In 2007 Fiesta Bowl, Boise State, the most-up roaring, high powered offense in college football, faced of against the Sooners of Oklahoma. Boise State surprised the football world by going 11-0 in the regular season, while Oklahoma, Big 12 champions, was held to an 11-1 record. Oklahoma was a 7.5 favorite in this game. Oklahoma also contained the best running back in college football, Adrian Peterson. In the game against Iowa State Peterson broke his collarbone after scoring a touchdown. This was a key loss in Oklahoma’s regular season because if you have the best running back in college football, you best to keep him healthy. After taking a 14-0 lead, Boise State gave up a touchdown to Manual Johnson with 0:26 left on the clock in the 1st quarter. Nobody knew what they were in for.
Boise State was a heavy underdog and was tied with Oklahoma, 28-28, with 1:26 left in the 4th quarter. After the ensuing kickoff, on the next play from scrimmage, Boise State quarterback Jared Zabransky was intercepted by Marcus Walker, who returned it 34 yards for a touchdown. Oklahoma led 35-28 with 1:02 left, and its first lead of the day.
On Boise State’s next possession, Zabransky drove the team to the Oklahoma 40. After being sacked, having a dropped pass and an incomplete pass, Boise State was on the verge of losing what could be, the game of their lives. The broncos needed 18 yards to get the first down although there was 18 seconds on the clock. While the Sooners were in a prevent-style defense, Zabransky passed the ball to Drisan James. Knowing Oklahoma was in a prevent-style defense; Drisan James of Boise State flipped the ball to an in-stride Jerard Rabb, who ran the ball along the left sideline 35 more yards for a touchdown. The "hook and lateral" play, called "Circus" by the team, allowed for at least two more laterals. Johnson and Zabransky trailed Rabb along the sideline as potential outlets or possibly as blockers. Chris Petersen, Boise State’s head coach, only reached half way into his pocket of tricks when he called this play.
In overtime, Boise State won the toss and decided to play defense. Oklahoma scored on their first play with a 25-yard run by Adrian Peterson. The extra point was good, making the score 42–35 Oklahoma. On Boise State's drive, the Broncos were down to 4th and 2 on the Sooners' 5 yard line and decided to run their second trick play, a wide receiver rollout option from a variant of the Wildcat offense. Zabransky ran in motion to his left while backup wide receiver Vinny Perretta, lined up as a running back, took the snap, rolled to his right, then threw a touchdown to tight end Derek Schouman to bring Boise State within one point at 42–41. Instead of going of the extra point to tie the game and send it into a 2nd overtime, Coach Chris Petersen went for the 2-point conversion to try and win the game. Yet who would of ever new that he would run another trick play, The Statue of Liberty. Boise State lined up three receivers on the right side; after the snap, Zabransky faked a quick pass to his right with his right hand, then quickly handed off the football backhanded with his left hand to running back Ian Johnson, who ran untouched into the end zone for the conversion and the win. During a post-game interview with FOX Sports on-field analyst Chris Myers, Johnson got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend, Boise State head cheerleader Chrissy Popadics, on live TV.
For the past 10 years, Boise State has been to 9 bowl games and has come out of them with 5 wins. Chris Petersen has been the broncos head coach for 4 years now and has had a combined record of 49-4 and about a 0.924 winning percentage.
Early in the decade Boise State didn’t really have a top 25 type of team. Most of those years, they were winning 7-8 games a season but the last 4 years have been different. Boise State has been to 2 bowl games and 2 wins (both coming in the bowl games). The first bowl game was against Oklahoma, the one I just showed you and TCU in 2010.
Both Boise State and TCU are in conferences that do not contain an automatic bid to a BCS bowl. After the Utah Football squad won their face-off against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 2009 Sugar Bowl, the FBS thought about a playoff type of postseason or keep it the same. This has been going on for about 2-3 years. The FBS has also considered having either the WAC conference or the Mountain West Conference to have an automatic bid to one of the 5 BCS bowls.
In the BCS game against Oklahoma, Boise State did two things. One was to work hard. Throughout the game, Boise State put in 110% during each and every possession. Getting into a BCS bowl game is hard, especially if you’re not in one of those big conferences like the Big East, Big Ten, SEC or the Pac-10. Most of the time you have to work for it and you do that by doing what Boise State did in Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma…believe.