Face it. You're one disappointed BSU football fan right now. I'm one disappointed BSU football fan right now. Everyone around town who is willing to talk about it is talking about being disappointed after the Broncos loss to Hawaii and 2nd place finish in the WAC. Okay, everyone except maybe die-hard Idaho fans.
Personally, I thought going into the game that Hawaii was a group of pretenders, not contenders. I looked at the weak Hawaii schedule and the string of not-too-impressive games and believed the Warriors would fade at the first serious challenge. Instead, they sliced and they diced the young Broncos defense and won an impressive victory.
If Hawaii can beat the Washington Huskies next week (something BSU could not do), then they'll likely take on LSU in the Sugar Bowl, a two-loss team that may be better than the two-loss Oklahoma Sooners BSU met and beat last year in the Fiesta Bowl.
Meanwhile, the Broncos are falling victim to high-expectations. That's a good thing. 10-2 is hardly a catastrophe. We've just been spoiled to expect more. Lofty expectations are one price of success BSU will just have to endure. It's why coaches with impressive winning records resign or are fired from major college football programs even though they've won ... because they just haven't won up to lofty expectations. The team likely to face Boise State in the Roady's Humanitarian Bowl, Georgia Tech, just fired their head football coach despite having a winning record. It just wasn't 'winning enough' apparently.
Meanwhile, BSU has earned the kind of respect that breeds disappointment in a 10-2 season by winning against all odds. The Broncos have emerged from the days of not even playing in the top College Football Division to a prominent spot on the national stage. Unlike the very first BCS Championship at-large team, the University of Utah, BSU is building off its success. An exemplary coaching staff, strong recruiting classes, and an obvious continued commitment to excellence make Boise State one of the best and most feared programs in the country. Just the sight of blue turf is enough to make any opposing team sweat. Even after a 23-2 run over the past two years, you really get the feeling the best for Boise State is yet to come.
Oh yeah, and then there's that Bleymaier guy. The BSU athletic director has assembled an absolute masterpiece of a football program through his expertise, persistence and patience. Joe Theismann once notably said "there is no such thing as a genius in sports. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein."
Gene Bleymaier may or may not be a genius, but he has proved he is one of the smartest around at what he does. You get the feeling that Chris Petersen and his staff understand that, and that may be a big reason why they are apparently sticking around. Top to bottom, BSU is a great team whose biggest battle going forward may be against the imposing foe of rising expectations they've created. The good news is they appear to be up to that formidable and growing challenge.
this blog is almost as pointless as the nasty memo you sent to your staff the other day.
Posted by: jim bob | November 26, 2007 at 10:08 PM