Category: Sports

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To the Valley of the Stun – pt. 1

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Finale

Here we go… a blow by blow description of my unbelievable weekend in the Phoenix watching my beloved Boise State Broncos play in the Fiesta Bowl.

Friday, Dec 29th

My plan was to fly round trip to Phoenix from Salt Lake City rather than Boise. After the Broncos clinched their undefeated regular season vs. Nevada (another game I was at) the airfares from Boise to Phoenix jumped to over $400. Being the genius I am, I checked for flights from SLC and found one for $260. I jumped on it.

I didn’t think when I purchased the ticket that it was winter and the weather for the drive might screw me up. Thus, I planned to stay the night in SLC the night before my flight was to leave, just to give me plenty of leeway. Of course, it would turn out I wouldn’t need it at all, but more on that in a minute.

fiesta-bowl-trip178 I got on the road at about 1pm. The day was crystal clear and there was not a single icy spot anywhere on the 300 mile trip to Salt Lake. fiesta-bowl-trip174

All was well and good during the drive until about 4:30, when I ran into freeway construction and a Friday rush hour all rolled into one. About 30 miles from Salt Lake, I was fortunate enough to be able to slow down and really soak in the scenery… In other words, I got to come to a complete stop on the freeway, which is always one of my favorite things in the world.

The traffic finally lighented up and I approached my exit. Well, at least it was the exit that Microsoft told me to take. I used MapPoint to plan my trip, and Microsoft screwed me. I got off at exit 316 like they told me, only to find NOTHING THERE. So, after a quick pee break, I get back on the freeway. A couple miles down the road, I saw a sign pointing to what I thought was the exit I was supposed to take… well, it was an exit too early. To top that off, it was an exit with no corresponding on ramp. Thus, I’m driving in the dark through this industrial area looking for a way to get back onto the freeway. When I finally find an on ramp, I realize that this ramp is AFTER the exit I should have taken. Well shit. So, I stay on the freeway knowing my hotel is by the airport. I should be able to find that.

I drove until I found an airport exit. Great! Back in business. Well, that was until I found myself cruising around these deserted loops around the airport. I’m on these freeways that drive past the damn FedEx terminal. Its pitch dark out here and I have no idea where the hell I am. On top of this, my gas tank is hovering very close to ‘e’.

Somehow, I find the street my hotel is on and make it to a gas station in time.

I would just like to take a second to get on the record how much I HATE the street names in SLC. Or should I say the lack of street names. Everything is a number. And not good numbers like “40th street”… no no… they are all “W 2000 N.” When you are reading a freeway sign that is entirely composed of numbers and random letters, you really start to get frustrated. “wait, was that 200 N or 2000 W?!? Son of a bitch!!” My hotel was on a ‘named’ street, but even that was messed up. North Temple West. *sigh*

I digress. I made it to the hotel (which had the swimming pool and hot tub actually in the lobby, which I found a little odd) and saw my first fellow Broncos in the lobby. Apparently I wasn’t the only one to have the same ingenious plan.

I got a pizza and a beer from the grocery store since there was no way was I going to try to find a “sports bar” in Salt Lake. For those of you who haven’t had the privilege of attempting to drink in Utah, let’s just say it’s an adventure. So, I stayed in the room and flipped between bowl games and Saddam’s execution. It was a strange evening in a strange place, to be sure.

Saturday, Dec 30th

I woke up early. I was geeked up and couldn’t help it. I was packed up and ready for the shuttle to the airport atfiesta-bowl-trip170 9am. The hotel gave me a complementary paper with an interesting little sticky note on it. “If you do not wish to receive the newspaper please contact the front desk for a $.15 refund.” Seriously? How big of a skinflint are you that you are indignant that they stole fifteen cents from you?

I got checked in and through security and to my gate at 9:30. Only problem? My flight was scheduled to leave until 11:55. Oops. I settled in for my wait.

As I read my $.15 paper, I did see that the Salt Lake Tribune predicted Boise State 27 Oklahoma 21. That’s a good sign, right?

At 11, they announced my flight would be delayed 30 minutes.

At 11:40, they announced a 2 hour delay. It appears that our plane had an engine that wouldn’t start. So, they had to fly in a new plane and we should hopefully be off at 3:00. Great. To rub salt into the wound, they boarded and departed another flight to Phoenix. Those of us who were stuck grumbled amongst ourselves about how we got jobbed.

To rub even MORE salt into the wound the airport in Salt Lake is horrible. They had multiple TV’s on all over the place. Every last one of them was tuned to CNN with no audio. There were multiple college bowl games on, but could we see any of them? Absolutely not.

Eventually we got out and got safely to Phoenix. Only about 3 hours late. That made for a long day at the airport.

fiesta-bowl-trip114 I met up with John and Ilinda (who flew into Phoenix from Georgia a couple hours earlier) and John drove us directly to the local Indian casino. Gotta love vacation. Weather was beautiful and it is always nice to see palm trees.

Gila River Casino is on the south side of town and John and I headed directly to the blackjack tables. We found seats at a $10 table and started playing and the drinks started flowing. At this particular casino however, if you’re playing the table minimum as I was, you gotta pay for your drinks. John was playing $25 a hand and got his drinks for free. Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I gotta think that getting EVERYONE sauced should be your number one priority in a casino. But what do I know.

We played for about 3 hours and I broke even (even after paying for drinks). John, being the stud that he is, ended up $800! So, dinner was on him. Seeing as I had eaten exactly nothing for the whole day, I was more than ready for a little grub.

We hit the road and found the local Claim Jumper. The food was tremendous, but then again, 3 hours of drinking on an empty stomach and I would have been hard pressed to find a meal that wasn’t any good. It was a beautiful piece of prime rib and a huge baked potato. My meal also came with a muffin and whipped honey butter but they cleared that off before I had a chance to partake. In the state I was in, I didn’t even notice until we were leaving. That bummed me out because I love whipped honey butter!

John was not finished gambling… aka. he still had money in his pocket. Thus, we went back to the casino. I proceeded to give them that $100 I had been playing with post haste. John fared a little better, but also ended up giving them some of their money back. We decided to call it a night and head to the hotel.

fiesta-bowl-trip013 The good news was that our hotel was right off the freeway. The bad news? Everything else. We drove upfiesta-bowl-trip014 and the neighborhood was a bit dodgy, but when I saw the hotel (which was more of a motel actually) had an armed guard in the parking lot, that sealed it. You gotta love those blind internet booked hotels, right? Its almost like the lottery. This place was very much like the Super 8 in Reno. Mostly clean, but certainly not The Ritz. (Picture to left is a lovely stain next to the bed and to the right is a wad of gum on my headboard. That should give you a hint)
However, at that point, I didn’t care. I came in and crashed in no time.

We had big days ahead.

To be continued…

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Why you’re a fan

Fiesta BowlYou grow up watching a team. You fall in love with that team and you’re hooked for life. Up and down, thick and thin. It is the life of a sports fan. In sports, there are no guarantees. You can be a fan for your entire life and never see the “magic moment” you’re waiting for. Just ask Chicago Cub fans. You can never be sure where or when that moment might make its appearance. You will never know “why”.

That is why you watch. Why you invest all that time and effort. Why you’re a fan. You hope, someday, that it will all be paid back to you. You try to stay realistic. Try to stay grounded. But you hope.

Then comes your shot. Those hopes have come true. You know that you would pay any price to be there to see it. You make your plans and daydream about what might happen. You know you’re a long shot. You know you should just plan to enjoy the experience, but you still dream.

Eventually, the time is upon you. The world stops and your entire existence shrinks into one small sliver of brightly lit grass. You imagined what it would be like, but could never have expected it to be like this. You’re there. It’s happening.

It has finally arrived, and you can scarcely believe it. Every sense you possess is pushed to 11. You can taste the electricity and you have to confirm to yourself that those really are your boys down there.

Maybe your team starts well. Maybe they look so good, you start to abandon your cautions and start to really think it could happen. You’ve been sucked in. You have lost that last bastion of protection to your psyche, let your guard down.

As the game progresses and time ticks away, the collapse you feared seems less and less likely. Your screaming gets louder and louder. It’s going to happen! The dream you’ve had is about to come true.

Until…

Your opponent comes roaring back. Roaring ALL the way back. Takes the lead. You’ve lead the entire game, and now, it’s going to be stolen from you in the final seconds. You feel like you’ve been punched in the stomach. You’ve gone from as high as you’ve ever been to as low as you imagine you could possibly feel. There is a minute left, and you know it’s all gone.

4th and 18 with 18 seconds to play. One more down and you can slink out of the arena and try to disappear.

But that’s when the real magic happens.

Completion… lateral… now you’re screaming! My God, he is going to make it! As soon as the pitch is made, the building starts moving. When he crosses the goal line, your world explodes into a supernova.

Your brain is on such overload that you genuinely fear that the team you live and die by may, in fact, kill you.

When the unbelievable happens you stand there dumbfounded. Unable to form coherent thoughts. Unable to speak. Unable to weep. You simply cannot believe what you are seeing. You are forced to ask the people around you that it is indeed happening. They are just as flabbergasted as you. So, you all stand there somewhere between ecstasy and agony.

Overtime. They score easily. All of a sudden they look stronger than you. You wonder just how much magic can be left. You haven’t taken a breath in 10 minutes.

Your turn. 4th down again. This is the ball game. You can’t watch but can’t look away. Quarterback in motion… what are they doing?! Sweep… toss… MY GOD, HE CAUGHT IT. You’re going bonkers, but you know you’re still behind.

Go for two. Love the call. You gotta do it. Team is tired. Go out and take one last shot. As they line up for this one final play, either way you somehow know your life will never be the same.

It’s happening right in front of you. You know this image will be burned into your brain for the rest of your life. You don’t often recognize history as you’re seeing it, but this one time, you do.

You see the fake… you see the handoff…you see him 2 yards from the goal line with nobody close…

Detonation. Bedlam. Insanity…

You’re feeling everything and nothing all at once. All you see are screaming people and waving arms. Your brain simply cannot compute it all. Hugs. Tears. Time slows down. You don’t believe it happened. Couldn’t have happened. Surreal. The team is celebrating on the field, but you don’t remember seeing them run out there. Blocks of time are missing from your memory. But it really happened. It did.

And that, my friends, is why you’re a fan.

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I’m back…

Fiesta BowlI made it home safe and in one piece.

My psyche is shattered. My brain, throat and body feel like I was run through a meat grinder.

I can’t compose a coherent thought, and haven’t been able to for 24 hours.

You’ll just have to wait a little longer for my full description of my trip. It was seriously a once in a lifetime experience. As cliched as that is, it is absolutely accurate.
Frankly, I’m still in shock. More to come.

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Time to Fiesta!

Fiesta BowlIt’s that time. I’m about 10 minutes away from hitting the road and going on an extended Fiesta.

I want to wish all Bronco fans heading to Glendale a safe trip (myself included) and hope we have the best New Years one could wish for.

To everyone staying home, enjoy the game on Fox, New Years Day. 6:50 kick off. Keep your eyes peeled for me, I’ll be the schmuck in orange in section 421!

You’ll all hear from me when I return.

Happy new year and GO BRONCOS!

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So, which is it?

BoiseStateBoise State football is seriously something of a dichotomy recently. Let me explain. Reading all of the national press all year, Boise State comes across nationally as somewhat of a novelty. Nice little team from a smaller conference. They don’t play anybody. Feelgood underdog story. They have that funky blue field, don’t they? Heading into this Fiesta Bowl, I’m sure we will be heavy underdogs. An afterthought.

On the other hand, within the WAC and to a lesser degree the Mountain West (we’re 11-0 as a 1-A team against them), we are the evil empire. We are the 800 lb. gorilla. We are the hated bullies who have been so good as to become obnoxious. EVERYONE always gets up when they play Boise State. We get every team’s best shot… well, except for Nevada. Most teams, even conference bottom feeders, leave it all on the field against us. Some teams even play out of their minds against us, only to completely fall apart afterwards for the rest of the season.

I’m thinking specifically of Fresno State last year. They finally beat us 27-7 for the first time and rode that momentum into that amazing USC game and barely lost. Then they proceeded to lose 10 of their next 11, including an embarrassing loss to Utah State. Idaho did the same thing this year. Coming into the game, they were 3-0 in the conference and thinking bowl game. They played us like their hair was on fire for 3 and a half quarters. Boise State ended up winning and Idaho went into the tank losing their next 4 games by a combined score of 217-30.

I wonder if there is another team in the country in such a situation. I say there is not. There has not been a more dominant ‘mid-major’ school in recent history, yet we’re still considered a side show on the national stage. I know, those national guys always shout “strength of schedule! They don’t play anybody!”. Granted, we’re not playing an SEC schedule or anything. However, before you dismiss us out of hand, check out some of these stats (heading into the Reno game – from the BSU Media Guide).

Nation’s Best Home Winning % Last 4 Years Nation’s Winningest I-A Programs Since the Start of 1999 SeasonAll-Time Winningest Division I-A Football Programs

Frankly, those numbers are just sick. That is some seriously rarefied air we’re in. But thats not all. Check this out.

  • Undefeated regular season twice in 3 years.
  • 5 straight WAC conference titles
  • All time conference record of 45-3 (including 4 undefeated conference seasons ’02, ’03, ’04 & ’06)
  • Boise State has won 55 of last 61 games
  • 75 wins this decade, highest for a western team, 7 more than USC. (by the way, in that same time Idaho has won 20)
  • 51-2 at home since start of ’99 season
  • Highest scoring team since start of 2000 season, 41.8 points per game. 2nd is Texas at 39.5
  • 25-2 when ranked in one of the major top 25 polls
  • 20-4 all time playing on ESPN or ESPN2.
  • Dirk Koetter left and was just fired by Arizona State. Dan Hawkins left and just went 2-10 at Colorado.

Bronco fans know and understand how successful we’ve been yet we still understand that we are the new kids on the block. The teams we play certainly understand the quality of Boise State football. I don’t care what league you play in, when you dominate like that, you are an elite team.

No matter what the national media tries to tell us.

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Nevadatude

I can’t believe I forgot to mention the single dumbest thing I heard in my entire trip to Reno.

At the game, they played this football theme song called “Nevadatude”. Which, essentially amounts to a horrific country song, with lyrics filled with Nevada football references. I have never heard something so bad in my life. Honestly. I can’t even rationally discuss it.

Have you ever heard something that was so bad, it made you uncomfortable to listen to? Like you are incredibly embarrassed for those involved? That was this song. Exceedingly cringeworthy.

After a quick google search, this whole thing was apparently head coach Chris Ault’s idea. Hey coach… how about we worry about the product on the field and not your program’s theme song, hmmm? It is quite obvious you have MUCH bigger problems than this song.

As it stands, I guess “Nevadatude” is defined as completely rolling over for the biggest game of the season, displaying no heart at all, letting 8,000 rival fans dominate your building or simply having your stadium 70% empty.

Gee, if that is “Nevadatude”, count me out.

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BCS or Bust – What it all means

Here is the remainder of the weekend. (Part 1 Here – BCS or Bust)

First off, I do have to say that the enormity of what had happened didn’t really hit me after the game. I think I was so nervous heading in that I felt more relieved than anything. I didn’t jump up and down or scream or anything (not that that is really my style anyway). I think as I watched the blue and orange sea on the field, I just stood there with a bemused look on my face. Taking it in without it sinking in.

Thusly, the rest of the night kinda went the same way. No drunken revelry. We had a good dinner a another local brew pub (the Italian Sausage Ravioli were great) and watched the first half of the Notre Dame v. USC game. This place was a little out of the way, and there were no other Broncos in the joint (at least in the bar). We talked to a few Reno guys in there and they were gracious in defeat. I did have to tell them that its not all bad, since they’re still going to a bowl game and Boise State just cut them a check for $750,000. (Each team in the conference splits some of the BCS booty). Can’t argue with that too much. They were cool, and we just had a low key dinner.

After, we headed back down to the casinos to find a place to watch the Trojans finish off the Irish and the first little bit of the Purdue @ Hawaii game. We actually packed it in early due to the fact we were driving home the next day.

We woke up early to bust out of there. I set the alarm on my cell phone but somehow calculated the time wrong (it was still on Boise local time) and instead of setting the alarm for 6:30, I set it for 4:30. The lesson, as always, is I’m a dumbass. I should have just woken everyone up then since I was pretty much wide awake and ready to go, but instead I laid there for 2 hours before getting up.

On our way out of what really appeared to be a ghost town… there was NO traffic on the roads at all… we stopped at a local Starbucks. Now, we were the only 3 people in the building except for the two girls behind the counter. For some reason, they had to be sure to ask all of us our names so they could write them on the cups. Uh… I don’t think we’ll get them confused girls… But we made it on the road without incident.

Just like the way down, we were in the middle of a Bronco caravan. We drove Jess’ car down since her’s is the newest and it ended up getting us some strange looks. See, she is a Vandal, tried and true, and came along just because I asked. And, being a Vandal, her car has the University of Idaho sticker in the back window and the Vandal license plates. We did, however, have the dual Bronco car flags flying high. It was quite amusing to pass another bronco car and watching in the mirror as the passenger points at us and says something to the driver, or vice versa. This must have happened half a dozen times that I saw, who knows how many more times that I didn’t. To quote Peter Venkman, “Dogs and cats living together… Mass hysteria!”

Honestly, I think it took me until Tuesday for it all to really set in. Life is a funny thing. In what has undoubtedly been the hardest year I have ever lived through (a close second was the year in college when I worked full time, school full time, and had a part time internship, but thats another post), the only team I follow with an absolute passion had its greatest season ever. Especially ironic when you know that every single Boise State memory I have from the past 4 years is intertwined with memories of my ex and ex-laws. Who knows… maybe this was supposed to happen. It might be egotistical for me to think that some higher power set up the Bronco run to make it up to me for being shit on… I don’t know. All I know is that I love the Broncos. What does it tell you that I want to be successful in life, make a bunch of money, but not for me… but because I want to be able to give big chunks to Boise State. That’s just not normal.

I listened to KBOI’s archive of Paul J’s call of the game on Saturday, and I would be lying if I didn’t get chills. When they were talking about where this team has been and where its going, I think my eyes welled a little. Again, stuff like this shouldn’t happen. Paul J’s voice can at once make me feel both like a grown man listening to a BCS team on the verge, and a 7 year old kid following the Broncos the only way one could back in the day, on the radio. He may not be the greatest announcer who ever lived, but he is the very soul of Boise State to me. I can hear his voice and it sounds like home. When he gets excited, my blood pressure jumps 30 points. He is one of the rocks this program has been built on. I think KBOI & Boise State should market a DVD of the greatest BSU moments and the accompanying Paul J. calls. As it is, I watch the Bronco season commemorative DVD’s I have weekly.

Saturday’s game at Reno will be one of those events that improves in my memory with age. Like the Idaho game in ’94 or the Fresno game in ’02. That image of the fans on the field will stick with me for a long long time.

Phoenix, here we come.

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BCS or Bust

BoiseStateThat was the theme for the recent road trip weekend. Boise State was facing one game for all the marbles at University of Nevada Reno. Outright WAC championship (fifth consecutive), undefeated regular season, and BCS bowl birth with the big exposure and big pay day. Here’s the story.

Friday, November 24th. My birthday was spent mainly driving from Boise to Reno. Roughly 7 hours of some of the most boring driving this side of the great plains. I will concede that driving across North Dakota (sorry to my relatives back there) may be, in fact, the most boring place on the planet to drive. Take a peek at a road map for the state, and you will see I-94 slicing a straight line directly across the state. Yawn… At least the road to Reno does change direction, however, you end up with about 350 miles of the exact same landscape. It does look nice enough, but when you stare at it for 14 hours in 3 days, it definitely gets a little old. You find yourself begging for some trees or something to at least break the monotony.

Hotel DoorWe arrived in Reno and check into the hotel. Since we were making this trip on the cheap, I booked us into a Super 8 motel that was about 300 yards from the stadium. Savvy planning on my part, I thought. Unfortunately, this place wasn’t exactly the Ritz. You will notice in the picture that the door is completely closed, yet there is about an 1/4 inch gap around the whole thing. Yes, we left the heat on the entire time.

After a little rest, we hit the downtown area of the “Biggest Little City in the World”. I’ve always liked casinos even though I’m not a huge gambler. Go figure. And the casinos this night were absolutely swarming withReno blue and orange clad fans. It was terrific. Everywhere you turned, you saw another group. I will admit though that the random “BOISE…. STATE…” chants were a little much. I’m as big a fan as you know, but even I have my limits. There was an interesting phenomenon at play here. Usually, when you’re traveling to an away game and you see someone in your colors, you usually make a comment to that person like “Go Broncos!” or something. Well, in Reno, there were SO many Bronco fans that you don’t feel the need to make those comments. It was like we were the ‘home’ team or something. The occasional Nevada fan might say something to you, but since they were outnumbered in the casinos about 200-1, there wasn’t many of them around.

After being incommunicado for the whole day on the road, I really enjoyed sitting in the sports book of the Silver Legacy to catch up on the day’s college football action… Who upset who, who was favored by what, etc. Plus, Fresno State and La. Tech were playing on TV and the announcers spent half the time talking about Saturday’s Boise State v. Reno matchup. Good times! The book had Boise State favored by only 3 points in the game. I thought about putting a bet down on the game, but I figured, I’ve already got way too much wrapped up in the outcome of this game, there is no need to add a financial aspect as well. Although, hindsight being 20/20 and all, I probably should have bet $1000 on the game, so if we won, my trip to Phoenix was paid for, and if we lose we’d stay home and play in the local MPC Computers bowl anyway and I wouldn’t have to travel with the team. Damn…

One observation of the casino scene in Reno. We were heading back to the car that was parked in the Circus Circus parking garage. First of all, I hate Circus Circus. I hate clowns and I hate the circus. But, as we were heading out at after 11pm, the sheer number of kids running around was astounding! That place was absolutely LOUSY with kids. First of all, for the life of me I can’t understand why you would ever bring your kids on a ‘vacation’ to a casino in the first place. Second, why in blue blazes are these kids still running around this ‘midway’ in Circus Circus at almost midnight? At least the actual casino floors are still kid-less sanctuaries. Just one more reason to loathe the Circus Circus.

Game Day

After an exceptionally craptacular breakfast (how in the hell do you fuck up biscuits and gravy anyway?!) it was time to get into game mode. As I had told everyone, I was nervous about this game. Nevada came into this game on an absolute roll. Five wins in a row, including two 42-0 routs in a row. We were favored by a mere 3 points (or one point underdogs in the Sagarin ratings). Even Kirk Herbstriet on ESPN picked Nevada to win. Everything was piling on and I wasn’t feeling great.

Broncos Take the Field Opening Kickoff

It was quite a chilly morning, so we layered up and headed into the stadium. Two weeks ago when I went to purchase tickets, Boise State told me that their allotment of 5000 tickets was long gone. So, I went directly to the Wolfpack athletics website as was able to purchase tickets directly from them. As you can see, I got damn near 50 yard line seats. It is safe to say you wouldn’t be able to get tickets like that at Bronco Stadium.

Sitting in the upper deck in the sun, we QUICKLY warmed up and started stripping off layers. Eventually getting down to our shirtsleeves. Unbelievable. It was so warm, it felt like September. Just a gorgeous day. Continue reading “BCS or Bust”

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Boise State’s Next Big Thing?

Bronco fans have enjoyed a long string of terrific quarterbacks throughout the years. Beginning with Tony Hilde (personal issues aside, he is still BSU’s total offense career leader), to Bart Hendricks who led us into D1. Followed by Ryan Dinwiddie, who owns the NCAA record for career quarterback rating, up to Jared Zabransky who despite a tough year last year, is still 31-5 as a starter and just set the school record for single game completion percentage.

We have a couple of freshmen kids in the program who might be the next thing, including ex-NFL quarterback Neil Lomax’s son Nick Lomax as well as a phenom from California named Michael Coughlin. We just missed out on ex-head coach Dan Hawkins’ son Cody Hawkins when Coach Hawk defected to Colorado.

Those two guys might need to be ready to be future back-ups compared to our most recent quarterback signing.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Kellen Moore. Mr. Moore is a senior this year at Prosser high school in Washington state and has signed a letter of intent with Boise State. He has, what are possibly the sickest numbers I have ever seen. I thought Cody was prolific at the local high school Bishop Kelly. Well, Moore’s numbers make Cody’s look like a turd.

How’s this? In 2005 as a junior, Moore had 317 completions for 4,600 yards and 66 touchdowns. SIXTY-SIX! This season, he has his team 12-0 with possibly two more games to play and his stats are equally bonkers: 269-362 (74.3% completion) 3,969 yards, and 62 touchdowns. Oh yeah, he only has 5 interceptions. Personally, I was disappointed we didn’t keep Cody, but his senior year numbers (146-for-204 for 2,783 yards and 42 touchdowns, 5 picks) while impressive, frankly pale in comparison.

This is the end result of playing all those games on ESPN at strange times. That and a lot of hard work by the coaching staff. I know one thing, even with Boise State losing 22 seniors this year, the cupboard is far from bare!

Who else is excited for the future?

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I can talk about it now

BoiseStateI know some of you have been waiting for my reaction to the closest of close calls last Saturday. Frankly, I haven’t been able to talk about it until now.

We escaped. We needed to buckle down and pull out a miracle 4th quarter. I’ll tell you one thing, I was not enjoying that game at all. And frankly, I’m not very fun to be around when we play a game like that. I actually got in trouble once (2 years ago, from the ex) for brooding and not being happy and chatty when Boise State had a hellish game the LAST time down at San Jose State. Yes, I know I have WAY too much invested in these games that I have no control over. I know this. Can I do anything about it? Absolutely not. I am, however, realistic.

I listen and read to national sports media all the time. With Rutgers being undefeated and a long shot at getting into the national championship game, there is a lot of debate about who deserves the chance to get there. We know the winner of Ohio State/Michigan will be there, so all of the rest of it is debate on who #2 will be. There are a lot of one loss teams out there who are clamoring to be the one. What I don’t understand is this. Before Louisville lost, and Rutgers now, their fan bases are up in arms that they might go undefeated and not make the championship game. Thus, citing their weak strength of schedule, the national media guys are slamming them saying they don’t deserve it. But somehow, Boise State keeps getting wrapped up in those slams as a team whose fans are delusional. Let me say this loud and clear… THERE ARE NO BOISE STATE FANS OR LOCAL MEDIA HERE WHO ARE SAYING WE DESERVE A SHOT AT THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP! Period. End of story. Yet somehow, we keep getting tossed in that discussion and are being killed for it. We know we are not national championship caliber. We are not crazy. We’ve only been D-1 for 10 years for pete’s sake.

However, we do think if we run the table we at least deserve a shot at a BCS game. I think that is only fair. Which brings me back to Saturdays game. There was A LOT riding on it. I want to go to Phoenix in January. I want to see us play a big time school, even if we lose. I just want to be there. I want to have the national media talking about Boise State football in a positive way for a month leading up to the game. I want another game like we played against Louisville in the Liberty Bowl. Everyone was in agreement that that was a terrific game. Obviously, I would love to win, but all things being equal, it is great just to be at the party.

I would also like to point out, that this season will be the first season where I have seen double digit Boise State football games live. Which ever bowl game we make it to will put me at 10 for the year, meaning I still have three more games to watch (tomorrow vs. Utah State, next week @ Reno and the bowl game, wherever that may be). For someone who hasn’t missed a home game in… well this season will make it 15 straight years, that was the next big hill to climb. Of course, the only pinnacle from here would be to hit EVERY game in a season. Maybe someday I can pull that one off. Hopefully, I won’t pick a year where we have to play at Louisiana Tech.