Malcolm Johnson and Grant Hedrick scored touchdowns and Joe Southwick fired a 66-yard scoring strike to Geraldo Boldewijn as the Boise State offense emerged victorious 26-20 in Bronco Stadium in the only Bronco scrimmage that will be open to the public.
Boise State head coach Chris Petersen has always been secretive, but to only allow one scrimmage and not one eye from the public seeing the team the last two weeks of fall ball is really playing it close to the vest.
Johnson led all runners with 10 carries for 41 yards while Hedrick was 9-10 passing for 97 yards and gained 26 yards on seven carries. Southwick was 4-10 for 101 yards and gained 37 yards on three carries. Senior quarterback Kellen Moore was not as effective, going 7-12 for 116 yards. Moore threw two touchdowns on red zone drills but those did not count in the scoring.
Freshman Troy Ware led the receivers with four catches for 42 yards. The offense also got field goals from junior Michael Frisina and freshman Dan Goodale, but freshman kicking sensation Jake Van Ginkel only attempted extra points.
The Bronco defense got points on sacks (two points each) from senior Jarrell Root, sophomore Kharyee Marshall and freshman linebacker Blake Renaud and another two on a combined sack from David Cushing and Beau Martin. The defense also got three points for three field goal stops in the red zone and nine points for three fourth-down stops.
Boise State begins the season against what is thought to be one of the most improved teams in the nation, #22-ranked Georgia, in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game Saturday, September 3 in the Georgia Dome. Although Boise State was only allotted just over 7,000 tickets in the 71,000-seat home of the Atlanta Falcons in Atlanta, over 10,000 Bronco fans are expected. According to my research, more Boise State fans would have gone had tickets made available to them. Georgia was allotted over 60,000 tickets in the "neutral" game.
Last night's scrimmage drew 15,623 fans to Bronco Stadium.
