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This Day In Sports…October 13, 2012:
An intense (albeit one-sided at the time) 12-year rivalry appears to come to an end as Boise State beats Fresno State and Derek Carr 20-10 behind a stifling defense and 122 yards from sixth-year senior running back D.J. Harper in Bronco Stadium. At that point Boise State had won 11 of the 12 games against the Bulldogs in the WAC and Mountain West eras, and the Milk Can trophy that goes to the winner was temporarily retired in the Allen Noble Hall of Fame Gallery.
Behind Carr, the future NFL mainstay, Fresno State came in averaging 493 yards and 39.5 points per game. The Bulldogs moved it between the 20s on the Broncos. Sometimes. The visitors managed 322 yards and barely reached double-digits on the scoreboard. The accomplishment against a hot new no-huddle spread offense was not lost on senior linebacker J.C. Percy. “I thought we did great,” said Percy. “I looked up at the scoreboard at the end of the game and I think that they had a total of 56 rushing yards, and as linebackers that was one of the key things we needed to stop.”
Harper, a sixth-year senior who had bounced back from two season-ending knee injuries, was on his way to a 1,000-yard season, serving as the Broncos’ bridge between Doug Martin and Jay Ajayi. Harper recorded his third 100-yard game of the year against Fresno State, netting 58 of his yards on a second quarter drive that he capped by a dazzling 28-yard touchdown run. Ajayi, a redshirt freshman, was Harper’s backup, and by that time he was serving notice for the future. Ajayi added 91 yards, with his first two carries producing tackle-busting runs of 14 and seven yards that took the ball to the Bulldogs’ one-yard line and brought down the Bronco Stadium house.
The Broncos were set to move to what was then the Big East the next year and didn’t think they’d see Fresno State again, but that never happened. It was going to be Boise State’s ticket to a BCS conference, but after agreeing to go, prominent programs left the Big East one-by-one. The following month, Louisville and Rutgers announced their departures, and it was clear that the league wasn’t going to be what the Broncos signed up for. After some concessions from the Mountain West, Boise State would announce on New Year’s Eve that it was staying in the MW.
So Boise State and Fresno State remained together, and a little more than a year ago, they were two of the five Mountain West schools that announced they were leaving in 2026 to a revived Pac-12. The series between the two schools has been a lot more level since that 2012 game. The past 11 meetings have produced a 6-5 mark in favor of Boise State. Two of the Bulldogs’ wins were in Mountain West championship games on the blue turf.
(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.)
