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This Day In Sports…September 25, 2015, 10 years ago today:
True freshman Brett Rypien makes his first career start as quarterback at Boise State, and it couldn’t have gone much better. But don’t tell his jersey. Rypien quarterbacked the Broncos to their largest margin of victory ever over a Power 5 opponent in a 56-14 win at Virginia. More specifically, though, he’ll be noted for his poise in the pocket. Rypien took a number of licks while throwing for 321 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. Light rain fell throughout the evening, and Rypien’s No. 4 was smeared with classic grass stains.
For its part, the Boise State defense was recording a safety and forcing five turnovers. The Broncos had two pick-sixes, with one coming on the first play of the game by defensive tackle Justin Taimatuia. The Broncos’ first fumble recovery of the season came courtesy of Ben Weaver midway through the third quarter and set Boise State up on the Virginia 30. On the next play, Rypien hit Thomas Sperbeck for the touchdown that was probably the best catch of his career. The second interception return for a TD was run in from 25 yards out by Mercy Maston a few minutes later to give the Broncos an insurmountable 32-point lead.
“My number one thing for him is, when he was hit, he got back up,” said coach Bryan Harsin of Rypien after the game. “The toughness that he showed—I really appreciate that, and it was a key ingredient in his success.” Toward the end of the game, a smiling Rypien could be seen showing a teammate a gash under his chin. At least one hit on him was clearly late (and not flagged), but let’s not go there. Most impressive was Rypien’s final throw of the night, a quick-release 64-yard touchdown pass to Thomas Sperbeck as an oncoming Cavalier was headed for his grill.
Virginia’s offense often looked like it was sleepwalking, but make no mistake about how important the game was to the Cavaliers at the time. Beat writer Andrew Ramspacher of Charlottesville’s Daily Progress said in a video preview, “This game will determine the future of this season, maybe the future of Mike London as head coach. This is huge. Absolute must-win for the Cavaliers.” This was the same UVA team that had taken Notre Dame to the wire two weeks earlier, but it took the wrong fork in the ol’ road. London resigned at the end of the season and was replaced by former BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall (now coaching Utah State).
(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.)
