Boise State’s center of attention does fine Danielson impression, keeps O-line humming

Zach Holmes grew up in the Portland suburb of West Linn, a picturesque little community on the banks of the Willamette River in northwest Oregon.

The city of approximately 27,000 residents sits about 100 miles north of Eugene and the roaring crowd of the University or Oregon’s Autzen Stadium, a venue that can hold the whole population of West Linn twice over and where Boise State recently lost 37-34.

So when redshirt junior Holmes started that game at center for the Broncos a couple of weeks ago, many people who knew Holmes in high school likely had a reaction of, “Oh, I forgot he was playing college football.”

Holmes hasn’t played a lot of football in recent years. He was a walk-on at Oregon State in Corvallis, just 75 miles from his childhood home, but he didn’t play a single snap in his two years with the Beavers. A shoulder injury his freshman year also held him back and forced him to redshirt.

After the 2022 season, he hit the transfer portal. Following conversations with Boise State offensive line graduate assistant Will Farrer — a Bronco lineman in 2021-22 — and offensive line coach Tim Keane, he found a new home.

And now the walk-on has a new significance in that home, snapping the ball to quarterback Maddux Madsen to get every play started as the center of a strong offensive line.

Holmes spent his first year at Boise State without seeing a single snap. He finally got on the field near the end of Boise State’s 56-45 season-opening win at Georgia Southern last month.

Then, all of a sudden, he was starting at Oregon, against the then-No. 7 team in the country. Holmes replaced longtime starting center Mason Randolph, who remains out with an upper-body injury.

“It was crazy,” Holmes said. “Growing up as an Oregon kid, there’s no denying that your whole life you’re dreaming about getting on that field at Autzen in front of all those people.”

After the game, he said, he received texts from old friends saying they’d tuned in and were surprised to see his name pop up as a starter.

But for all of the surprise, Holmes impressed against the Ducks. He slid into an offensive line that’s been a star unit for Boise State so far this season, allowing just one sack — that came at Oregon — and opening up huge gaps for a rushing attack that has 592 yards in two games.

Holmes discovered he would start at Oregon only two days before the game.

“Zach Holmes, man, you talk about a guy that stepped up in a major way with Mason going down, who’s one of the best players on our entire team,” Boise State coach Spencer Danielson said this week. “He held his own. He’s going to only continue to get better.”

Danielson said Monday that Randolph and starting right guard Roger Carreon, who was injured early against Oregon, will both miss this weekend’s game against Portland State. Boise State kicks off its home opener against the Vikings on Saturday at Albertsons Stadium at 7:55 p.m.

That means Holmes is set for another start at center, which is not even his original, natural position.

Recruited out of high school as simply a lineman, he would rotate in practice at Oregon State between guard, tackle and center. However, at 6-foot-2, Holmes is not a big lineman — the typical college offensive lineman stands at 6-foot-5 — so he figured a switch was coming at some point.

Luckily, he’s good at improvising — and at impressions. He does a great one of Danielson, so much so that the first-year head coach endorsed it earlier this week.

“My trainer and I in high school would get in some snaps during our workouts,” Holmes said. “So I knew I was eventually going to be a center, I’ve just been trained for a while.”

His dad, Ryan Holmes, was a linebacker at Fresno State in the 1990s. Holmes joked about his father having to throw out all of his Bulldogs memorabilia when his son joined a Mountain West rival.

But he doesn’t joke about his football career. He heard plenty of criticism about his height during the recruiting process, he said, and in the transfer portal. He described the conversation point as a “broken clock,” and mentioned how coaches would say they loved him while also bringing up that his arms were too short for a lineman.

He didn’t let any of that hold him back.

“You can make being undersized a bad thing, or you can find out how to use it against somebody,” Holmes said. “When you’re going against someone who’s 6-foot-5 ... that means my pad level is going to be lower. So you can look at it as a good thing, and I try to use it to my advantage.”

There’s no current timeline for Randolph’s return, according to Boise State coaches. In the meantime, the team and its fans can breathe a sigh of relief that the guy waiting in the wings has already proved to be very reliable.

“I knew it was going to be a long process for me being a walk-on guy,” Holmes said. “It’s just been a dream of mine to take it every day, one step at a time.”

Boise State vs Portland State

When: 7:55 p.m. Mountain time Saturday

Where: Albertsons Stadium (36,363, Turf)

TV: Fox Sports 1 (Eric Collins, Spencer Tillman)

Radio: KBOI 670 AM/KTIK 93.1 FM/Sirius XM Ch. 390 (Bob Behler, Pete Cavender)

Records: Boise State 1-1; Portland State 0-2

Series: Boise State leads the series 7-1

Vegas line: Boise State by 41.5 points

Weather: High of 77 degrees, low of 52 degrees, humidity 42%, mostly clear skies, 3% chance of rain