Bsu’s Nutt Says He’s Ready To Get Cracking

New head football coach Houston Nutt greeted Boise State boosters with a pledge to find quality athletes for the Broncos right away, despite getting a late start and being unfamiliar with the region.

“I know we’re a little behind,” Nutt said Saturday as he was introduced to Boise State supporters and local reporters. “But you’ll be surprised at how good a recruiting year we’ll have.”

The 39-year-old Nutt, who has been head coach at Murray State in Kentucky for the past four years, was named on Friday to succeed Pokey Allen as head coach of the Broncos.

Nutt would not promise the Broncos will turn things around completely in 1997.

“I’m not going to promise you much,” the Arkansas native said with a thick southern accent. “I am going to promise you this: We’re going to have fun, guys. And the way we spell fun is W I N.”

He would admit to no particular timetable as Boise State prepares for its second year in the Big West Conference. He said he understands the importance of developing a quality program on the field and in the classroom.

“We’ve got one rule; we want to do what’s right,” Nutt said. “We want to do what’s right even when nobody’s looking.”

Nutt said he probably would bring four or five of his Murray State assistants with him to Boise, and getting his staff put together was at the top of his agenda, along with recruiting.

Nutt guided Murray State, a I-AA team, to a 31-16 record in four seasons. The Racers improved from 4-7 in his first year to 5-6 in 1994, 11-1 in 1995 and 11-2 in 1996. Murray State advanced to the second round of the I-AA playoffs this year.

A 12-member search committee, along with Boise State president Charles Ruch and athletic director Gene Bleymaier, chose Nutt from among seven finalists. They included offensive coordinators Al Borges of UCLA, Gene Dahlquist of Texas and Dirk Koetter of Oregon, former St. Louis Rams special teams coach Nick Aliotti, former Montana head coach Don Read and Boise State defensive coordinator Tom Mason, who was the Broncos’ interim head coach during Allen’s absence because of cancer.

Bleymaier called it “a tremendous slate of candidates.”

“I could not be happier,” he said. “I think that we have selected a difference-maker, and that’s what we were looking for.”

Nutt will be paid $95,000 under a one-year contract, which is required under Board of Education rules. He will be eligible for a multi-year contract after the first year.

Nutt said he would run an I-formation base offense with a number of variations and different looks, and that establishing a running game and playing solid run defense would be among his highest priorities.

“I think we’ll be fun to watch, but you’ve got to be able to run the football and stop the run,” he said.

He also acknowledged already hearing about the importance of beating arch rival Idaho.

Nutt and his wife, Diana, both are Oklahoma State graduates.

“We grew to hate the University of Oklahoma,” he said, “so we can grow to dislike those folks, too.”

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