http://youtube.com/watch?v=rI1wMTiJnfc
Fresno State coach Pat Hill, on Boise State: ‘The premier team in the country in execution’
“This is the best Bronco team I’ve seen. This will definitely be the best defensive team we’ll face. It’s fun to watch them on film because they play so hard, they play so sound and you really have to earn your yards. You cannot make mistakes and get yourself in long-yardage situations.”
— “In special teams, every year the Boise game is the one you look forward to as a special-teams coach and a special-teams unit because they’re the best you play against.”
— “They play as a team as well as anybody I’ve ever watched.”
— “Their big plays are a little bit different than the big plays of Ole Miss or Nebraska where you have an individual athlete who beats you athletically. … They design big plays or execute big plays to beat you. They can put you in positions where they get big plays because you don’t adjust to some of the things they do.”
— “This is going to be a very intense game for us, not only physically, but mentally. I think we’re going against them at the right time. We just got to execute, that’s the name of the game. We’re playing against the premier team in the country in execution.”
— “Defensively the key to game is going to be, you can’t even chart or practice every formation they have, what you have to do is be able to understand what they’re trying to do with the personnel on the field and play defense to stop personnel groupings, not formations, cause there’s just too many formations to work on. They run multiple formations; we’ve got to work hard on being sound in our scheme and making sure of the personnel groupings that are on the field.”
— “It’s all going to come down to pass protection. We got to protect against these guys. These guys are violent against the quarterback. It’s not always in the amount of sacks, it’s in the amount of hits. They put a lot of big hits on the quarterback and against Ole Miss we limited the big hits against the quarterback.”
“The group I was most unhappy with was the officials,” he said. “The bottom line … was they gave them two touchdowns. One we had an interception that stops a drive. … I don’t say things very often, but they changed the complexion of the whole ballgame with about five or six calls. Right now, I understand why I left Conference USA.”
“It was just nice to kind of get over what happened last year — that kind of lingers with you for a while,” he said. “Usually that’s your first thought the way that finished when you think of Nevada. … Certainly it felt good. We’d be lying to you if we didn’t think that one had a little special meaning to it just because of last year and the implications that that game had.”
Boise State football: Opportunity knocks for Ewing-Burton
Maturing sophomore embraces chance to start at cornerback after injury to Jerrell Gavins.
Quaylon Ewing-Burton could have lost his best friend and squandered his football future four years ago.
He frequently ran afoul of Kempner High rules and was suspended from the football team for four games during his junior season. His friend, George Iloka, confronted him about his behavior — a bit of tough love that caused friction at the time but helped turn around Ewing-Burton’s life.
On Friday night at Fresno State, the two buddies from Houston will start together in the Boise State football team’s defensive backfield — with Iloka, a fourth-year starter, at safety and Ewing-Burton, a second-game starter, at cornerback.
“I was that kid who was just always getting into stuff,” Ewing-Burton, a sophomore, said Tuesday. “I felt like at that point in time he was trying to get me kicked off the team because he told the coaches, ‘We don’t want people like him on the team.’ And I agree with him totally.
“… After the suspension, it made me realize I needed to get things in order.”
Said Iloka: “I kind of got in his grille.”
This summer, under less-dire circumstances, they had a similar chat. Ewing-Burton, like Iloka before him, was tagged with an “immature” label.
“He reminded me of me,” Iloka said. “I had maturity issues when I came in, but I grew out of it.”
He wanted to see his friend do the same.
Ewing-Burton contributed on special teams last season as a redshirt freshman but still wasn’t pushing for playing time on defense at the end of spring ball in April.
“Conversing with (Iloka), I realized my time is getting closer and closer and closer,” Ewing-Burton said. “It’s time I stepped it up. … I didn’t come here just to practice or to play in front of 5,000 people. I came to play in big games and actually get my time.”
That time unexpectedly arrived last week, when senior starter Jerrell Gavins injured a knee in practice — an injury that likely will keep the team leader in interceptions out for the rest of the season.
Ewing-Burton made his first start Saturday against Nevada and made a team-high seven tackles.
His summer maturation paid off — though it’s still unclear whether he’s prepared for a full-time role.
“He played pretty well,” defensive backs coach Marcel Yates said. “Friday will be the true test, because these guys will go vertical. This quarterback can throw the ball downfield. These receivers are fast. …
“Saturday morning, we’ll know.”
Ewing-Burton (6-foot, 182 pounds) certainly has the talent to succeed. It’s the details of the game — football was his third sport, behind basketball and track, until late in high school — that he’s trying to refine.
He primarily was a running back until his junior year at Kempner, when he switched to corner. Boise State special teams coach Jeff Choate noticed him while recruiting Iloka, who was one year ahead of him.
“He had a lot of ability,” Choate said.
The Kempner coach, however, told Choate he wasn’t ready to recommend Ewing-Burton. He wanted to see whether he truly had turned the corner with his off-field behavior.
By the following summer, as Ewing-Burton prepared for his senior season, the red flags were gone.
“One thing about Quaylon,” Choate said, “whatever you asked him to do, he did it right away. You could see he was a kid who wanted to do the right things. Sometimes, you’ve got to be able to lead that horse to water and that’s kind of the case with him.”
Ewing-Burton watched Iloka excel as a true freshman starter and heard from him how much he enjoyed the Broncos program. He also connected with Choate, forming a close bond that sealed his decision to sign with Boise State.
He arrived in 2009 expecting to make a quick impact but almost immediately understood how difficult the transition from high school to college would be.
“The biggest thing for me is just focusing and realizing what’s important and what I can put aside and, as (coach Chris Petersen) says, ‘honing in,’ ” Ewing-Burton said. “… I’m the type of person who sometimes it takes a while to get it. Right now, I’m still not where I want to be but definitely sooner or later I’ll get there and when I’m there it’ll be wonderful.”
He drew motivation this year from the coaches’ decision to try him at safety. He developed a better understanding of the defense and considered the move a sign of the coaches’ trust.
“I was learning more and it started to come easier to me,” he said. “Classes got easier. Football got a little easier. Life got a little easier.”
His progress was apparent in fall camp, when he consistently made big plays. Coaches rewarded him with playing time as the sixth defensive back in the season opener against Georgia, in addition to quality time on special teams.
His emergence on the field followed closely improvements that Choate noticed off the field.
“He’s done a real nice job in the classroom the last couple semesters,” Choate said. “… It started with him figuring out really top to bottom how we do things. Once he got all that out of the way, that wasn’t clouding his mind when he went to the practice field. And things started rolling for him.
“And we’re going to need him.”
After all, Gavins wasn’t just a starter — he was one of the Broncos’ best players through three games at one of the most important positions.
“He was having a phenomenal year,” Ewing-Burton said, “and I refuse to be that person who comes in and loses the game for us. … (This opportunity) means a lot. It’s something I’ve been waiting for and hoping for. You’ve got to make the most of it.”
Chadd Cripe: 377-6398
Why do I feel like Gavins injury is a blessing in disguise?
Fresno State hoping to slow down Boise State
Before all is said and done, Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore will finish his college career as one of the most prolific quarterbacks in history.
Moore is just 22 touchdown passes away from being the career touchdown leader, and he is just four wins away from being the career wins leader — both numbers he can attain with the Broncos still having eight games remaining in the regular season, plus a likely bowl game.
The Fresno State football team is hoping it can stall Moore before he inevitably sets both those marks.
The Bulldogs are going to have to stop Moore if they hope to have any chance at pulling the upset against the No.-6 ranked team in the country on Friday night at Bulldog Stadium.
The Broncos are ranked No. 6 in the USA TODAY poll and No. 5 in the Associated Press poll, making them the highest-ranked team to ever play at Bulldog Stadium.
“It is exciting,” Fresno State senior defensive tackle Logan Harrell said. “It is like any other week. It is a challenge, but especially with them coming in here and ranked No. 5 in the country, it is a big opportunity for us. It would be huge for us to beat them coming in here.”
Harrell and the Fresno State defense will have their work cut out for them against one of the best college quarterbacks the game has seen.
The statistics don’t favor Fresno State’s chances to stop the machine that is the Boise State offense.
In their three losses, the Bulldogs have given up 36, 42 and 38 points.
ª First it was Cal quarterback Zach Maynard, who passed for 266 yards and two touchdowns, and rushed for another 70 yards.
ª Then it was Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez, who passed for 219 yards and a touchdown, and ran for 173 yards and two more scores.
ª And on Saturday, it was Ole Miss quarterback Randall Mackey -†making his first start of the season -†who passed for 214 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 42 yards, giving the Bulldogs fits all game with his mobility.
Fresno State has obviously had issues with mobile quarterbacks. The good news for the Bulldogs is that Moore won’t be doing any running around.
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