt their being able to grind the Pistol to a halt. On the flip side, the Boise State offense matches up really well with the Nevada defense, so I don't have any worries there, either.

Is an upset a possibility? You bet it is. College football is a crazy game and anything can happen especially when you factor in weather and road conditions. That said, Boise State wins this game 8 out of 10 times.

Put me down for a "Richard Pryor," or the white version of Richard Pryor - Brian Regan.

End

We also made a fairly simple bet: the blogger that covers the winning team will get to write an entry for the blog that covers the losing team. Thanks again to Kevan for getting in touch with me and helping to arrange all of this, and Happy Thanksgiving.