Mike Prater | KTIK Host

Chat a little bit from the Boise State perspective as we bring in Mike Prater, who is a longtime host at The Ticket in Boise State. KTIK does a great job there and he's kind enough to join us right now as he's calling us from, I believe, actually the Blue Turf, where the Boise State Broncos do play on. Mike, appreciate the time. How you been?

KIK, I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. Yeah, we're on the Blue Turf. I just stepped outside. You know, Boise State's about to have about 10 minutes away from its official press conference. I guess this thing is happening.

I love the fact that you said Tupac. It's going from the Tupac to the six-pack and we couldn't be happier about that here in Boise. Yeah, so obviously you're elated.

I've seen your tweets and your commentary so far. Kind of take me through the reaction when this fittingly broke overnight. I know some people will say, oh, it's a little bit of a news dump, but that's kind of Pac-12 after dark, which a lot of us love the Pac-12 for all those years.

So how did you react to this when this all did go down in the middle of the night? Yeah, not only Pac-12 after dark, but certainly all these conference realignment things in the SEC, USC, UCLA, Texas, Oklahoma, all this stuff has kind of just come out of the blue and caught people off guard. And certainly last night, we thought we were heading in this direction as a group. You know, the Mountain West, the Pac-12, the Pac-2, whoever you want to call it, some kind of an alliance and what that looked like we weren't sure.

And certainly didn't expect the timing last night. Here in Boise, there's a lot of mixed feelings. Obviously it's a nice step up. There's a potential for nicer things down the road, but let's not get too carried away here. This is the Pac-2. This is the leftovers. And there's a lot of people here thinking, is this Mountain West Plus or Pac-12 Lite?

Somewhere in between is probably the regular answer. Yeah, going off of that, like if this move was made four or five years ago, this would be a huge day. You know, I still think it's positive news for a program like Boise State, but I wouldn't call it big news to me. So if you have someone ask you, and I'm sure you've had this question, Mike Prater, hey, the Pac-12 is basically dead with two schools. Why should a program like Boise State make this move? Well, certainly it's a small, small step up from the Mountain West.

You got rid of a whole bunch of dead weight. And you know, I take a lot of heat here in Boise. I'm not a big fan of the New Mexico's of the world, the Nevada's of the world. Some of the teams that kind of bring it down, bring absolutely no TV value to the Mountain West Conference, yet they have to share.

So you know, you get rid of the dead weight there. Now if the vision goes off and does what these guys want to do in terms of, you know, if you look at what television executives have done, and let's not fool ourselves, television executives are fueling this, and they fuel all television or all conference realignment. In the past, you know, they're going four time zones. You know, the SEC, well maybe not the SEC, the Big 10 and the Big 12, and everybody wants four time zones now because that's what TV wants with so much content out there right now. So, you know, Boise State Athletic Director Jeremiah Dick, he's been on the record today saying two, three or four teams, I guarantee you that's nobody from the Mountain West, that's nobody from the Big Sky.

They're looking deeper into the Texas area, they're looking deeper into the Midwest, they're looking deeper into the South. Throw out teams like maybe Memphis or a South Florida or a Tulane. Those are the kinds of programs that TV executives are telling Boise State and the new Pac-12 could bring a little bit of value and then maybe they can grow and then see what happens with the CFP stuff in 2026.

Mike Prater here with us, and that was my first reaction. I'm like, okay, why would a program like Boise State make this move right now? You look at the current format of the college football playoff. Alright, you know the core four schools are going to take four out of those five conference championship spots, but then there's one spot remaining, and I think this puts a program like Boise State and the other schools that are now joining this new revamped Pac-12 in that premier number one pole position where it's not going to be every year the winner of this conference gets a spot in the college football playoff, but it puts them in a better spot to make the college football playoff moving forward. Would you agree with that?

Absolutely, absolutely, and they're probably not going to take my suggestion for it. I suggested the new marketing slogan for this conference, the best of the rest, because that's really what it is. You do have your core four, and that's not going to change until we get to the super conference era for the next round of conference realignment, but they've separated themselves from the rest of the group of five, the Sunbelts and the Max and the American Athletics, and they probably closed the gap between the group of five and the power four by half an inch, you know, just one step a little bit closer, kind of in the middle right there. So that's kind of the whole Mountain West Plus or the Pac-12 White thing. I think that they grew themselves and promoted themselves in the right direction, but it's baby steps, Zach.

It's really baby steps. Wrap it up with Mike Prater because I know you got to run to a press conference. Let's talk about the Boise State Broncos for a second on the field. Had a big performance up against Oregon, a game they could have easily won, and when that game was played out, I'm like, oh my God, it looks like Boise State's going to win, and then Oregon was able to pull it out at the end, edging out the Broncos by three points. What were your takeaways from the Ducks and the Broncos going back to Saturday night? No news released yet that the special teams coach has been fired.

That's kind of a joke. The special teams coach came from Penn State with a great recommendation, but it certainly wasn't a good football game for the special teams. Those two returns, Oregon... Never trust James Franklin, all right?

Never trust him. There you go. There you go. Yeah, I mean, it was a little frustrating, a little bittersweet, and they did okay. I think that they got a little bit of street cred coming out of it.

You know, the Associated Press poll that doesn't matter, they got a whole bunch more votes. They doubled their votes with a loss, so that doesn't happen with a group of five teams very often. They should win.

Well, I shouldn't say that. They'll be favored to win every single game here moving forward, and if they just win the games they're supposed to win, I'm even going to see a little slice of Boise State on the national level when it comes to the CFP, but there's so many football games to be played. They're on a buy this week. They have Portland State next week, and then they start diving into the Washington State, Oregon State, and the rest of the Mountain West. If they win their conference this year, and they also then go on to get that fifth conference championship spot that's reserved for them out of the 12 teams that get in, is Ashton Genthe the Heisman Trophy winner, or do you think he's just a Heisman Trophy finalist, or can you not even dream even with how great that he is that he'll get the national respect to get an invite to New York? Yeah, he's done enough in two games to get the national respect, and we've all seen it. You've seen it. Everybody's seen it. Our listeners have seen it. You've seen it.

It's everywhere. Can he sustain that for the next 10-11 games? He's good enough to. Obviously, knock on wood that he's healthy.

Here's what I say in Boise, and again, I take a beating over this. Ashton Genthe has a zero percent chance to win the Heisman Trophy. One, he's a group of five player. Two, he's a running back, and we know it's a power five quarterback award, so if he gets 2,000 yards rushing, which is his goal, and he's about a quarter of the way there already, and Boise State gets into the CFP, he's going to be in New York. He's going to be a great story, and Ashton Genthe's going to be able to share his story with the world, but getting to New York, in my opinion, is the best goal that he can have.

I'm sure he has higher goals. Boise State fans have higher goals, but Ashton Genthe, a group of five running back, is not going to win the Heisman Trophy. Last thing I'll ask you, when you look at the quarterback position, when Malachi Nelson transferred over to Boise State, I thought he would be the starter. I ended up being Maddox Matson the last two weeks up against Oregon. Matson was 17 of 40 and only had 148 passing yards. Are you at the point yet where you're like, okay, let's see what Nelson can do, or was it, hey, Matson won the competition, so you're not even thinking about that yet? I was in my home office last night in the middle of writing that exact same column for publication today when the news broke, and so I'm going to have to table that a little bit.

Here's what happens. I told you, Boise State's not a buy. Next week they play Portland State. Portland State's terrible. I think they got beat by Washington State by like 70-3.

Portland State's no good. I expect Boise State, if it all goes well, to be a 35-0 or somewhere in that range in the first half of their game next Saturday. It's a home opener.

Boise State's the last team in college football to have their home opener, so it's going to be a big special day, Pac-12 vibes all over the place. Here comes Ashton Genthe, big first-half lead, and then I want Malachi Nelson to come in and play the entire second half. The camp competition was close enough that he deserves a chance, and I want to see the starters out there in the third quarter. I want to see Malachi Nelson out there in the third quarter, and then I want to see coaches take all that body of work and put it together and say, okay, now what do we have? They're going to get a clearer picture next week against Portland State.

Why didn't he win the job, just wondering? You know, Dirk Kutter has a certain vibe, and Dirk Kutter wants decision-making. Dirk Kutter wants no turnovers.

Dirk Kutter wants a quarterback who can get rid of the ball in 2.3 seconds in the pocket. Malachi Nelson hasn't played football in two years. Malachi Nelson came here to build relationships and learn the playbook, and he's done a good job of that. But in terms of mastering the playbook, mastering the command, and Maddox has been with this team, and he's very, very vocal with this team, slapping butts, high fives, almost like captain-esque. And Malachi Nelson's a little bit of an introvert. He lives in another town in an apartment all by himself and just shows up to work and does a great job doing it. Eventually, he's going to be the starter. Eventually, he's going to be the star.

But for a guy that hasn't played football in two years, it's going to take a little bit more time. I love that our show airs in Boise on KTIK right before Prater and the ball game. He is Mike Prater. Mike, appreciate it. Have a fun one today, all right? Hey, Zach, appreciate you having me. Can't wait to get you back on on Boise. Good luck, bud. You got it. Sounds good.

Anytime. There he is. Mike Prater joining us on the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. We give you a little feel of Boise State now going back to the Pac-12. That will be put into effect on July 2026 as Boise State will be joining Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Diego State. And obviously the two schools that were remaining from the Pac-12 in Washington State and Oregon State.

And that's what this is all about. You know, it's a little bit of a step up from where they were. The Pac-12 now has somewhat of a pulse again. But there is a huge separation just inside the four premier conferences of the Big Ten and the SEC. And then I would say there's even a little bit of a separation between the Big 12 and the ACC, a little bit small, you know, incremental, but that those are the four best conferences that will always get four to those five spots that are guaranteed.