Kellen Moore will appear on the new issue of Sports Illustrated that will hit newsstands tomorrow, according to the Idaho Press-Tribune & Idaho Statesman.

Sports Illustrated is going with two covers this week — and one features Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore. Click on the thumbnails for larger images. The national cover features LSU. Boise State's cover will be distributed throughout the West — to Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. The Boise State headline is, “It’s Go Time: Boise State is BCS Busting (Again).” Boise State also has a small headline on the LSU cover/Chadd Cripe, Idaho Statesman. More here.

Question: Does the success of the Boise State Broncos football team affect the national perception of Idaho in a positive way?

A comprehensive Sports Illustrated/CBS News special investigation found that 16 Boise State players had criminal charges, ranking the Broncos tied for No. 4 among teams in Sports Illustrated's 2010 preseason Top 25. The six-month investigation into 2,837 players found that 7 percent had criminal records and 8.1 percent of scholarship players had been in trouble. Only two of the Top 25 schools did background checks and none checked juvenile records. The investigation looked into players' complete criminal records, not just charges while in college. Pittsburgh (22 players charged) ranked No. 1 with Iowa and Arkansas (18 players charged each) tying for No. 2. Boise State was tied with Penn State/Brian Murphy, Idaho Statesman. More here.

Question: Does this Sports Illustrated story tarnish Boise State's successful 2010 season?

It’s not every day that someone turns down $5.3 million over a coupla brewskies at Capone’s in Midtown Coeur d’Alene. But ex-NFL QB Jake Plummer did just that – in summer 2007, while quaffing $3 Molsons served by Tom Capone’s servers. Writer Chris Ballard provides the details in a nine-page feature story in the Feb. 14 issue of Sports Illustrated. The offer to Plummer, who now coaches Sandpoint High football, was made by then-coach Jon Gruden and GM Bruce Allen of Tampa Bay. Ballard writes: “Gruden leaned in and started selling. Join us in Tampa Bay, he said, and with our defense and your leadership we’ll have a shot at the Big One. Come to Florida, he said, and you’ll be the hero you could never be in Denver in the shadow of John Elway.” Plummer told the Tampa Bay jumbos that their offer was “sweet.” But not sweeter than the freedom he’d found in retirement/DFO, Huckleberries, SR. More here.

• Bulldogs back in the thick of it/John Blanchette
• Boise: Anti-discrimination bill will die in committee/Betsy Russell
• Smart Bombs: Social Insecurity is rising/Gary Crooks
• Spokane bigger than Tacoma? Betting on it/Doug Clark

Question: Which Capone dish is your favorite?

In the current, pre-swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated, writer Chris Ballard tells of a 2007 meeting at Capones in Midtown between NFL QB Jake Plummer and then Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden. Gruden and his traveling partner, GM Bruce Allen, visited Coeur d'Alene to try to talk Plummer out of retirement. They were carrying two footballs and a pair of new cleats. Ballard continues: “Shortly after 6 p.m. the duo walked into Capone's, a sports bar in Coeur d'Alene where people gather to watch Broncos games, play pool and drink $3 Molsons. Ten minutes later Jake Plummer and his wife, Kollette, walked in. Gruden rose and mustered all of his considerable charm, pumping Jake's hand and telling him how excited he, Jon Gruden, guru of quarterbacks, was to sit down and talk football with Jake Plummer, the ultimate gunslinger. Beers were consumed, pizzas were ordered. By and by, Gruden and Allen made their pitch.” Ultimately, Plummer turned down Gruden's $5.3 million offer and now helps coach football at Sandpoint High. SI story here. (AP file photo of Plummer warming up before Denver-Pittsburgh playoff game in January 2006)

Question: Have you ever turned down a good-paying job to pursue a dream?

In a story today in the Missoulian, reporter Betsy Cohen tells how persistence on the part of Missoula fashion designer Cat Thordarson landed one of her designs in the upcoming Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. On a lark, Thordarson took 20 of her swimsuit designs to New York City last summer, where she approached editors of the sports magazine unannounced. It was the last swimsuit among her designs that got her “a piece of  the most-coveted real estate in the world of swimsuit design.” Thordarson is quoted as saying: “I am so thrilled to have made it into the issue. I've been on the edge of my seat all these months, and I hadn't heard until just recently that one of my suits would make the cut.” Thordarson doesn't know which famous model will be wearing her sexy bikini, but it won't be hard to pick out, reports Cohen. The suit pattern is a wild geometric-inspired explosion of neon colors — and it's tiny. More here. (AP/Sports Illustrated file photo of model Esti Ginzburg for the 2010)

Question: Are you in shape to wear a bikini this summer?

The “firsts” keep coming for the Boise State football team. The Broncos will be featured on the national cover of Sports Illustrated magazine this week. (BTW, that’s Byron Hout, former Lake City High star (No. 94) in the center of the photo.) The magazine hits news stands Wednesday. Boise State was on a regional cover of Sports Illustrated’s college football preview in August, but this is the school’s first national cover/AP via SportsLink. More here. (Sports Illustrated photo)

• Cartoon: John Boehner, congressional Casanova/David Horsey, Seattle P-I
  
• No sign of bear fended off by zucchini/Tristan Scott, Missoulian
• Bozeman backs suit for same-sex Montana rights/Amanda Ricker, Chronicle
  
• Source: Trooper shooting of pregnant woman was accidental/McKay Allen, KXLY
• Bob Wire: A Montana redneck crawls through Venice Beach/New West
• Property tax break for homeowners drops w/home prices/Idaho Statesman
• Sports Illustrated focuses on BSU’s national title hopes/Chadd Cripe, Statesman
• Northwest Nazarene athletes want to state in Division II/Tabitha Simenc, Press-Trib
• UIdaho: Funds needed for medical school/Mike Butts, Idaho Press-Tribune
• Orbusmax Special: Baby dies from overdose at Seattle Children’s Hospital here
  

Question: Do you still prefer “Vandal Pride Week” over “Beat BSU Week” for the UI theme for the week prior to the big game in the Kibbie Dome?

During a visit to his doctor’s office, long-suffering Washington State alum Howard Martinson saw something in the Aug. 16 edition of Sporting News that brightened his day. While reading an article about the Pac-10 (or Pac-12, whatever the case may be today), Howard read this precition about WSU’s chances this year by Sporting News college football writer Matt Hayes: ” Another awful season will cost Washington State coach Paul Wulff his job. Idaho’s Robb Akey, a former Wazzu assistant, will be his replacement.” More here (scroll down). ” (AP file photo shows Robb Akey in 2006 after being announced as new coach of the Idaho Vandals)

Question: Do you expect Washington State to try to woo successful Idaho Vandals football coach Robb Akey back home?

(Caution: this post is not for University of Idaho football fans) Joe Jaszewski, photog extraordinaire for the Idaho Statesman, takes us behind the scenes at the Sports Illustrated football shoot of the Boise State football team a month ago. The Broncos are on the cover of the most recent Sports Illustrated cover. You can read about Joe’s experience here. And see Joe’s photos here.

Question: Will Boise State go undefeated through the regular season again this year?

Refaeli is no stranger to Americans — she’s been one of the most in-demand models since age 15, and she frequently graces the pages of celebrity magazines by virtue of her three-year relationship with actor Leonardo DiCaprio. But for a model, gracing the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue is truly hitting the career jackpot. The swimsuit issue is typically seen by 66 million readers — including four in 10 adult men in the U.S., according to Sports Illustrated research — making it the biggest annual event in magazine publishing. Moreover, becoming the S.I. cover girl launched the careers of Tyra Banks, Rebecca Romijn, Cheryl Tiegs, Cindy Crawford and Heidi Klum into the stratosphere/Today. More here.

Question: Do you “read” the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated?