SCOTTSDALE — Scott Huff remembers the old days, before Boise State was a household name, and that blue turf was a household turf, and long before Bryan Harsin took over a program that now drops in on major bowl games with regularity.
The Boise State offensive line coach, now in his ninth year with the Broncos, recalls crickets when he told people where he’d play in college.
Boise? Idaho? The potato place?
Now when the Phoenix-area product pitches his squad to his hometown folk as the Broncos’ primary Arizona recruiter, they know.
“When I was recruited and signed, nobody knew where I was going,” he said.
“Being able to see the growth and transition in Arizona, at home, is awesome. It’s kind of on the map, whereas when I signed, it was, ‘Where’s that?’ They might know us just because of the blue field, but they at least know us.”
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Huff has refined his pitch, mainly because he once listened to the pitch himself.
But to know Boise, Huff insists, is to love it, and now he no longer has to give the standard Smurf sales pitch about bleeding blue.
He has grown to know and love the town and its people, who embrace the team and its coaches right back.
Without a major professional sports team in town, the Boise State football has become the de facto big dogs of Idaho.
“Boise is just a really special place,” Huff said. “I say this wholeheartedly, it really is completely different than you’d think.
“I remember getting recruited, and I had no idea what it’s about. Every person has come and if they’re from Arizona, every single person has been like, ‘I totally get this. I could totally live there.’ Some people think it’s potato farms and cowboys, and it couldn’t be more untrue.”
It’s worked on friends, family, and, given the Broncos’ solid Arizona ties, it appears its working on the players as well. Boise State currently has two Copper State players on the roster — tight end Jake Roh is from Scottsdale and offensive linemen Jerhen Ertel hails from Bagdad.
“Guys from Arizona have been good for us,” Huff said. “I take a lot of pride in bringing guys up from Arizona to Boise and those guys take a lot of pride proving me right.”
He’s been able to sell kids from across the country to leave home and move to Boise, but the city has been able to sell itself, ranking second in Forbes’ list of best places to raise a family.
“It’s home to all these big corporations and can be as big as you want it to be in terms of nightlife, social life,” Huff said. “But being a football player or a student-athlete at Boise, you are the only show in town. You kind of have the best of both worlds.”
Huff would know — he was a star for the Broncos as a center, graduating in 2002 after starting 40 games and earning first-team all-conference honors and a spot on Bronco Stadium’s 35th Anniversary team.
Those were the good old days, but life isn’t too bad now, either.
He’s back coaching the offensive line after a stint as tight ends coach under now-Washington head coach Chris Petersen. He has a wife, a young son. He lives in a town he loves, and coaches for a team that wins.
Pretty sweet.
And he’s back home for the holidays and the Fiesta Bowl, coaching for a third time in front of friends and family.
“It’s awesome to get to go back to Phoenix, where I was born and raised, and especially with the last two Fiesta Bowls, winning those two,” he said. “The game against Oklahoma (a 43-42 win in 2007) — a lot of people said that was one of the biggest games ever. We joke around — I shoulda retired after my first year, undefeated and with a Fiesta Bowl win.”
