Boise State Football- Then & Now

A Silent Giant

Where's Boise State? What's a Bronco? Who's this football team? Well, we all know now. A team that has won 9 conference championships over the past 11 years. A team from the WAC(Western Athletic Conference). A team from a conference that hadn't exactly been a juggernaut in previous years.

However, the football program became really well know beginning with the 2006 season. 3 perfect seasons over a 5 year time span. Somebody awoke this sleeping giant. Maybe it was the critics saying they had no competition. A team with a definite advantage when playing on their home turf. Not losing a home game in about 5 years. That's hard for any team to accomplish but this is Boise State we're talking about here.

The football program has experienced 3 undefeated regular seasons out of the past 5 years. A lot of the critics say this is due to lack of competition. Boise also has a considerable home field advantage as well. They won 31 straight home games dating from 2001-2005. The home streak was ended by Boston College back on December 28, 2005.

Perfect Season #1

The 2006 season was one to remember not only for Bronco fans but football fans in general. An undefeated regular season & a trip to the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona. This was very unusual to have a non-BCS conference get accepted for a bid to a BCS game. They were ranked #8 nationally going into this game & also with a record unblemished. Finally, a team from a smaller conference had made a BCS bowl game.

What a game this was indeed. You have a powerhouse football team in Oklahoma & you have a smaller & less known school in Boise State. There was no way Boise could pull off the upset, right? Well, everybody was wrong. Boise State defeated the Oklahoma Sooners in overtime by a score of 43-42.

You just had a team from a lesser conference finish with a better record than any other power school in college football. This performance by Boise State had fans all over the nation starting to notice this once silent football team. They're not silent anymore!

2009 Campaign

How could this football program once unknown have an even better season than 2006? How could they beat 13 wins & a perfect record? Well, how about getting one more win & again not losing a single game. This is what happened during the 2009 campaign for the Broncos. Only three after another undefeated season the Broncos were at it again.

Odd Looking Home Field

What does traditional mean in this case ? It means something that we're grown accustomed to over time. Well, in this case can you say "blue"? Boise State football plays home games on what's called a Field Turf. The odd thing is the turf is not the color we're used to watching games played on. All other college football games are played on a green colored surface. However, Boise chose to color their field blue back in 1986. It hasn't changed colors since. It may look weird to us but the fans of the Broncos have been doing this for nearly a quarter of a century. I wonder if they feel they're watching the "Smurfs"?