LARAMIE — I watched the team that could win the national title in what would be one of the great stories in American sports lore.
Boise State is that good. Just 14 years after jumping from the dregs of Division I-AA, the Broncos could beat any team in America on a neutral field. I’m convinced of it.
Too bad it won’t happen. The system won’t allow it. The third-ranked Broncos’ 51-6 pounding of Wyoming will raise only amused yawns in the SEC and Big Ten, not to mention the offices of every voting coach in the USA Today poll.
The world will look at the other side of the field and see an outmanned Wyoming team, recovering from the tragedy of a fallen teammate, in the middle of Dave Christensen’s second-year rebuilding job.
Boise State’s problem is the world that’s against it will yawn through its entire season. And that world includes nearly every talk-show host, blogger and beer drinker outside the Idaho border.
After its home opener next Saturday against 25th-ranked Oregon State, Boise State’s WAC schedule looks like a walk through a King Soopers bakery: donut, followed by a French cruller and a few cream puffs.
Its lone threat is a visit to Nevada on Nov. 26. The Broncos’ best win all year was wiped off the radar when Virginia Tech lost to a school more associated with the writing of the U.S. Constitution than a football team. No one cares that James Madison won the 2004 I-AA national title.
When it beat Virginia Tech it beat Boise State too.
Here’s what the voters in the BCS formula don’t get: Check the eye test. Erase the opponent and savor the precision of Boise State’s offense, the relentlessness of its defense, the discipline of a team that returns 22 of 24 starters from a 14-0 season.
Junior quarterback Kellen Moore is the real deal. He finished 20-of-30 for 370 yards and threw only his fourth pick in 485 passes.
Tailback Doug Martin is quick and elusive, gaining 105 yards. Yet Boise State’s strength is probably its defense. It sacked Austyn Carta-Samuels four times. The Broncos outgained the Cowboys 218-1 in the first quarter. They led 34-0 at half.
Put this team in the Pac-10 and they could win it. Its lack of street cred is purely guilt by association.
I’m fantasizing about Boise State and Alabama playing for a national title on the neutral field in Glendale, Ariz. It’s the same place where the Broncos stunned Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, merely the greatest sporting event I’ve ever watched in person or on TV.
For that, they won a watch.
They won’t win a national title. Just by staying home last weekend, Boise State dropped in The Associated Press poll from 13 points behind No. 2 Ohio State to 104 points behind, merely because of Virginia Tech’s pratfall against James Madison. Six voters dropped Boise State from No. 1.
And that’s not all.
“They’re not going to be a good computer team,” BCS analyst Jerry Palm said. “Boise’s going to be behind in both the polls and computers. They’ll be behind all major one-loss teams and maybe even behind two-loss teams in the computers. That’s how it’s gone for them historically.”
They’re a good team for fodder, though. ESPN GameDay will be in Boise on Saturday, and the debate comes on their blue turf. While Corso fights with Herbstreit over it, let’s hope they bring up another point.
In an era when Mississippi loses to Jacksonville State and James Madison beats Virginia Tech, Boise State has not lost focus once in this 16-game win streak.
“They get it,” coach Chris Petersen said. “They do a good job watching tape. They know that everybody’s got good players. They see what Wyoming could do. They took them very, very serious. They take everybody very serious.”
This wouldn’t be a debate if the university presidents awoke from their coma and put in a Plus-One. Yes, I am beating a horse that died in about 2004. But think about it. Boise State can’t finish in the top two. It could finish in the top four.
Would you watch a 12-0 Boise State versus a 13-0 Alabama in a national semifinal? Thought so. Dream on. I am.
