Scott Slant: Dealing with the Cache Valley juggernaut

BOISE, Idaho— Wednesday Weekly: February 18, 2026.

I discussed this in early January, however it actually bears repeating: How does Utah State males’s basketball get it finished yr after yr, coach after coach? USU is on its fourth coach since 2018, Jerrod Calhoun, who’s in his second yr. They’ve had 20-win seasons in six of the previous seven years and have made the NCAA Tournament every time—they usually’ve posted 26 or extra victories in 5 of them. And now the Aggies have topped 20 once more. After Ryan Odom left in 2023, Danny Sprinkle got here in, left with a roster that returned zero factors from the season earlier than. USU went 28-7, and Sprinkle bolted for Washington. Calhoun went 26-8 final season and is 22-3 this season, and he has the Aggies in first place within the Mountain West going into tonight’s recreation towards Boise State in Logan.

WHAT’S AHEAD IN ROUND 2 VS. USU?

The Broncos’ activity tonight is to stick with the Aggies—and show that final Friday’s workforce that blew leads of 23 and 17 factors in an additional time loss to UNLV was an imposter. Boise State is not essentially on the “playing for pride” stage after the disappointing night time towards the Rebels, however it’s an fascinating idea going into the Utah State recreation. After the loss to UNLV, RJ Keene felt the Broncos received “complacent” after constructing their 23-point first half lead and mentioned, “We need to set aside our egos.” No method Boise State might be complacent in Logan after getting run out of the fitness center at dwelling by the Aggies final month. Seven just isn’t a fortunate quantity for the Broncos—they’re 7-7 and in seventh place within the Mountain West.

DOING WHAT THE ANALYTICS SAY TO DO

After what Utah State did to complete their recreation towards Memphis final Saturday, it’s a must to marvel concerning the Aggies’ mindset for Boise State. USU drilled the Tigers 99-75 and, with the sport in hand, scored 13 factors within the last 1½ minutes, together with a tomahawk dunk on the buzzer. Memphis coach Penny Hardaway was none too completely happy and mentioned on her radio postgame present, “You can’t keep scoring the ball. You gotta have more class than that. You’ve just gotta have some kind of class, seriously.” Hardaway’s had his personal points, however that is one other story. The counter to that’s Utah State felt it needed to preserve scoring to enhance its KenPom and NCAA NET rankings metric to place itself for the NCAA Tournament. But hey, the Aggies may have a minimum of dribbled that final possession out, proper?

THIRD TIME AROUND FOR STRAUSSER

Chris Strausser, who’s all the time liked hanging out in Boise, has good motive to stay round, as he is been named Senior Offensive Analyst for Boise State soccer. Strausser may have a eager curiosity within the Broncos offensive line, as that has been his profession specialty. Highlights embrace his put up as Boise State O-line coach for Dan Hawkins from 2001-05 and Chris Petersen from 2007-13. Strausser then adopted Coach Pete to Washington. He later went on to the NFL and was most lately the offensive line coach for the Houston Texans in 2023-24. This is a stable addition to the Broncos workers.

Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News ranks the toughness of every Pac-12 soccer schedule, and he has Boise State’s because the second-easiest, intimating that the convention gave the Broncos a break. “All eyes will be on the opener at Oregon, with the inevitable comparisons to the riveting duel two years ago,” writes Wilner. “But maybe probably the most impactful recreation—for the Broncos and possibly all the Pac-12—comes the next week when Boise State hosts Memphis, a possible contender for the Group of Six slot within the playoff. The Broncos cannot complain about their convention schedule: They do not play back-to-back highway video games or face any opponents with two weeks to organize. Look intently, and it is obvious the Pac-12 took nice care with the sequencing of video games for Boise State and San Diego State. Which was “smart.”

Klint Kubiak seems just like the ticket for the Las Vegas offense subsequent season, as the brand new Raiders coach will have the ability to put surefire No. 1 draft decide Fernando Mendoza with former Boise State star Ashton Jeanty and tight finish Brock Bowers. Of course, we thought Pete Carroll was going to be the proper man to transition Jeanty into the NFL a yr in the past. In a profile of Kubiak at The Athletic, Ted Nguyen writes, “It will take some time for Jeanty to become as precise with his outside zone reads as Kubiak wants him to be, but part of the beauty of this offense is all the reps that Jeanty will get running the same play. With better play calling and more built-in blocking adjustments, negative plays for Jeanty should be greatly reduced. Giving Jeanty a shot to run untouched into the line of scrimmage should unlock his vast potential.”

POSSIBLE (PROBABLE?) DEBACLE FOR SAC STATE

I’ve gotta weigh in on this Sacramento State factor. The Hornets have been making an attempt to place the cart earlier than the horse for years now, and now they’ve finished it with their transfer to the MAC in soccer. To offset the $18 million in entry charges and the thousands and thousands extra it will must pay visiting MAC groups, with no convention income coming in, Sac State president Luke Wood claims an financial impression of $975 million and nationwide broadcast worth of $675 million over the following 5 years. Where on the earth did that math come from?

We’ve all seen “MACtion” on the ESPN networks on weeknights. Good publicity, sure, however empty stadiums—embarrassingly so. Sac State averaged 15,500 followers per recreation final season in Hornet Stadium. Now they’ve a possibility to attract far fewer than that internet hosting Akron on a Wednesday night time. That’s going to outdraw Montana on a Saturday? As The Athletic says, “This whole thing feels like a pyramid scheme.”

While we await Hilary Knight and Team USA to drop the puck Thursday towards Canada for the Olympic gold medal in Milan, we’ve to salute Jaelin Kauf for her two silver medals (one in girls’s moguls and the opposite in twin moguls. Kauf is a kind of athletes claimed by quite a few states (on this case: Idaho, Wyoming and Utah). She lists her hometown as Alta, WY, proper on the Idaho border, whereas her mother and father reside in Tetonia, so she’s in Idaho’s Teton Valley loads. Two golds for Kauf to go along with the 2 gold medals gained by alpine skier Breezy Johnson, who was raised in Victor however is equally claimed by Jackson Hole.

HOFFMAN-LESS OFFENSE FOR THE STEELIES

The Idaho Steelheads are again to the standard Wednesday-Friday-Saturday routine this week, and that begins tonight on the highway towards the Tahoe Knight Monsters. At least as of this writing, the Steelheads might be taking part in three extra video games with out their main scorer, Brendan Hoffman, after dropping two of three with out him at Wichita final weekend and scoring simply two objectives mixed within the two losses. Hoffman was referred to as as much as the AHL’s Texas Stars after posting an ECHL-leading 32 objectives, the final three of which got here in a hat trick towards the Utah Grizzlies final week. Amazingly, that is the primary time he is had a shot at AHL ice.

BIG WEEKEND FOR THE YOTES

College of Idaho does its last jockeying for the Cascade Conference event because it hosts Oregon Tech and Southern Oregon in Elgin Baylor Arena to finish the common season Friday and Saturday. The Yotes might be making an attempt to avenge a sweep by the hands of these two faculties on the highway in early January. The standings mirror the significance of those—Tech is without doubt one of the three groups tied for first at 14-4 in convention, whereas C of I and SOU are a recreation again at 13-5. A sweep would give the Yotes a 20-win season, as is the routine in Caldwell.

THIS DAY IN SPORTS…February 18, 2016, 10 years in the past in the present day:

Jared Allen posts a video of himself on a horse, driving off into the sundown. And with that, the previous Idaho State nice retired after a stellar 12-year NFL profession that noticed him document 136 sacks, the ninth-most in league historical past, with Kansas City, Minnesota, Chicago and Carolina. As a Bengal senior in 2003, Allen was the Buck Buchanan Award winner as Division I-AA’s greatest defensive participant earlier than being drafted within the fourth spherical by the Chiefs. He was a five-time Pro Bowler and was NFC Defensive Player of the Year in 2011.

(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant phase in the course of the soccer season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He additionally anchors 4 sports activities segments every weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs each Wednesday.)