Courtesy of the Fresno Bee's Matt James:
As one parent of a Fresno State player said the day after, you can't really appreciate this year's Boise State team until you see it in person.
It is ruthless. Eye-catching. It is General Patton looking dynamite in an evening gown. It is some combination of an IRS auditor and Cirque du Soleil.
Mike Tyson would say the Broncos' offense is impetuous and their defense is impregnable, and he would be right on both accounts. They are, in every sense, ferocious.
The Broncos beat Fresno State 51-0 Friday night, and afterward Pat Hill started to say that the score wasn't a true reflection of the actual game and he couldn't even get through it before he corrected himself.
Even in a college football coach's vulnerable, emotional moments, he couldn't spin what had happened.
As one parent of a Fresno State player said the day after, you can't really appreciate this year's Boise State team until you see it in person.
It is ruthless. Eye-catching. It is General Patton looking dynamite in an evening gown. It is some combination of an IRS auditor and Cirque du Soleil.
Mike Tyson would say the Broncos' offense is impetuous and their defense is impregnable, and he would be right on both accounts. They are, in every sense, ferocious.
The Broncos beat Fresno State 51-0 Friday night, and afterward Pat Hill started to say that the score wasn't a true reflection of the actual game and he couldn't even get through it before he corrected himself.
Even in a college football coach's vulnerable, emotional moments, he couldn't spin what had happened.
"We've played some good teams before," Hill said. "We have never been manhandled like that."
This is a program that has gone to Ohio State, to Tennessee, to Oklahoma, to USC, to LSU, to Oregon, to anybody-anytime-anywhere, and the most overmatched it has ever been was on a Friday night in Boise.
The Broncos' quarterback is a Heisman candidate who makes every throw to every receiver, even into impossibly tiny slivers of space along the sideline. When his team needs 5 yards, he throws for 6. When it needs 15, he throws for 16.
Boise State has the best combination of two receivers of any college in America. Period. Its kicker made a 50-yarder on a cold, icy night. Its defense held a good Fresno State offense to almost nothing. A few token first downs.
This is a Fresno State team that was getting votes in the Top 25 poll earlier this season, you'll remember, and against Boise State it didn't even attempt a field goal.
If they play a national championship without Boise State in it, the nation should look away in protest. Oregon's offense isn't fast enough to run away from the Broncos. Auburn better hope its controversial quarterback stays eligible, because without him the Tigers would be 10-point underdogs to Boise.
Every part of the current system is set up to keep the establishment in power, and yet the Broncos accelerate against the tide. The best football team in America plays in a conference that is imploding underneath it.
After watching Boise State for an entire game, your neck hurts from all the head shaking. Surely there is trick photography or holograms at work, but I checked every corner of Bronco Stadium. They keep it all hidden well.
It sounds strange, but you almost wish Fresno State could keep it closer so the Broncos would at least have to use their A material. Chris Petersen only used one trick play Friday, which is like going to see Denis Leary and he doesn't even bother getting angry.
Petersen even joked that quarterback Kellen Moore's 11-yard rush on third-and-10 (of course it was) should win him the Heisman. Local writers weren't sure which to be more shocked about, that Petersen uttered the word "Heisman" or that he let the armed guards surrounding his personality relax long enough for a joke.
Everyone in Boise might be smiling, but it's not a feel-good story anymore. It's not the team that upset Oklahoma. This is a brutal, unforgiving force, void of vulnerability.
Football fans in the South like to say that Boise State would never survive an entire season in the SEC, and to them I say: This is not the season to test that theory.
This is a program that has gone to Ohio State, to Tennessee, to Oklahoma, to USC, to LSU, to Oregon, to anybody-anytime-anywhere, and the most overmatched it has ever been was on a Friday night in Boise.
The Broncos' quarterback is a Heisman candidate who makes every throw to every receiver, even into impossibly tiny slivers of space along the sideline. When his team needs 5 yards, he throws for 6. When it needs 15, he throws for 16.
Boise State has the best combination of two receivers of any college in America. Period. Its kicker made a 50-yarder on a cold, icy night. Its defense held a good Fresno State offense to almost nothing. A few token first downs.
This is a Fresno State team that was getting votes in the Top 25 poll earlier this season, you'll remember, and against Boise State it didn't even attempt a field goal.
If they play a national championship without Boise State in it, the nation should look away in protest. Oregon's offense isn't fast enough to run away from the Broncos. Auburn better hope its controversial quarterback stays eligible, because without him the Tigers would be 10-point underdogs to Boise.
Every part of the current system is set up to keep the establishment in power, and yet the Broncos accelerate against the tide. The best football team in America plays in a conference that is imploding underneath it.
After watching Boise State for an entire game, your neck hurts from all the head shaking. Surely there is trick photography or holograms at work, but I checked every corner of Bronco Stadium. They keep it all hidden well.
It sounds strange, but you almost wish Fresno State could keep it closer so the Broncos would at least have to use their A material. Chris Petersen only used one trick play Friday, which is like going to see Denis Leary and he doesn't even bother getting angry.
Petersen even joked that quarterback Kellen Moore's 11-yard rush on third-and-10 (of course it was) should win him the Heisman. Local writers weren't sure which to be more shocked about, that Petersen uttered the word "Heisman" or that he let the armed guards surrounding his personality relax long enough for a joke.
Everyone in Boise might be smiling, but it's not a feel-good story anymore. It's not the team that upset Oklahoma. This is a brutal, unforgiving force, void of vulnerability.
Football fans in the South like to say that Boise State would never survive an entire season in the SEC, and to them I say: This is not the season to test that theory.
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