Business
Ratings Plummet For BSU TV Production
September 23, 2017 
Visitors pose for pictures on the “Blue.”
By DAVE FRAZIER, editor
Blue turf and a dog chasing the kick-off tee only go so far when it comes to Boise State football.
The GUARDIAN freely admits to a certain degree of apathy when it comes to being a citizen of the so-called “Bronco Nation.” It is nice when they win and the country is amazed that we have a unique blue turf and trick plays. Fans are frustrated to pay big bucks for tickets and learn their neighbors are getting the same tickets for free or at reduced prices just to fill the seats for TV appearances.
College football today is owned-operated, catered to and hostage of television and TV is for the most part ENTERTAINMENT. BSU football has lost its entertainment value. Some fans are loyal, but with weekday games, late starts, and lackluster shows, the ratings are down and the series faces cancellation.
Back in the early days of my journalism career I covered Michigan State sports when Duffy Dougherty was head coach. Like Casey Stengel and Yogi Berra, “Duffy” was always good for a quote. He once motivated his players at half time during a Notre Dame contest saying, “The Gipper’s” ghost would reach up from the turf and grab them if they didn’t get into the end zone quick enough. (George Gipp was the star of legendary coach Knute Rockne’s team).
BSU’s Brian Harsin lost me when he called out a reporter for addressing him as “Brian” at a press conference. “My mother is the only one who calls me Brian,” he warned the reporter who apologized and referred to him as “coach.” He acted like an Army colonel demanding to be addressed as “sir” by a civilian. We have had a few off the field encounters with BSU players and they never have demonstrated a fondness for Harsin.
What we need at BSU is simple. We need the smiling face and astute mind of a guy who is a known commodity, has a great personality, is likable, and without question is an astute scholar of the game, destined to be a great football coach: KELLEN MOORE!
KELLEN MOORE
With five years in the NFL, he knows the game literally and figuratively. He loves Boise and Boise REALLY loves him. He would be the youngest or at least one of the youngest college division one coaches ever. Heck, football is in his DNA. His dad has had a career in coaching high school teams in Washington.
BSU could offer Moore a bit more than the Dallas Cowboys are paying for him to hang around and it would be a true “win-win” for all concerned.
Consider this the opening segment in the DRAFT KELLEN MOORE show.
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Comments & Discussion
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Sep 23, 2017, 1:08 pm
Dallas dumped Kellen Moore.
EDITOR NOTE–Cowboys still show him on the roster. Seems he was released and picked up again, but there may be more Moore since Sept. 4.
Sep 23, 2017, 2:41 pm
Good thought. After last night, calls for a change will commence. After years of affable coaches, this guy is a real dud.
Sep 23, 2017, 3:17 pm
ABSOLUTELY!!!
Sep 23, 2017, 4:19 pm
Harsin is very overrated and very overpaid.
All of Coach Pete’s work has now worn off and we now see what we really get. Not good. Not worth it.
Sep 23, 2017, 4:28 pm
Rather than spending our tax dollars on marketing and entertainment, how about if BSU starts focusing on academics? About time to teach their students so they can find employment after graduation?
Sep 23, 2017, 4:36 pm
as per normal ( well some of the time) Guardian is right. Kellen is being paid. Kind of the low man on the totem pole but for most of the rest of us it’s big $$$$. $775,000 is kind of chicken feed in the NFL
http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/dallas-cowboys/cap/
Sep 23, 2017, 4:39 pm
Second!
Sep 23, 2017, 6:10 pm
An excellent idea
Sep 24, 2017, 10:10 am
If you aren’t a member of the BAA or a big contributor to BSU, they don’t give a rat’s behind what you think.
Sep 24, 2017, 12:16 pm
I had have always thought coach Harsin was a good coach under difficult circumstances He has had to deal with constant change and turnover of his coaching staff as they have left for greener pastures. After that disatsterous 4th and 1 late in the third, I realized he didn’t have the gut or confidence in his team for 1 yard with the game on the line… I then realized, that his coordinators have probably been leaving because they didn’t want to coach under him. No one had wanted to stay and build a program under him. Time to go, he’s had his chance.
Sep 24, 2017, 4:37 pm
Who needs ticket sales when you get ESPN money?
If Kellen Moore is not ready to leave the Cowboys, BSU could also try to ‘draft’ one of the few quarterbacks to actually lead a team in a WIN over Kellen Moore’s BSU team:
Colin Kaepernick.
And apparently he is looking for employment.
Kaepernick is a true leader.
Someone willing to risk a lot to do the right thing- just what college students need to understand now-a-days.
That is exactly what we are seeing this weekend in the NFL.
Kaepernick’s stats, his career in the NFL, his California connection, his college degree in something other than Communications, and his flair for publicity exceed Moore’s.
Both great men though, no doubt.
Of a 104 BSU player roster, 48 are from CA; 19 are from Idaho; 3 are from Washington.
#IMWITHKAP #BSU_draft_kap 🙂
so is Jay Ajayi https://www.buzzfeed.com/remysmidt/im-with-kap?utm_term=.dqoAOM68M#.olGYOJAgJ
Better yet,,, maybe college football will dry up along with the NFL and all that money could actually be used to promote academics- instead of this economic-gladiator “entertainment”.
Do “rich kids” even play college football?
Rabula asks on another thread, “How many clean-water systems could we build for $165 million…?”(F-35).
There is also this question:
For the cost of the salaries for the coaching staff, how many scholarships could BSU provide to deserving low-income and middle income students? \Even some journalism scholarships!
Ooh, and if you want good Cowboy tickets expect to pay more than $600 a seat- some go for more than $5,000/seat for ONE game. Nosebleed, corner seat for a lame game is $85/seat.
So what class and type of people regularly buy tickets for NFL & NCAA football games?
#GladiatorGames
Sep 24, 2017, 4:47 pm
One problem is certainly Harsin, but it is much bigger. It is the direction of the football program, which means it is also the AD. Games scheduled on nights or at times when you can’t attend, bad times for TV viewing of games, expensive tickets and empty seats, and now losing. The magic is gone, the secret sauce allowed to go bland.
However, Moore is not the answer to Harsin, he is much too young, and continued time in the NFL will further his football education.
EDITOR NOTE–You just opened up an age discrimination issue! Joe Paterno was certainly too old. Kellen Moore would be a novelty and he is also wise beyond his years when it comes to coaching. Age isn’t the issue, it’s about ENTERTAINMENT! We agree with you on the systemic malaise. BSU has lost sight of how much a good (and winning) program means to a community. There isn’t much to be PROUD of these days. Groveling for TV attention is not very dignified, regardless of how much ESPN pays.
Sep 24, 2017, 10:07 pm
I too have heard comments about the days and time of day TV schedules have dictated games time. I used to love watching BSU on local TV stations. Now it seems it is all about revenue streams and big money flowing to BSU. It costs $39 for a nosebleed section ticket at a BSU home game.
Harsin is not and will never be anyone with “front of the room” dominance when speaking to fans and the media. He will have to produce a winning team or his days will be numbered at BSU.
EDITOR NOTE–They need some Saturday games to keep the boys out of the bars and off the booze. Two arrests in two weeks!
Sep 25, 2017, 9:50 am
If they want to fill the joint, play the Vandals
Sep 25, 2017, 2:18 pm
Football is crippling children for life and should be eliminated, not worshipped.
The Deep State finds football useful for creating an us VS them mindset that legitimizes the two largest hate groups in America, the Democrats and Republicans.
Sep 25, 2017, 4:03 pm
The quality of the play has fallen off since Peterson left – and when I say fallen off – I mean fallen off like in a cliff.
Sep 25, 2017, 7:07 pm
I’m not expert enough to comment on global warming OR Coach (Brian) Harsin. But I can’t help but notice how spoilt we in Bronco Nation have become.
I believe that Harsin’s current W-L record is 33-11. 75%. Half the NCAA coaches would LOVE to have a .750 record!
In the words of legendary Raiders man, Al Davis… “Just win, baby!” If the team wins, they’ll fill the seats. Winning IS entertainment. Losing, not so much.
Sep 25, 2017, 11:02 pm
Spelling his name wrong? If true, that is a CNN kinda flub.
I don’t watch pro or semi pro sports because too many broom pushers getting paid too much. Now they all think they are some kind of moral movement for disrespecting the country which made so many broom pushers so rich. They are a movement alright. (Terrible insult to broom pushers, sorry.)
Eliminate the ten more frequently used words from a football interview and you’d have near silence except for the grunting and nose snuffing.
Sep 26, 2017, 8:02 am
BSU football is where it rightly belongs: in the middle of mid-major. They had a good run, but that ain’t happ’nin in the next 10 years.