Presented by ZAMZOWS.
This Day In Sports…October 30, 2003:
Boise State plays its first game ever against the most storied football program in the Intermountain West, BYU. The Broncos were greeted in Provo by a light snowstorm, but they were unfazed. Five days after scoring a school-record 77 points against San Jose State, Boise State buried the Cougars 50-12. The Broncos’ performance included four interceptions (one returned for a touchdown by Wes Nurse), a blocked punt for a touchdown, and three TDs and 209 receiving yards from Tim Gilligan.
Gilligan was on a tear. He hadn’t even seen the end zone until Game 5, but now he was living there. It was Gilligan’s second 200-yard game of the month as he was well on his way to a 1,000-yard season—he’d finish with 1,192. Boise State had a modest 381 yards of total offense in the snow (136 below its average), but that’s all it needed, thanks to the turnovers and special teams magic. Defensively, Boise State held BYU to 21 completions on a whopping 59 attempts.
It was a Thursday night game, and ESPN assigned its A-team to the booth: Mike Tirico, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso. But Corso got a little testy as the points piled up. Who’d a thunk Boise State’s biggest problem after facing BYU for the first time would be accusations of running up the score? When coach Dan Hawkins left quarterback Ryan Dinwiddie in the game in the fourth quarter and he connected with Gilligan to get the Broncos to 50, that put Corso over the edge, and Tirico and Herbstreit joined him. Bronco Nation saw it as Hawk just doing Boise State’s 60-minute “Prove It” thing (the team’s motto that season).
The return game in the home-and-home series in 2004 would be a lot more thrilling, as BYU missed a 38-yard field goal with 19 seconds remaining to preserve a 28-27 Boise State victory. In 2012, the two programs would embark on a 12-year home-and-home series (cut short by a year when the Cougars moved to the Big 12). The Broncos would win seven of the 11 games, leaving the current series record at 8-5, Boise State. Maybe they’ll meet again someday…
FOOTNOTE: A followup to my Wednesday Scott Slant column, when I said, “It would be a shock to see Kellen Moore here Saturday night for his Boise State statue unveiling.” Well, later that same afternoon, you know the announcement was made. I did not feel like the smartest person in the room. I was concerned that the court of public opinion in New Orleans would treat him unfairly, but I couldn’t be more excited to see him raise the Blue Chaos flag before taking the drape off the statue at halftime of the Texas State game Saturday night. It’ll be quite a scene, unexpected or not.
(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.)
