CFN Analysis
Nevada 34 ... Boise State 31 OT
By
Pete Fiutak
There you go, America. You don’t have Boise State to kick around anymore.
Kyle Brotzman didn’t lose the BCS dream for the Broncos; that was gone once Nevada quarterback Colin Kaepernick took over.
After the game got tight, Boise State’s season was effectively over. The national title was out of the mix once Rishard Matthews ran for a 44-yard touchdown early in the fourth to pull the Wolf Pack within three. Passing TCU and getting a BCS bid was on life support with the Matthews seven-yard catch in the final seconds of regulation to tie it up. The missed kicks from the normally automatic Brotzman just made it official.
It was the best game of the 2010 college football season with several phenomenal plays; from the weaving Mathews touchdown dash; to Doug Martin putting Boise State ahead late on a 79-yard touchdown play as he motored through the Wolf Pack secondary; to the 14-play, 79-yard march by the Pack to tie it; to the miraculous 53-yard pass play to Titus Young to set up the ill-fated 26-yard Brotzman field goal attempt that would’ve won the game. It was a heartstopping fourth quarter that might have destroyed Boise State’s season, but it was also a phenomenal exclamation point on Kaepernick’s great career.
Nevada’s season isn’t done, with Louisiana Tech to finish the WAC season and a good bowl game coming as the possible conference co-champion, but this is the win Kaepernick needed to validate all the stats and all the great accomplishments – most notably, combining with Vai Taua as the most productive rushing duo in college football history. 0-3 against Boise State going into this week, and 0-3 in bowls, and in ugly fashion, the pressure was on helped by the ongoing reminder that this was the biggest sporting event in the history of the football program, the school, and the city of Reno. And Kaepernick came through.
Nevada had never won in Kaepernick’s long career when he threw more than one pick, and he threw one early on. That would be his only mistake as he
cranked out 259 yards and a touchdown and ran for 45 yards and a score, but for one of the only times in his career, the stats didn’t define his play. All that mattered were the 17 fourth quarter points, and all that mattered was the strike he threw for a touchdown pass to help tie the game in the final seconds. But even in Kaepernick’s shining moment, Kellen Moore came up with the special finish.
Completing 20-of-31 passes for 348 yards with two touchdowns, and one miracle that should’ve been enough to win the game, Moore was once again fabulous despite being under pressure for most of the game from the aggressive Wolf Pack defensive front. His dream season is gone now, likely marking the end of an era with the program moving to the Mountain West next year. Boise State will still be good, but this was the chance at something truly special. One bad fourth quarter two shanked kicks, and it’s all gone, while Nevada gets the win four years in the making.
TCU, you got your break. Now do something with it.
By
Richard Cirminiello
Of all the ecstatic Wolf Pack players in Reno, none is happier on this night than Doyle Miller.
Miller is the corner who inexplicably allowed Boise State WR Titus Young to get behind him with just a few ticks left on the click. He was destined to be a pariah, the face of yet another Nevada loss to the Broncos. Yet, the kid got a reprieve from Kyle Brotzman, who missed a chip shot field goal attempt that would have prevented this thriller from ever getting to overtime. Thanks to the suddenly erratic placekicker, Miller no longer has to worry about being an infamous footnote in history since the Kellen Moore to Young hook-up wound up having absolutely no relevance on the final outcome.
The fallout from this shocker is somewhat elementary. Boise State is out of the BCS picture, and as a solid No. 3, TCU’s hopes of playing for a national championship have improved dramatically. A little less obvious, however, is what this means to the at-large berths. The Broncos, seemingly a sure-thing for one of the four spots, are no longer in contention, meaning a huge opportunity for programs, such as Stanford, the winner of tomorrow’s game between LSU and Arkansas, and possibly the next best thing in the Big 12. While shifts in the top 5 of the BCS rankings have been limited in recent weeks, vacating Boise State from the process is going to open up doors for at least one program that otherwise might have been left behind.
By Matt Zemek
Well, just as everyone predicted, two teams blew commanding 24-7 leads on Friday. Two teams with sterling reputations, decorated coaches, and credentialed skill-position players who were dominating their opponents in the first half of play somehow lost hold of their respective situations. Brilliance gave way to balkiness. Toughness turned into tightness. Forcefulness melted into fear. Two games involved 180-degree turns that were as surprising as they were significant.
Both Alabama’s meltdown against Auburn and Boise’s “bus” breakdown against Nevada were spectacular in their totality and abruptness. Auburn and Nevada pulled off incredibly gutsy and admirable comebacks, and especially in Auburn’s case, the comeback artists deserve to have the main headlines to themselves. With this late-night fight in Reno, though, the main story has to be the Boise State Broncos, even though the victorious Wolf Pack naturally deserve a heaping helping of richly-deserved kudos for not crumbling in the face of Boise’s first-half onslaught.
The calculus is simple: The night began with four unbeaten teams and a non-automatic-qualifier chase for a Rose Bowl bid plus an outside shot at a national championship. Now, there are only three unbeaten teams in the FBS, and the Boise-TCU competition has ended in a way few people anticipated. Friday began with an unforgettable Iron Bowl, but it ended with a supremely crazy game that could only come from a conference called the “WAC.”
Both of Friday’s instant classics were impressive and unforgettable, but while Auburn’s title-sustaining win took center stage due to its breathtaking dimensions, Nevada’s upset of Boise State will be remembered more for the team that failed. Indeed, while one loser on Friday (Alabama) slips away to the likely obscurity of the Outback Bowl, the 2010 college football season will reserve a much larger chapter for the day’s other stomach-punched victim, the team that will now plummet from the Rose Bowl all the way to the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. There are two more games left to play for Boise State this season, but Friday’s sprawling spectacle, set against the backdrop of a chilly Nevada night loaded with a million different plot twists and turning points, essentially serves as the moment of death for the sport’s most controversial team. What follows is not so much an analysis of one game against Nevada as it is a reflection on what this game means – and should mean – for college football and its fans. The death of Boise State is the best time to comment on the Broncos’ journey, because there won’t soon be this much attention surrounding a small school from the state of Idaho… not for a long while, at any rate.
There are a few things that need to be said about Boise State in a broader context, in connection to the identity and well-being of college football. The ability of this sport to learn from the Boise State story in 2010 will shape the ways in which college football either rises or falls in the next 20 years.
The first thing to establish about Boise State is that, even in defeat, the Broncos showed a fair amount of grit and gumption, much like Auburn and Oregon, and even TCU. Boise dug in to hold Nevada to a game-tying field goal with roughly five minutes left in regulation. The Broncos then took the lead on a remarkable touchdown by Doug Martin, who made a dazzling run that was similar to Cam Newton’s highlight-reel run against LSU. The Broncos’ amazingly accurate quarterback, Kellen Moore – whose receivers let him down so many times against Nevada – threw the kind of pass at the end of regulation that great quarterbacks unsheathe from their swordholder. Boise State made plenty of plays in the attempt to survive the proverbial “one huge test” that Auburn survived against Alabama, and which Oregon passed by a small margin at California. There was just one difference: The Broncos’ kicker, Kyle Brotzman, encountered the yips at the end of what had been a stellar season marked by (ironically enough) an eradication of the left-hash demons that had plagued him earlier in his career. The margin between victory and defeat wasn’t any greater in Boise State-Nevada than it was in Auburn-Alabama or Oregon-Cal; the difference was that the Broncos stood on the wrong side.
One shouldn’t be lulled into thinking that a yawning canyon emerged between Auburn and Oregon on one end and Boise on the other. One made kick in Reno, just like one Alabama fumble avoided in Tuscaloosa, could have created different outcomes on an enthralling and mesmerizing Friday that makes college football sing. Yet, for all the beauty witnessed on the field, the story of Boise State unfortunately yet undeniably involves a lot of ideas and sentiments that get tossed around off the gridiron. They have to be confronted for better or worse.
For one thing, this result – this death of Boise State – does much to strengthen the hand of the BCS. It is now very easy for BCS apologists and – more instructively – the power brokers in charge of the system to claim that “everything works out in the end,” that change isn’t needed after all. TCU doesn’t have a Virginia Tech-level win to cling to, which means that the Auburn-Oregon winner (barring a Dec. 4 upset) will be crowned a clear champion, while TCU gets conveniently kicked to the curb. It will be like Florida-Utah two seasons ago or Boise State-Alabama one year ago. The band will play on, and college football won’t move forward. That’s a problem. Why? One word sums up the matter quite succinctly:
BUS.
Yes, that nasty three-letter word, used repeatedly by ESPN’s Pat Forde, has become the source of so much resentment toward Boise State over the past three months. People around the country have been greatly upset and unnerved by what they perceived to be Forde’s (and ESPN’s) shameless promotion of Boise State.
It’s an old pattern in sports: Fans don’t really hate a given team, but they wind up rooting against that team because of the way the media covers it. Fans don’t necessarily hate the Southeastern Conference, for instance, but they’re understandably sick and tired of Gary Danielson shilling for the league every week in an undeniably transparent manner. Thus, fans root against the SEC and pray for its demise every week. Boise State fit this same pattern in 2010, and “BUS!” represented the instantly polarizing nature of the Bronco phenomenon in our 24-7 media ecosystem. One word, repeatedly used by one prominent columnist, came across as an act geared toward cheap attention-getting and one-sided advocacy. Note the words “came across as,” for Mr. Forde – like anyone else in a position of similar visibility – is not supposed to cheer from the press box. If he is, shame on him.
If he isn’t, though, Boise State received a lot more vitriol than it deserved this past season. I can’t claim to speak for Mr. Forde, but the “anti-BUS” backlash needs to be placed in a proper light.
If I’ve lived (and written articles) in the shadows this year, it’s because I try to be neutral in my position as a college football news analyst and editorial commentator. I try to survey the landscape, see it for what it is, and render informed opinions based on where the evidence and my instincts lead me. I’m not free of bias – no human being is – but in 10 years of doing this job, a lot of time and space have been devoted to the simple notion that “bias” is natural. “Entrenched bias” – otherwise known as the refusal to acknowledge basic truths or facts when presented with evidence – is worrisome and unprofessional. When the charge of “bias” gets thrown around, I still have the sense that many people view it as the “unprofessional” kind and not the natural, inherent bias all human beings possess. This separation of concepts – sifting the natural and innocent kind of bias from the entrenched and unprofessional form of bias – has to take root throughout the college football world. It might not kill the enjoyment of the sport, but it sure detracts from wondrous Fridays such as the one we just witnessed.
What’s my bias in college football and, in a larger context, all of college sports? I’ll tell you: It’s that smaller schools deserve a chance to play the bigger schools on the biggest stages. Schools who do more with less, and who came from humble origins to do really impressive things on a national stage, should be given the privilege of testing themselves against the brand names in their sport. This IS why the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament is such a special sporting event. We have seen, conclusively and definitively, that David can beat Goliath when given a shot. Does this mean football should be exactly like basketball? No – it shouldn’t be and can’t be. However, on a larger level, we should at least allow for the possibility that a Boise State (or a TCU) can exist, compete, and be given a chance to make a statement. Boise State did this against Oklahoma on that unforgettable night in Glendale nearly four years ago. It did so in two wins over Oregon and then a Fiesta Bowl win over TCU back in January. Sure, it’s entirely fair and reasonable to think that Boise State’s schedule didn’t measure up this year. Of course, you can say that the Broncos would have lost three games in the SEC. Those beliefs aren’t objectively “wrong.” They come from a place of logic and experience. You wouldn’t find many people who feel that the WAC is no different from the SEC or the Big Ten. The season-long debate enfolding Boise State – if it got stuck on these micro-level points – was a big waste of time.
I dare suggest that Pat Forde – and like-minded pundits who were quicker to admire Boise State than others – spoke highly of the Broncos not to insist on their participation in the BCS National Championship Game, but to promote the idea that smaller schools without the brand-name label should be seen as worthy of having the chance to contest the national title. Much as the NCAA Tournament debate for the final at-large bid between a 9-7 Big Ten team with a 3-8 record versus the RPI top 50 and – on the other hand – a 13-3 Colonial Athletic Association team with a 1-3 record versus the top 50 will always be extremely difficult, the same is true in distinguishing Boise State from other teams. It was never easy this year to separate the Broncos from TCU or from Oregon, both teams Boise had defeated last year. In Oregon’s case, its schedule wasn’t much better than Boise’s slate throughout 2010... not with the weakness of this year’s Pac-10. Maybe Forde’s “BUS!” was designed to generate a different kind of reaction; maybe “BUS!” was indeed an attempt to lobby for Boise State (and against other teams) from the very beginning.
I highly doubt it.
The persistent problem with college football is that it generates arguments more than answers. It creates heated divisions between Boise State lovers and haters. It forms divisions between people who hate ESPN for hyping Boise and people who hate ESPN for hyping the SEC (especially in the case of Mark Schlabach). Some reasonable people think that both Forde and Schlabach have been excessive on both sides of the divide, and that Gary Danielson’s pro-SEC advocacy is just as bad as anything Forde or another supposedly “pro-Boise” journalist, Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times, have done. However, with mainstream college football broadcasting falling in the lap of just a few networks and corporate interests, can there ever be such a thing as an honest opinion-giver? Have we reached the point where all commentaries such as “BUS!” will always be seen as gestures of team-specific advocacy rather than statements made in the best interests of the sport?
The inconvenient part about giving opinions is that on most occasions, one has to come down on one side of an argument at some point. Who will win? Who is the best team? Who has impressed you the most? These questions are asked and answered all the time, and the people who cover Boise State – along with any other team in the land – have to render a verdict as part of their jobs. If every opinion is seen as biased in the corrosive and unprofessional sense, and if TV arrangements permanently cloud the impressions poll voters both receive and then transmit, we arrive at a conundrum: Do we want to keep giving our opinions on college football teams and having the arguments that always emerge at this time of year, or do we want to move past the argument stage and decide debates on playing fields?
Here’s the heart of the matter, then, with Boise State: I never had any problem – not on Labor Day, and not now – with the notion that a team with Boise’s weak conference schedule should have to play four tough teams (let’s say top 25 teams) in ALL FOUR OF ITS NON-CONFERENCE GAMES. That’s a fair and reasonable demand placed on the Broncos. It is, if anything, an admirable view, because it demands that Boise State (or any team like the Broncos, such as TCU) should be tested if it is to compete for a national title. I always knew that and recognized that, and never attempted to duck that. I don’t think Pat Forde or Chris Dufresne would think differently, either. What’s important to realize, however, in light of that line of reasoning, is that if you think Boise needed to schedule four really tough non-conference games in 2010, the system under which this sport operates should mandate such an action or reality.
Yes, football and basketball are different, but please try to grasp this one reality: Year after year, the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee makes it clear that non-conference scheduling matters. There is a clear point of recommendation from a governing body to the nation’s member schools to follow a certain approach when it comes to scheduling. Why, then, can’t we have a Selection Committee in football? Why can’t we have a governing body tell us –BEFORE THE SEASON – that a non-AQ team like Boise State must schedule X number of preseason top 25 (or perhaps top 15) teams in its non-conference (i.e., discretionary) schedule? If everyone knew what the rules were, and if everyone accepted them and abided by them, so much of the controversy in this sport would melt away.
Ah, but you see, we DON’T have those universally-accepted rules or standards. Boise State is NOT compelled to schedule four tough teams as long as it’s not in an AQ conference. We’re left to have these messy debates, in which people from every corner of the country naturally and unsurprisingly make the set of familiar arguments that fits the interests of their own team and/or conference. It’s all so predictable and it’s all so tiresome, especially when these arguments don’t move us any closer to the thing we all crave: a big game on the field. We crave a Stanford-LSU matchup. We crave a matchup between TCU and Auburn or Oregon. We won’t (likely) get those matchups, though. In most seasons, we only get a fraction of the matchups the sport deserves, a small sliver of the matchups that would really tell us how good various teams really are.
You might think that over the past three months, Boise State represented an example of a team having an unfair advantage because of Pat Forde’s “BUS!” However, when the SEC has won the last four national titles, and when the Pac-10 has gained just two (two!!!) at-large BCS bowl bids in the 12-season BCS era, one can’t say that teams from the Western United States or teams from smaller conferences have been benefiting more than most. Boise State – 2-0 in BCS bowls over the past half-decade – has certainly not failed to make a number of statements on the big stage. If the Broncos had lost the 2007 or 2010 Fiesta Bowls, they wouldn’t have been talked about at the beginning of the 2010 season. However, they did win those bowl games, and just as Alabama was rightly ranked as the preseason No. 1 owing to its status as defending national champion, Boise State received a high preseason ranking in its own right. The “BUS!” wasn’t meant to convey the idea that Boise was always inherently better; it was meant to express the crucial notion that one team’s legitimacy – built on past successes – was just as substantial as another’s… at least, in the absence of a system that carries debates from the internet to the playing field.
It’s not fun to argue when a game could be played instead. Boise State – now dead and vanquished at the hands of Nevada – should never have become the villain it represented to so many fans. Boise State is not the New York Yankees. Boise State is the little school in Idaho that – in the best of the American tradition – worked hard and played by the rules to achieve when given the chance. In American politics, we would view Boise State as a poor person who didn’t accept any government handouts but worked one’s way up the ladder and “picked himself up by his own bootstraps.” In college football, though, Boise came to be seen as the “BUS!” which had an unhealthy sense of entitlement and coasted within a small margin of a possible national championship game appearance without paying the price (until Friday night against Nevada, that is).
This divergence in national perception – this identification of Boise State as a perpetrator of unfairness and not a victim of it – is what I have personally objected to. The Broncos never did deserve anything that SEC or Big Ten teams didn’t; the contention always was nothing more than this: Boise State deserved to be seen as worthy of a chance to compete. That’s all. Football is a big-game sport; games are meant to be played, not talked about. Arguments are meant to be settled, not left unanswered.
Maybe one of these decades, we’ll start hating the BCS instead of teams like Boise State who never should have been on the receiving end of such vitriol. I don’t know about Pat Forde’s “BUS!,” but my bus was merely meant to represent equal access to opportunity, the chance for non-AQ teams to earn their way to a title on the basis of raw merit… and real-life games against elite opponents. If, in 2011, Boise State or TCU needs to play four tough non-conference teams to be seen as legit, I’m all for that kind of progress and reform. Let’s then create a system in which all schools have to play by the same rules. That’s the “BUS!” I’m driving, even though the Broncos’ mass-transit system collapsed on a chilly night in Reno at the tail-end of a day that college football fans will never forget.