Boise State may not win the national title, but the Broncos are finally allowed to try to win one
It’s still one of the greatest football games ever played, but it was missing one thing.
Boise State, down seven and facing fourth-and-18 with 18 seconds remaining, runs a hook-and-lateral play called Circus. Jared Zabransky throws 16 yards downfield to Drisan James, who flips the ball to Jerard Rabb. Rabb runs another 35 yards for a touchdown, and suddenly the Broncos and Big 12 champ Oklahoma are headed for overtime in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1, 2007.
Some guy named Adrian Peterson runs for a 25-yard touchdown on the first play of overtime, forcing Boise State to cook up another miracle. Moments later, Boise State faces fourth-and-2 from the 5-yard line. Quarterback Zabransky goes in motion and tailback Vinny Perretta takes the snap. He rolls right and finds Derek Schouman in the back of the end zone.
Instead of forcing a second overtime, Boise State coach Chris Petersen decides the game will end one way or another on the next play. Offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin calls Statue, which is exactly what the name implies. Zabransky fakes a throw to the right and transfers the ball to his left hand, which slides the ball to tailback Ian Johnson.
Yes, the Statue of Liberty. The play you ran 700 times in your backyard.
Except this one was for a two-point conversion to win the Fiesta Bowl. After he scored, Johnson found his girlfriend, Boise State cheerleader Chrissy Popadics. He dropped to one knee and proposed.
It was the American Dream wrapped up in one play. There was only one flaw.
Boise State’s 2006 season ended right there. There was no championship to chase, because the Broncos were shut out by the system. Florida would beat Ohio State a week later to claim a national title that Boise State never had a chance to even try to win.
Eighteen years later, the 2024 Broncos will get their chance to try to win the national title.
After beating UNLV 21-7 in Friday’s Mountain West Championship, Boise State is all but assured a berth in the first 12-team College Football Playoff. Because the Broncos entered the weekend ranked No. 10 — five and six spots ahead of Big 12 title game participants Arizona State and Iowa State — in the CFP selection committees ranking, they likely will wind up with the No. 4 seed as the fourth highest ranked conference champion. If No. 17 Clemson beats No. 8 SMU for the ACC title, it’s possible Boise State is the third highest ranked conference champ and gets the No. 3 seed.
Either way, the Broncos would get a bye and start their playoff journey in the quarterfinals in — you guessed it — the Fiesta Bowl. The quarterfinal sites are determined by conference tie-ins with the bowls. Because the SEC has a tie-in with the Sugar Bowl and the Big Ten has a tie-in with the Rose Bowl, their champs will go to those games. The ACC has a tie-with the Orange Bowl, but since it’s a semifinal, the ACC champ likely would go to the Peach Bowl because of geography. Geography also would put Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl for the fourth time in program history.
But this time would be different, because if Boise State wins, the Broncos would advance to the semifinals. The season wouldn’t end in Glendale, Ariz., as long as Boise State emerged victorious.
The Oklahoma win was a watershed moment. But the Broncos’ next trip — as Western Athletic Conference champs against Mountain West champ TCU after the 2009 season — was more controversial. That season ended with five undefeated teams (Alabama, Texas, Cincinnati, TCU and Boise State). Alabama and Texas played for the national title. Cincinnati played SEC runner-up Florida in the Sugar Bowl. The Horned Frogs and Broncos were matched against one another in what seemed like a deliberate attempt to keep the two teams from the conferences outside the Bowl Championship Series power structure from embarrassing teams from a power league.
All Boise State and the other members of the Group of 5 wanted was a chance, and it’s appropriate that the Broncos will carry the flag for those leagues. Utah was the original BCS buster, but the Utes got their golden ticket into a power conference. So did Cincinnati, the first Group of 5 program to make the four-team College Football Playoff. Boise State has remained, but now it can try to get farther than anyone else in its position has traveled toward the national title.
Ashton Jeanty, who carried 32 times for 209 yards and a touchdown Friday, can run for the yards that Ian Johnson and Doug Martin couldn’t. Maddux Madsen, who completed 18 of 27 passes for 158 yards and a touchdown Friday, can throw passes that Zabransky and Kellen Moore were blocked by the system from throwing.
Will Boise State win the national title? Probably not.
But unlike the teams that came before, this one will get a legitimate chance to to try.
And that’s all the Broncos ever wanted.
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