Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009

Chartered trips: The only way the Boise State football team flies

By Chadd Cripe

HONOLULU

Boise State's transition to traveling on charter airplanes is complete. On Thursday, the Broncos boarded a flight directly from Boise to Honolulu - the first time they have chartered for a regular-season game at Hawaii.

The No. 6 Broncos face the Warriors on Saturday (9:05 p.m. MDT, KTVB).

"This year, it was very comparable to charter versus not," said Mike Waller, Boise State's associate athletic director/chief financial officer. "Every year we looked into it. It was never close. It was like a joke."

In the past, the Broncos chartered to the West Coast and took a commercial flight to Honolulu. They did the same on the return trip to Boise.

To fly commercial, though, the Broncos had to spend the night in Honolulu after the game and travel nearly all of the next day.

By chartering, they save the cost of an additional night of hotel and expect to return to campus at about 9:15 a.m. Sunday - preserving the entire week of preparation the team usually has for the next game.

Last week, the Broncos arrived in Boise at 3 a.m. Thursday after playing at Tulsa on Wednesday night. That allowed players to attend classes Thursday.

"Those are such precious hours that we're able to get back in the office and start working on the next week's plan," coach Chris Petersen said. "It would make it so much more difficult (to fly commercial), especially if it's week after week."

The Broncos didn't start traveling regularly by charter until after they joined the WAC in 2001. Flying commercial was a major complaint of former coach Dirk Koetter, who lobbied for a switch to charters after several travel delays in 2000, his last season at BSU.

Now charters are such accepted practice that BSU doesn't even price out the commercial option for most of its trips.

Charter airline flights are common across college football.

"When we first started down this road with the charters, it was so much better for the players to get back," Waller said.

Prices vary depending on the destination. Last year, the Broncos were able to charter a plane for 110 people for less than $50,000 for many of their trips through a three-year contract with Frontier.

This year, BSU has paid $69,000 for Fresno State, $99,000 for Bowling Green and $83,000 for Tulsa.

The flight to Hawaii, on Alaska, cost $160,000 for a traveling party of 129. That put the total cost of the trip within $10,000 of flying commercial, Waller said.

"It's a lot more relaxing," wide receiver Austin Pettis said. "It's just one less thing you have to worry about. Traveling always is a little stressful, so when they have it all mapped out for us, it's a lot better."

Ironically, Hawaii moved the start time of its WAC home games up one hour this season to enable teams that fly commercial to catch a red-eye flight after the game. That happened after Boise State had made its decision.

The Broncos are well aware that they lost the last two times they played at Aloha Stadium. Those were the final two games of 2007 season, against Hawaii in the WAC championship game and East Carolina in the Hawaii Bowl.

""I really hope as a staff we don't have to work too hard to keep these guys focused,'' Petersen said. "I hope there's enough maturity around here that we don't fall into the trap of going to Hawaii to have a great time. ... We're not trying to go over there and not see anything, but it's a fine line that you walk.''

Petersen plans to keep the team busy, but the players will have some free time to explore Waikiki. The schedule includes about 2 hours of free time Thursday evening and Friday afternoon.

"No one is to go into the water,'' said Viliami Tuivai, the director of football operations.

The Broncos stay in Waikiki, Oahu's tourist hot spot. Many other teams stay on the quieter North Shore where it's easier to avoid distractions.

The Broncos have rooms set up at the hotel to study video, watch movies and play games.

"We believe our kids will make the right choices,'' Tuivai said.

Tuivai, Waller, associate athletic director for operations Mike Sumpter and assistant athletic director for operations Lori Hays handle the planning and logistics for road trips.

This trip is particularly difficult because the Broncos will spend about 24 more hours in Honolulu than most cities. The team left a day early to get acclimated.

Waller travels ahead of the team to make sure everything is set for its arrival, but the reservations for hotel rooms, buses, food, drinks and other items were made months in advance.

"We have everything locked down for every away game by May,'' Tuivai said.

Boise State has started nine players on the offensive line this year - three freshmen, three sophomores and three juniors. The group has been more effective than last year and has given offensive line coach Scott Huff a glimpse of the future.

"This is the thing we've been looking forward to," he said. "We've been so young for so long. Next year, it will be awesome."

By then, the Broncos might be able to start 300-pounders at every position but center, Huff figures. They have the lightest line in the WAC this year - a product of the Broncos' philosophy of recruiting lean, athletic linemen and putting weight on them incrementally.

The Broncos are averaging 191.8 rushing yards per game and 5.0 yards per carry. That's much better than last year's production - 152.3 yards per game and 4.4 yards per carry.

The group has allowed just four sacks, too.

"We've made progress in the run game," Petersen said. "We feel pretty good right now where we are."

Chadd Cripe is in his eighth season covering Boise State football for the Idaho Statesman. He also is a voter in The Associated Press Top 25 poll. Contact him at ccripe@idaho statesman.com or377-6398.