Football
- Title:
- Wide Receivers
Junior Adams is entering his third season at Boise State and first as Passing Game Coordinator. He also begins his third season as Boise State's wide receivers coach in 2016.
Adams' expertise and tutelage continued the excellence of the Boise State receiving corps in a record-setting 2015 season. Thomas Sperbeck earned first-team All-Mountain West honors, emerging as the conference's top receiver, leading the loop in receptions (88) and receiving yards (1,412, also seventh in the nation), and finished second with eight touchdown catches. Sperbeck's 88 catches matched Matt Miller's Bronco single-season record, while his 1,412 receiving yards established the Boise State benchmark.
Chaz Anderson continued his rise as a receiver after converting from defensive back, following up a strong 2014 campaign with 42 catches for 578 yards and three scores, while Shane Williams-Rhodes hauled in 63 passes.
The reliability and performance of Adams' receivers helped the Bronco air attack rank 13th in the nation with 304.8 passing yards per game.
In his debut season, Adams' wide receivers contributed to an offense that ranked ninth nationally in scoring (39.7) and 14th nationally in total yards (494.3). Boise State concluded the season at 12-2 overall, winning the 2014 Sports Authority Mountain West Football Championship and the 2014 VIZIO Fiesta Bowl.
Boise State also ranked 23rd nationally in passing offense (280.4) in 2014.
Adams oversaw the emergence of Thomas Sperbeck, a sophomore in 2014, who concluded the season by winning offensive most valuable player honors in the Fiesta Bowl, hauling in a game-high 12 passes for 199 yards. Boise State lost its all-time leader in career receptions, Matt Miller, five games into the season. Sperbeck, who had not caught a pass prior to Miller going down, went on to catch 51 passes for 877 yards over the final nine-plus games.
Adams also helped Chaz Anderson, a redshirt sophomore in 2014, make the conversion from defensive back to deep-play threat. Anderson caught 21 passes for 456 yards and two touchdowns, an average of 21.7 yards per reception -- the highest average on the team.
A former All-American wide receiver at Montana State, Adams joined Boise State after spending the previous five seasons as wide receivers coach at Eastern Washington.
Adams helped lead the Eagles to the Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs in four of his five seasons, including 2010, when EWU won the national championship. The Eagles made semifinal appearances in each of his final two seasons (2012-13).
The Eagles ranked fourth-nationally in the Football Championship Division in passing offense in 2013 (349.8), and had two individuals ranked in the top-10 nationally in receiving yards. Then-freshman Cooper Kupp led the nation in the statistical category, accumulating 1,691 yards in his collegiate debut - the fourth-most in FCS history. Senior Ashton Clark ranked sixth with 1,233 yards.
Kupp is just the second freshman wide receiver since 1990 named FCS All-America First Team (Randy Moss; 1996), and was also the recipient of the Jerry Rice Award, given annually to the top freshman in the FCS. He also broke the FCS record with a touchdown catch in 14-consecutive games.
The Eagles graduated a trio of wide receivers following the 2012 campaign, and each recorded a 1,000-yard season and earned All-America honors. Nicholas Edwards and Greg Herd accomplished each feat in 2011, and Brandon Kaufman did it in 2010, when he broke the FCS record with 1,850 receiving yards. The trio concluded their careers with combined totals of 601 catches, 8,713 yards and 83 touchdowns.
Adams has received multiple grants as part of the Bill Walsh Minority Coaching Fellowship, giving him the opportunity to work at summer training camps with several teams in the National Football League. Included are the Oakland Raiders (2010), Indianapolis Colts (2011) and Minnesota Vikings (2012).
He began his coaching career at his alma mater, spending the 2004-06 seasons as wide receivers and returns coach.
He joined the staff at Prosser High School in Prosser, Wash., in 2007, also coaching wide receivers and returners. He helped lead the Mustangs, coached by Tom Moore, the father of former Broncos Kellen and Kirby Moore, to a 14-0 record and the WIAA State Championship (2A).
Adams then coached at Tennessee-Chattanooga in 2008 before joining EWU.
Originally from Fremont, Calif., Adams began his playing career at Oregon State and was a member of the Beavers' 2000 Pacific-10 Conference Championship team that played in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl. He transferred to Montana State for his final two seasons, and earned his degree in sociology in 2004.
