Presented by ZAMZOWS.
This Day In Sports…October 17, 2008:
Boise State avenges a painful loss to Hawaii the previous November with a sound 27-7 victory in Bronco Stadium. The Rainbow Warriors had defeated the Broncos 39-27 in what amounted to the 2007 WAC championship game to cap an undefeated regular season and earn a berth in the Sugar Bowl. In this one, Boise State came in featuring the freshman phenom known as Kellen Moore at quarterback, but the Broncos were a complete team during those remarkable years, and it was the Broncos defense that ruled the night.
True, the Boise State defense had been torched the year before by Hawaii star Colt Brennan, but who wasn’t? Brennan’s successor was Inoke Funaki, and he was intercepted five times by the Broncos. Cornerback Brandyn Thompson snagged three of them to quell any UH thoughts of an upset on the blue turf. (It’s the last time a Bronco had three picks in a game.) Safeties George Iloka and Jeron Johnson made the other two interceptions.
Boise State was especially deep on the defensive line at the time, and eight D-linemen rotated throughout the game. Six of them had a hand in the Broncos’ seven sacks, and one of them was not team leader Ryan Winterswyk. Jarell Root, Shea McClellin and Chuck Hayes logged the first sacks of their careers.
For his part, Moore completed 76 percents of his throws for 256 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. He took what the Warriors gave him, and the passing game didn’t go vertical outside of a 55-yard catch-and-run to Vinny Perretta. But Kellen had another one of his signature plays. In the third quarter from the UH 16-yard line, he went through his reads—looking right and looking left until he saw Austin Pettis break free down the middle and hit him for a touchdown.
The first BCS rankings of the season would follow two nights later, and Boise State debuted at No. 12. But despite rolling through the regular season undefeated, the Broncos were left out of the BCS bowl lineup and faced TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego, falling 17-16. It was the first loss of Moore’s career, and there would be only two more—the three defeats were by a total of five points.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
