July 23, 2008
By: krobinett
Category: Big Sky posts
By Kellis Robinett
Based on the comments from this blog, I’ve got a feeling a few of you are going to like this week’s participant for The Interview: Doug Fullerton.
No matter what the Big Sky Commissioner does, it seems someone has a different reaction to it. When he changed Division I-AA to Football Championship Subdivision, some liked it and others ridiculed the new name for a full year. Every time a Big Sky coach is suspended for criticizing the officials, an entire community groans about it.
He’s the closest thing the Big Sky has to a lightning rod. I guess that’s why he’s the Comish. Here’s a sampling that revolves around that much-criticized suspending coaches policy:
“The easiest target is always the refs. I don’t like listening to the fans (blame them) and I’m certainly not going to listen to the coaches do it. You look back at most of the questionable calls over the years, our officials get it right. If they don’t, we’re the first to admit that they didn’t. Coaches criticizing officials is just them in the heat of the moment making an excuse for a play. I just don’t buy that. It’s a philosophy thing. The presidents don’t like it. I don’t like it. So we don’t allow it.”
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July 22, 2008
By: krobinett
Category: Big Sky posts
By Kellis Robinett
PARK CITY, Utah — Much like college football coaches, I think of preseason polls and all-conference teams the same way I do a 14-day weather forecast. Sure, some of the predictions might be right, but there’s no way anyone — even me! — can accurately pick something that’s so far away.
(Editor’s note: The only poll I’m paying attention to is the one to the left of this paragraph.)
The preseason Big Sky all-conference team is a perfect example of why all this stuff is nothing more than media and coaches drawing names out of a hat.
Left out of the “prestigious” group was Idaho State linebacker, team captain and all-around best player Ryan Phipps. By the end of the season, a lot of voters are going to regret not picking him early. He is the biggest snub not on this list.
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July 21, 2008
By: krobinett
Category: Robinett Ramblings
By Kellis Robinett
PARK CITY, Utah — Idaho State Sports Information Director Frank Mercogliano was nice enough to hold up Idaho State’s new black uniform for me this morning at the opening day of the Big Sky media conference.
After seeing them, I must say I am impressed. Coming into the uniform debate, I was in favor of orange uniforms. They are Idaho State’s main color, the men’s basketball team doesn’t have orange uniforms and I figured it was a good idea for the football team to at least sport orange as the main color for home games.
But these are better jerseys than what we saw in the past. They have a new design that resembles Syracuse (with three stripes on the shoulders and nothing else flashy) Letters and numbers are actually stitched on by hand instead of painted on in some foreign factory, and they look much better. And the more I look at them, black certainly seems more businesslike than orange.
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July 21, 2008
By: krobinett
Category: Sunday Columns
By Kellis Robinett
An Idaho State fan went out of his way the other day to tell me that the Bengals were going to “rock” in football this year. Have to admit, I wasn’t sure how to take that comment.
By “rock,” surely he didn’t mean that Idaho State was headed to the FCS playoffs for the first time since the invention of CDs. But how can you say a team is going to “rock” and mean anything but a trip to the postseason? So I asked him to elaborate. “Five or six wins,” the fan told me. “We’re going to be a whole lot better than last year.” Reasonable expectations. I like that. Especially because five or six wins is exactly what I figured Idaho State would end with this year, too.
Here’s how the season will go:
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July 15, 2008
By: krobinett
Category: Robinett Ramblings
Brian Murphy, the Idaho Statesman’s sports columnist, is gearing up for the upcoming football season like we all are.
But unlike the rest of us, he knows just about everything there is to know about Boise State athletics. From what the score will be in the Broncos’ season opener against Idaho State (Which he doesn’t think will bode well for the Bengals) to who some of the Broncos’ emerging stars are going to be, he’s got a good opinion on everything BSU. In this week’s version of The Interview, he shared some of them.
Here’s a sampling: “I think the Broncos go 11-1 or 10-2. If they beat Oregon on Sept. 20, however, the momentum might carry them all the way back to the BCS.”
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July 12, 2008
By: krobinett
Category: Sunday Columns
By Kellis Robinett
Up in the stands at Halliwell Park, fans ask each other a lot of questions these days. Questions that have little to do with baseball.
“How is he doing?”
“Did the surgery go well?”
“Is he still in a coma?”
They are questions that don’t belong at a baseball game, especially one involving a team made up of 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds. At that age, winning and losing aren’t even important yet. Parents are supposed to sit in the bleachers, talk about the weather, chow down on a burger and occasionally say “that’s my boy out there.”
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July 10, 2008
By: krobinett
Category: Robinett Ramblings
By Kellis Robinett
Did anyone read that front page story the other day about an Idaho State professor encouraging his students to develop a plan for a new mega airport in Southeast Idaho? If you did, stay with me for a second. If not, here’s a quick recap:
The plan is for a Boise/Spokane sized airport to be built somewhere around Blackfoot. Travelers won’t have to go through Salt Lake City before flying to places like Chicago anymore and getting to the airport will be easy because an intricate train system will take travelers from Pocatello, Idaho Falls and Twin Falls to their check-in lines in a hurry. All together, the professor estimates that this airport will cost something like $2 billion to build.
Yeah, I’m going to go ahead and say that’s never going to happen. But while we’re on the subject of making Idaho State students devote man hours and research time into a ridiculously impossible plan, let’s make them look into something we could all really use: A hovering Holt Arena.
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July 10, 2008
By: krobinett
Category: Robinett Ramblings
By Kellis Robinett
When Dan Zeidman graduated from Idaho State, he said a good number of NFL teams called to talk to him about his punting abilities.
For his sake, let’s hope a few of them are still interested. Because the team he originally signed with, the Carolina Panthers, announced on its Web site that he has been released along with former quarterback Taylor Tharp.
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July 05, 2008
By: krobinett
Category: Sunday Columns
By Kellis Robinett
Eric Thorton admired the championship trophy like it was a priceless artifact straight out of an Indiana Jones movie.
Next to him, teammates gathered for pictures, and every time it looked like they had taken enough snapshots to properly savor the moment, someone came swooping in to demand they pose for a few more.
And Grayson Laurino, the game’s offensive MVP, really got to live it up. Before the Boise quarterback could change into his street clothes, he was signing footballs for a group of young fans.
It was some celebration all right.
Especially following an exhibition game.
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July 04, 2008
By: krobinett
Category: Robinett Ramblings
By Kellis Robinett
The area’s best high school football prospect has made up his mind. Taysom Hill says he’s going to Stanford.
The soon-to-be senior Highland quarterback orally committed to play football for the Cardinal on Thursday, and he spent most of the 4th of July celebrating our nation’s independence right along with his own college decision, which he couldn’t be happier with. For a while now, he said he’s been leaning toward Stanford, and the more and more he thought about it the more he knew he needed to just go ahead and committ.
“It’s the place for me,” he said.
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