Avery Williams, Haden Hoggarth, Quinn Skillin, Nicholai Pitman and Brock Barr walked onto the Boise State football team. Joel Velazquez was a scholarship recruit. Before this year, only Pitman and Barr had appeared in a game.
They remain a largely anonymous bunch this season — Williams, with two punt returns for touchdowns, is the exception — but they have helped transform the Broncos’ special teams units from last year’s greatest weakness into perhaps the biggest reason the team has won four of its first six games this year.
“We knew that that hurt us last year and tried to work our butts off to change that around and make that a positive for us this year,” special teams coach Kent Riddle said.