Coming Home the Visitor

BOISE, Idaho — Jim Fenwick is back home and he brought a few friends from work.

The Cal State Northridge first-year football coach, who was born in Pocatello, on the southeast side of the state, is in town with the Matadors to face Boise State tonight in the opener for both teams.

But Fenwick is not expecting red carpet treatment. After all, he’s not exactly a household name here, having moved with his family from Idaho to the Valley as a teenager in the 1960s.

Neither is Fenwick feeling particularly sentimental about launching his Division I coaching career in his home state. He’s too busy dealing with jitters.

“I’m afraid of people measuring me on the first game instead of at the end of the season,” Fenwick said.

That nearly smacks of a concession speech which, coming from someone who has been preaching confidence to his team, sounds uncharacteristically out of kilter.

But who can blame him?

The Matadors, a sound Division I-AA program coming off a 7-4 season, get off the blocks with three consecutive Division I-A opponents who pose a serious challenge even though they are, within their own classification, considered relatively meek.

Northridge must deal with artificial turf and an anticipated near-capacity crowd at 30,000-seat Bronco Stadium, and with a team also under a new coach and looking for healing after a season marred by tragedy.

The Broncos staggered last fall while Coach Pokey Allen underwent cancer treatments. Allen coached only the final two games, beating New Mexico State and losing to Idaho as the Broncos finished 2-10. He resigned Dec. 11 and died 19 days later.

New Coach Houston Nutt, who the past four years transformed Murray State from mediocrity to I-AA prominence, is undertaking another salvage operation.

“We’ve got a ways to go,” Nutt said.

Especially on defense, where inexperience and lack of size threaten to make the Broncos vulnerable, probably nullifying whatever gains the newly installed and potentially explosive option offense musters.

The Broncos last year ranked last in the six-team Big West Conference in total defense, giving up 456.1 yards per game, including 146.5 yards passing. In five times they allowed 40 or more points.

Northridge, and anybody else, would welcome a repeat of such ineptitude.

With record-setting senior quarterback Aaron Flowers directing what promises to be a highly productive run-and-shoot offense, the Matadors could inflict some serious damage.

Flowers, who last year passed for a school season-record 3,540 yards and figures to obliterate the Northridge career mark of 4,473 yards set by Bruce Lemmerman from 1965-67, has been sharp in practice.

He is, of course, as good as his receivers and that group has been thinned by injuries and academic disqualifications.

The latest blow came when senior Jerome Henry, the team’s top player at the position after Cameron Perry was lost to grades before camp started, was sidelined this week with a stress fracture in his right leg. He hopes to return next week for the game at Hawaii.

Even without the receiving corps at full strength, Northridge appears to have the firepower and defense to knock off Boise. But Fenwick’s nerves won’t chill until the Matadors prove it.

“The thrust of [the nerves] comes from the fact that I finally get to [coach] a [Division I] game,” Fenwick said. “We want to play as competitive as we can.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Season Opener

Boise State vs. Cal State Northridge

* 6:05 p.m. (PDT)

* Bronco Stadium

* Radio: KCSN-FM 88.5

This Week in the Big Sky

* Northern Arizona at New Mexico

* Portland State at Boise State

Details, C13