The Boise State Broncos, who have been better known for their blue field, ran the table and went undefeated during the regular season. The Broncos earned a spot in the BCS by finishing ranked in the top-12. They, as everyone knows by now, were sent to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl to face the Sooners of Oklahoma.
Oklahoma was winning national championships while Boise was still a junior college. Boise brought only 10 years of D-1A football experience to the table. It was Oklahoma and their 7 national titles versus Boise's junior college and D-1AA titles.
The Broncos pulled off the impossible and defeated the Sooners in overtime, in what was one of the greatest games in college football history.
The Broncos head coach, Chris Petersen, wins the award for the most intestinal fortitude after going for a 2-point conversion after scoring a touchdown to come within one point of Oklahoma in the overtime session. The Sooners never had a chance to stop the play and the Broncos' Ian Johnson scored the game winner and then got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend. (She said yes, by the way)
The Boise win will most definitely go down as the biggest upset in college football history and the biggest argument for a playoff. Boise is also the best story this year in college football.
Unlike Wake Forest, Lousiville or Rutgers, Boise State is not guaranteed a spot by winning their conference championship. The Broncos had no choise but to go undefeated and they did. Neither Wake Forest nor Louisville went undefeated, yet both were able to make it to the BCS. Had Boise went 11-1 or 11-2, then they would have played in some cut-rate bowl game. Granted Wake and Louisville play tougher schedules; however, neither had their BCS hopes shattered by losing regular season games.
Boise had to play with the must win pressure in every game and had a giant target on their back. Everyone they played wanted to play the spoiler and that coupled with the must-win pressure makes every game just as tough as any Wake or Lousiville played. And Boise went undefeated and then beat a college football dynasty.
They defeated an 11-2 Oklahoma team that was actually 12-1 (they lost a game at Oregon that the refs blew and the Pac-10 later apologized for). Their only "real" loss came to Texas in one of the most heated rivlaries in the country.
The Broncos deserve all of the credit in the world and will ultimately be responsible for bringing a playoff to college football. They are 13-0 and will not have a shot at playing for a national championship. They proved they could play with the big boys and they are still being denied.
Wake Forest had a great season and they deserve a truck load of credit as well. They won 11 games, a school record, and they are one of the smallest universities in D-1A. The Demon Deacons got hot while the rest of the ACC was stuck in the ice-age. That doesn't diminish what they did. Jim Grobe and the 'Deacs will be back next year and they will be a force to be reckoned with yet again. Can they repeat this year's performance? Probably not, but they are capable of churning out 7-8 and maybe even 9 wins on a regular basis. Grobe is going to have a sticky situation come spring time. QB Ben Mauk will be back and ready to compete for the job he lost to injury in the season's second game and Riley Skinner will eb fighting to keep that position. That could lead to one of 2 things. It could make the team better or tear them apart, hopefully it will be the first scenario that takes hold.
But, back to Boise State. Give the little guy a chance to win it all! Would they do it every year? No. Would they ever pull it off? Probably. Just ask Jim Valvano, Texas Western, Rudy or that team from Hoosiers. If Boise St. had the chance to play Ohio St., then they would probably lose. However, we will never know. That is because D-1A football has no clue as to what a real champion is. It is a shame because those kids who deserve at least the opportunity will never get it.
Photos:
1.http://img.groundspeak.com/cache/log/622b48f3-f34e-459a-acc6-800e2f00eaef.jpg
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1 comment:
Interesting to know.
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