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Monday, January 5, 2015.
Boise State's Golden Era was clearly still active two years ago. It had gone to 14 seasons dating back to 1999 after a shared Mountain West championship and a win over Washington in the Las Vegas Bowl to cap the 2012 season. After the disappointment that was 2013, and the subsequent departure of Chris Petersen, everybody wondered what that meant. Many were quick to say, "Well, that's it." Me? I was wondering where the program was, too. But I felt the jury was still out, writing in August, “Some would say Boise State's Golden Era has come to an end after the 8-5 season in 2013. I would say one should reserve judgment until December.” Every Golden Era is allowed a hiccup.
So the Golden Era run is 16 seasons now. Boise State's record is 177-31, which roughly equates to an average record of 11-2. The record on the blue turf: 100-4. You can still count the losses on one hand (Washington State, Boston College, TCU, San Diego State). The Broncos’ bowl record is now 10-and-5. There have been 12 conference championships, 13 10-win seasons, and—with the victory in Glendale—eight 12-win seasons. That ties Alabama for the most 12-win campaigns in modern college football history. And it doesn't count the one Boise State had at the Division I-AA level (13-2 in 1994).
Here’s Martin Rickman’s take at SI.com: “The marriage between Bryan Harsin and Boise State was perfect from from the get-go. A Boise native, Harsin is a Bronco for life. That familiarity with the program and with what Chris Petersen did during his time at Boise State made for a smooth and flawless transition. It’s kind of hard to ask for more than 12 wins and a trophy in a prestige bowl over a Pac-12 opponent, especially with a new coach in the brave new College Football Playoff world. The highest ranked Group of Five team is guaranteed a spot in a New Year’s Six bowl, and Boise State has as good a shot as anyone at staking its claim to that spot year in and year out.”
The Broncos can always find chip-on-the-shoulder material if they look for it, though. While lamenting all that went wrong for Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl, Arizona Daily Star columnist Greg Hansen wrote, “So much of what was gained by winning the Pac-12 South and the Territorial Cup was diminished by unsightly losses to Oregon and, to be sure, a Mountain West Conference team that would have difficulty breaking .500 in the Pac-12.” Well, Boise State would have no problem achieving that if it out-coached, out-prepared and out-efforted the other teams in that conference the way it did the Wildcats.
Hansen did have to tip his hat, though, especially to Bronco Nation. “Boise State’s fans put Arizona’s to shame,” wrote Hansen. “It is 921 miles from Boise to Phoenix, and yet the Broncos appeared to have as many fans as ‘hometown’ Arizona. And there’s no question the BSU fans were louder and more into the game. If you didn’t know you were in Glendale, you’d have thought the game was being played in Idaho Falls or somewhere close to Boise.” Most estimates have the Bronco Nation turnout at 25,000, and the crowd noise was impressive, especially on Arizona’s defensive downs. And ESPN’s crowd shots strongly favored the Broncos—it was better TV. I mean, Boise State student Ashlyn Heubach’s “This Must B Deja Blue” sign was shown six times.
Demarcus Lawrence’s first NFL season started on injured reserve. We still don’t know how it’s going to finish, because yesterday the former Boise State star sealed the Dallas Cowboys’ 24-20 playoff win over Detroit yesterday with a sack of Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, stripping him of the ball and recovering the fumble himself with 53 seconds left. It was a wild fourth quarter for Lawrence—he had recovered another fumble moments earlier only to lose it back to the Lions. Lawrence had one other tackle in the game, while former Broncos Orlando Scandrick and Tyrone Crawford logged five and three tackles, respectively. Elsewhere, George Iloka’s season is over after his Cincinnati Bengals were dropped 26-10 by Indianapolis. Iloka made five tackles in that one.
“That’s one that won’t disappear from our hearts for awhile,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said after Utah State’s David Collette hit a prayer of a three-pointer at the buzzer Saturday to beat the Broncos, 62-61. Collette’s well-defended trey offset a tremendous surge by Boise State at the end of the game. It was a game of runs, and how. The Aggies opened on an 8-0 run and led 41-31 at halftime. The Broncos started the second half on a 12-0 run to take a 43-41 lead. A 14-0 Utah State spurt gave the Aggies a 57-43 advantage, during which time Boise State was held scoreless for eight minutes. Then the Broncos exploded with a 16-2 run down the stretch—until Collette silenced Taco Bell Arena.
Derrick Marks knows the responsibility placed on his shoulders with Anthony Drmic out for the season for Boise State. Tender ankle or no tender ankle, Marks poured in 31 points against USU, extending his school record with the seventh 30-point game of his career. Rice said, however, that Marks was “beating himself up” for a missed front-end of a one-and-one with 13 seconds left, when a pair of made free throws could have put the game away. The Broncos have a mid-week bye now to deal with the heartbreaker before what shapes up as a tough, tough tussle at Wyoming this Saturday. “That’s not when you want a bye—to have to live with that,” said Rice.
They're getting closer, but they saw their losing streak extended to 13 games over the weekend nonetheless. The Idaho Stampede dropped decisions of 119-101 and 96-91 to the Bakersfield Jam in CenturyLink Arena and are now 3-15 for the season. The Saturday night game was winnable, as the Stampede carried an eight-point lead into the fourth quarter. But Bakersfield outscored Idaho 26-11 in the final 10 minutes of the contest to rally for the victory. The Stamps remain home for games against Oklahoma City tomorrow night and Wednesday night.
Other hoops doings: Idaho made a triumphant return to Big Sky play with wins over Idaho State and Weber State in Cowan Spectrum. The victory over the Bengals was a 77-54 rout fueled by 32 points and eight three-pointers from Connor Hill, while Weber was tamed 86-84 on a Mike Scott jumper with three seconds left. The College of Idaho's home win streak is now 26 games, but the Coyotes were living dangerously in weekend wins of 70-69 over Warner Pacific and 73-71 over Concordia. And the Boise State women are off to a 2-0 Mountain West start after knocking off conference preseason favorite Colorado State 75-65 on New Year's Eve and Utah State 65-53 on Saturday.
Olivier Roy has his mojo back. The Idaho Steelheads goalie's New Year's resolution must be to not allow a goal, as he shut out the Colorado Eagles in back-to-back games in Loveland over the weekend. It's the second time in Roy's ECHL career he's posted consecutive shutouts—he did the same for the Alaska Aces against Utah a little over a year ago. The big story on offense was Friday night, when the Steelheads blasted off with four goals in the first period and rolled over the Eagles, 6-0. Brett Robinson potted two goals, both in the first period, and Jason Bast added three assists. The Steelheads return home this Friday and Saturday for a pair versus the Aces.
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January 5, 2004: The final college football polls for the 2003 season have Boise State finishing 15th in the Coaches Poll and 16th on the AP list after the Broncos’ record 13-1 season. TCU, the team BSU beat in the Fort Worth Bowl a couple weeks earlier, stayed in the rankings, making the Broncos and the Horned Frogs the first schools from non-BCS conferences to post back-to-back Top 25 seasons in 12 years.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment Sunday nights at 10:30PM on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on 93.1 The Ticket. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
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