BSU quarterback passed on Vandals

Jared Zabransky was almost a Vandal. Then he audibled.

Zabransky, who made his debut as Boise State’s starting quarterback in the 2004 season opener by leading the Broncos past Idaho 65-7, was a modestly recruited prospect out of Hermiston (Ore.) High.

The Vandals had quarterbacks Brian Lindgren, Michael Harrington and others in the program, but liked the athleticism of Zabransky, who directed a wing-T offense at Hermiston.

“He was just what you see – a competitive guy with a lot of leadership and we were looking for that,” said former Idaho coach Tom Cable, now the offensive coordinator at UCLA. “He’s pretty much a guy that gets after it, a passionate guy playing quarterback.”

Zabransky liked the Vandals, too. They offered him something nobody else did – a scholarship.

“I wasn’t really feeling strong indications from anybody else that I was going to get an offer, so I felt I needed to do it,” Zabransky said. “By making the (oral) commitment, it made Boise State jump in the boat and here I am today.”

Shortly after he made his oral commitment to Idaho, Boise State re-entered the picture. Oral commitments are non-binding, meaning Zabransky was free to listen when the Broncos called.

“I came to the Boise State football camp the summer of my senior year and I just really liked it and felt this program was going in the direction I needed to be part of,” said Zabransky, who will direct the heavily favored Broncos against Idaho on Saturday at Bronco Stadium. “I felt the situation was better for me.”

The Vandals were disappointed with Zabransky’s change of heart, but more so that they learned of it through the coaching grapevine.

“Most guys will call or the next time you talk to them they say, ‘Hey coach, I’ve got my mind on some other things,’ ” Cable said. “I think (UI assistant coach) David Hansburg told me he wasn’t coming. They had talked on the phone, and that was that.”

Zabransky has no regrets about his decision – he wanted to be a Bronco all along – but said he could have handled the situation better.

“I kind of let them hear about it,” he said, “which was pretty bad on my part.”

Zabransky played sparingly in 2003 as a redshirt freshman, and then won the starting job by beating out senior Mike Sanford last season. Zabransky, who ran for three touchdowns against Idaho, finished with 13 rushing touchdowns, including a school-record 85-yarder against Hawaii. He passed for 2,927 yards and 16 more TDs. His passer rating of 146.9 was 13th nationally.

Those statistics sent the expectation level off the charts entering this season. Then came his six-turnover nightmare in BSU’s 48-13 season-opening loss to Georgia on ESPN.

“He stepped in with little expectations last year behind RD (Ryan Dinwiddie) and it was like, ‘Just get the snap and put the uniform on right,’ ” BSU coach Dan Hawkins said. “So then everyone was thinking he had a great year as a sophomore, he probably won’t throw an interception and do this and that. As the world is wont to do, it was, ‘The sky is falling (after Georgia).’ It’s none of that.”

Hawkins has encouraged Zabransky to weather the highs and lows by staying somewhere in the middle.

“For anyone to turn the ball over six times in one game it was kind of a shock to him,” Hawkins said. “The thing I’ve said is if you’re a coach, or a sportswriter or a father or a quarterback, we’ve all gone through dark periods where things aren’t going right. For Jared, he had not experienced that.”

Zabransky has responded by putting up solid numbers. He’s passed for 15 touchdowns and run for eight. He has completed 61.1 percent and his passer rating is 133.07, 46th nationally. He’s had bouts of inconsistency, much the like the rest of BSU’s team. Of course, they grade on a steep curve in Boise as the Broncos have had three straight one-loss overall, WAC-championship seasons.

A fourth conference title probably isn’t in the cards after Fresno State ended BSU’s 31-game WAC winning streak last Thursday. Zabransky was 15 of 32 for 190 yards with two interceptions.

“There were times in the game where he made some great throws but we couldn’t come up with the tough catch and there were times when we had some guys open and he couldn’t come up with the throw,” Hawkins said. “He’s probably turned the ball over more than he’d like to and we’d like to, but we’ve had an inexperienced receiving corps around him. It’s a combination of both those things. I think he’s still trying to get in that groove a little bit.”

Zabransky believes he’s progressed this season, though his statistics are slightly down.

“Other than a few games I’ve played pretty well,” he said. “You take away that first game and a couple of series from other games and I feel like I’ve played a lot better than last year. You can’t always look just at the numbers.”

The only number Zabransky is worried about Saturday is stretching BSU’s winning streak over Idaho to seven, including his third as a Bronco.

“We feel like Idaho is still our rival and with this game being moved to rivalry week it puts a little more importance on it,” he said. “And we’re excited to be playing Idaho at home again.”