THE C L I M B Episode 4 (2024 Boise State Football)

Signs come in many forms as the Broncos sharpen their focus and hone their craft. A unique visitor appeared on The Blue. In many cultures. the praying mantis is seen as a sign of good fortune, a creature that embodies patience and precision. With the first game of the season just days away. This humble insect serves as a reminder that greatness is not rushed, but earned through relentless preparation and focus. The dog days of training camp is where teams are forged. We're the foundation for a season is laid. but it's also where every team must find their fracture point. That moment when the body screams, the lungs burn, and the mind whispers to give up. It's in that crucible of pain and exhaustion where the true character of a team is revealed. Fracture point, I'd put it like this, you know. We talk about Boise State, digging them into deep waters and taking them there. And, going into that fourth quarter, you know, there's there's going to be teams that fold and teams that, come out on top just based off their training and their, habits that they've built. In the fourth quarter. You're going to be tired when the game's on the line. When we hit adversity and we had to come out of halftime strong, like, I want to see what guys are like. I've already been through this. No, I'm not going to put my head down. No, I want to see and what guys are going to be able to still encourage The rest of their teammates when they're tired. The fracture points really getting out of your comfort zone because that's where growth happens. If you're comfortable, if it's easy, you're not getting better. So it's us designing and finding ways to get these guys out of their comfort zone. So they're being stretched in every department. So they're growing. They're getting better. They're learning from their experiences. We are in the dog maze and practices like Inferno practice show you what guys really want it. Well, guys are able to push through no matter the circumstances. And you know what? Guys may have a fresh report and what guys may not have one at all. my job is to try and find everybody's fracture point coaches, players. So then you know where that is. And then fall camp is to push that fracture point past where it maybe was before. Maybe it was, hey, after 40 plays in a practice, this young man or this coach or whatever starts to crumble, starts to fracture a little bit. We got to get that pass there and more for, for a young man's mind to know I can't be broken. That's what I'm trying to build into these young men. The confidence is you are way tougher. Way stronger. God made your bodies amazing. We can push past where you may be prior. Thought you would was your ending point was your fracture point. So that's fall camp and our guys have done a good job. and we put it through them. And I talked to our team Saturday before the scrimmage about, you know, iron, is this one of the strongest metals in the world, and the only way to create and make something beautiful with iron is to put it in the fire. And that's what fall camp is. We put our players in the fire. We have put them in a lot of hard situations from long practices, night walkthroughs, attention to detail and everything they do. The Inferno days in regards to getting in that indoor and cranked up the humidity and the heat. You have to be ready to respond, Mike Tyson said. Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the mouth. That's football. That's the life we live and our guys have done a great job through fall camp. and we push our fracture point past where it was and need to continue to do so. As you go on and practice and start running more and more, start getting more and more tired. The intensity goes up during practice and it's really just about having that mental endurance throughout the practice. And you know, it gets tougher and tougher as you go from the first team period to the last team period. I mean, the energy levels are totally different, so just finding that extra motivation when you're tired is definitely not easy. And then now talking, respond and come back and fix the things that you messed up before. Going into fall camp. You know, we had a lot of different position battles at a crossroads offense, defense and special teams. And it's my job to create those. It's my job to make sure we look at all the statistics after every practice, at every position, to make sure that as guys earn all the reps they get, if guys are the number two and are out playing the starter, we got to make sure that jump happens because I want there to be a mentality that everything is earned here, and if I don't compete every single day, I will lose my job. That's the reality of playing football at Boise State. But while doing that, it is a huge part of that is continuing to keep the love and the connection of our team. And so as the head coach is making sure every part of our players day, every part of this building is surrounding our players and creating connection amongst. And that's that's one of the main reasons we have Bronco Olympics is yes, we are competing on the field. We are competing in the meeting rooms, we're competing in everything we do. But we are a family. We are a brotherhood. We are a brotherhood that loves each other. That's the Ellen Incline. That is love. Love is action. Love is sacrifice. That means sometimes I might need to put my own self-interest aside for the self-interest of my team, my teammates, and is breeding that in everything we do, creating that connection and our team, we're not there yet. We're growing to that point, and I'm proud of where we are at this point, because the goal is to have a we compete in everything we do, and the second that's over, I'm going to go give that guy a hug and say, I love you and I can't wait to do it again tomorrow. That means that you beat me out. I can't wait to catch you. But I'm so excited to celebrate your success on the field because as you leave fall camp and fall camp, it's it's we're competing against each other. It's oh, versus these, these special teams units competing against each other. Those are our brothers. Those are our teammates here. August 31st, we're competing against an opponent. And as we transition to game one, when you leave fall camp leaving some of these position battles, yes, we're going to continue to evaluate every single day from game one to game two. In game, we're going to have to make decisions and move in regards to making sure we're putting players in the best positions. But as we leave fall camp to game one, we are going out there to play as a team and play together and we will win as a team together. That's built into everything we do. Don't come here unless you're unless you're capable to be pushed to a level you never been pushed before. You have to be able to approach things here with a sense of humility. Every day we step in the building. We want to be a great team. Focus on the little things growing every single day and having more confidence in each other. And the man to the left and Sarada, you and even the people behind you. We won't give up and we'll do whatever we have to do to win regardless of the situation. Just a whole energy around the building and the mentality is different. You know we're not. We're not coming to do anything regular. you know, we're not just trying to improve ourselves, but we're trying to take everything, and leave nothing behind. Take advantage of every opportunity that we have each and every single day is important. Every practice, every play, every meeting. Everything is meant for us to separate ourselves from the rest of our competition. You can expect 11 trained killers on the field playing their best football. And even if we lose, win or lose or draw, you're going to see some some guys fighting for their lives out there and no one's going to go down without a fight. No one's going to go down without swinging.