Boise State OC Accuses Oregon of Tampering, Player Offered $700K After Fiesta Bowl

Scott Polacek@@ScottPolacekFeatured Columnist IVJanuary 9, 2025

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To hear outgoing Boise State offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter tell it, it’s not easy to be Cinderella in the current age of college football.

Bob Lundeberg of Sports Illustrated relayed comments from Koetter’s Monday appearance on Boise Sports Talk Radio (KTIK 95.3 FM) in which the outgoing OC said Oregon offered one of the team’s players $700,000 in a tampering effort to get him into the transfer portal.

“I know for a fact that just last week, after the Fiesta Bowl, one of the key starters on defense got a call from the Oregon Ducks offering him $700,000,” he said. “(Offensive tackle) Kage Casey, Casey’s probably going to be a first-round pick. He would’ve probably been a high pick this year, but I do think he needs another year to develop … I’m sure he could’ve got close to a million dollars in the portal.”

Casey has not publicly declared whether he is entering the 2025 NFL draft, transferring or returning to Boise State.

To put the $700,000 figure for one player in perspective, Koetter said Boise State’s “salary cap is $2 million” for the entire roster. “But the people we’re competing against, maybe not in our current conference, but where we’re going and who we’re expected to compete against, it’s as high as $20 million.”

There has been some speculation that Oregon had a roster budget of approximately $23 million for this season in the age of transfer portal movement and name, image and likeness opportunities for college athletes.

Ultimately, the Ducks advanced as far as the Broncos did in the College Football Playoff. Oregon lost to Ohio State in the quarterfinals, while Boise State lost to Penn State in the same round.

The Broncos also lost a head-to-head showdown with the Ducks by just three points in September and then won 10 straight to take the Mountain West title and earn a spot in the 12-team CFP field.

That success is partially a credit to head coach Spencer Danielson’s ability to keep important players such as star running back Ashton Jeanty on the roster. Jeanty was a Heisman finalist and ran for a stunning 2,601 yards and 29 touchdowns on the season.

As for Koetter, he is stepping down as the offensive coordinator this offseason but said he will still remain with the team as a senior analyst. Co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Nate Potter was promoted to the full-time OC role.

Koetter is a longtime coach who was most notably the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for three seasons from 2016 through 2018. He was also the head coach of Boise State from 1998-2000 and Arizona State from 2001-06 in addition to stops as the OC for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Atlanta Falcons.

In the age of the portal and increased roster movement, the richest teams in college football are going to do what they can to make sure the best players are suiting up for them in a given season. That doesn’t mean tampering is the correct thing to do, but it is surely an undeniable reality in the modern age of the sport.

It is just another thing for Boise State and other teams that often find themselves in the underdog role from a national perspective to deal with, which makes the team’s efforts in 2024 all the more impressive.