SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Boise State football coach Bryan Harsin will coach in a bowl game for the first time in three years Wednesday at the Fiesta Bowl.
He missed Texas’ trip to the Alamo Bowl in 2012 while making the transition to Arkansas State. He was the co-offensive coordinator at Texas and the head coach at Arkansas State.
He missed Arkansas State’s trip to the GoDaddy Bowl in 2013 (the game was actually in 2014) while moving to Boise State.
Both of his former teams won without him.
His last bowl game was the 2011 Holiday Bowl with Texas. The Longhorns beat California 21-10. The last time a team Harsin was involved with lost a bowl game was Boise State’s 2008 Poinsettia Bowl loss to TCU.
Harsin said he talked about his bowl drought recently with his wife.
“I got some (bowl) gifts,” he said Tuesday at the final pre-game press conference. “I haven’t gotten those in two years, so my family is happy. It’s good to be back in a game. Those two years of not being in one, to be in this one, that’s an easy trade-off.”
The Broncos will take their first look inside University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale today. They play the Arizona Wildcats at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
“I think it’s important to go in there and let those guys sit down, visualize, kick it around, let the quarterbacks find the clocks, really put it all in perspective, what we’ve done this season, where we are right now,” Harsin said. “ Let’s look around today. Tomorrow, we run out there, we’re focused on doing our jobs.”
Other highlights from Harsin’s press conference:
— On practice: “I thought we had a really great week of practice just fine-tuning all the details. We’ve enjoyed ourselves but we came here to play in a game. We came here to play against a top-10 team, Arizona, and put our best performance on the field on the biggest stage of the year.”
— Boise State held a “Bronco Bowl” with a trophy for young players before leaving Boise.
— Harsin’s concerns with the 25-day layoff: “Speed. Week to week when you play, you’re kind of used to the speed of who you’re going to play against. Arizona is a very fast football team, we know that. We’ve done as much as we can to simulate the speed. We practice fast. We try to simulate their tempo the best we can. The better prepared we are, the faster we can play, and we need to do that. In games you haven’t played in sequence, you worry about special teams a little bit. You’re seeing in these bowl games now where special teams is a factor. You see turnovers and tackling. Those three things right there are big. And the last one when you have this much time off is your conditioning.”
— On how his role is different as head coach: “My job really has been motivating these guys to stay focused. That really hasn’t been that difficult to be honest with you. They want to go out there and perform their best.”
— On Arizona linebacker Scooby Wright, the national defensive player of the year who wasn’t offered a scholarship after attending Boise State’s camp in 2011 and 2012: “I wish I’d have been there three years ago when he was on Boise State’s campus. He’s a fantastic player.”
— On the Fiesta Bowl: “I bet if you ask, 95 percent of our team will say the reason why they came to Boise State is because of the Fiesta Bowl and watching our team play in it. I know what this game can do for us. I know how powerful it is.”
— On watching Arizona: “You want to look at the teams that they got after because you want to make sure you’re not one of those teams. You look at the games they lost and why. They will not quit. They fight.”
— On senior quarterback Grant Hedrick and junior tailback Jay Ajayi playing their last games: “At yesterday’s practice, toward the end of it as it was winding down, you could see some guys taking it all in and looking around shaking each other’s hands, high-fiving, smiling, knowing they were done. We’re done with practice and maybe they were just celebrating that, I don’t know. That’s what today is about, too. Today is about going in there and absorbing your career as a senior and looking at it like, ‘You know what, we’ve got to where we are now, we’re excited, but it’s not over. Tomorrow we have 3 ½ hours to go play this one last time.’ I think these guys will handle that appropriately. What we want as coaches is we want those guys to have their very best performance and walk off there proud, whatever happens, but to be proud of what they’ve done throughout their career.”
Arizona’s roster is loaded with players who started their college careers somewhere else.
The Wildcats have transfers from Texas (most notably wide receiver Cayleb Jones), Notre Dame (wide receiver DaVonte’ Neal), Virginia Tech, Air Force, LSU, Northwestern/UNLV, BYU, Boise State (defensive lineman Jeff Worthy) and a host of small colleges.
“We’ve got a bunch of misfits, coaches included,” coach Rich Rodriguez said at Tuesday’s Fiesta Bowl press conference. “It’s a band of misfits. We have a kind of environment that welcomes guys like that but they have to adjust to us. We’re still going to build the program on high school recruits. To have a few extra guys from different backgrounds or different situations, I’ve always been able to have a few that have been able to help, and this year’s no different.”
Check out our photographers’ work from the week, mostly from the hustling Kyle Green.
Tuesday coaches’ press conference
Monday hospital visit, media day
Sunday defensive press conference
Boise State Fiesta Bowl practice
Fiesta Bowl Saturday press conference
LINKS
Fiesta Flashback: Jared Zabransky, 2007
Murphy: Rich Rodriguez turns around Arizona program, his career
Two-star Scooby a five-star nightmare for opponents
Former Bronco Jeff Worthy turns around life, lands at Arizona
Tanner Vallejo a ‘coach’s dream’
Notebook: Harsin, Coyle discuss assistants’ pay
Watch players take over Bryan Harsin’s media day press conference
Boesen dismissed, other personnel updates
Fiesta Flashback: Kyle Wilson, 2007 and 2010
Chris Petersen, Boise State prepare for bowls six miles from each other
Murphy: New bowl format presents new challenges for Boise State
Get to know Jeremy McNichols, likely the Broncos’ next tailback
Fiesta Bowl notebook: Broncos hot in the red zone
Fiesta Flashback: Bryan Harsin and Justin Wilcox, 2007 and 2010
Grant Hedrick sets new coaching staff’s standard at QB
Fiesta Bowl notebook from Dec. 27
Tevis brothers hope for set of Fiesta Bowl rings — one Boise State, one Arizona
Murphy: To reach Fiesta Bowl, Broncos needed to eradicate complacency
Fiesta Flashback: Ian Johnson, 2007
Broncos missed recruiting opportunity with Scooby Wright
‘Boring play calls led to Williams-Rhodes’ rare shutout
Fiesta Flashback: Jadon Dailey, 2007
Broncos arrive in Arizona (press conference coverage)
Fiesta Flashback: Jerard Rabb and Drisan James, 2007
Fiesta Flashback: Kyle Efaw and Kyle Brotzman, 2010
Fiesta Flashback: Vinny Perretta, 2007
Boise State AD talking to Bryan Harsin about contract upgrades for staff
Twitter figures prominently in latest NCAA secondary violations
Late-night games didn’t rate on TV
Fiesta Flashback: Nate Potter, 2010
Hammer winner Darren Lee finds his aggressive side
Fiesta Flashback: Derek Schouman, 2007
Ajayi to leave for NFL in 2015
Fiesta Flashback: Brandyn Thompson, 2010
Arizona QB Anu Solomon is a dual threat, winner
Arizona’s top receiver played for Bryan Harsin
Fiesta Flashback: Andrew Browning, 2007
Fiesta Flashback: Marty Tadman, 2007
College Football Playoff ticket rules led to pricing controversy
Former Boise State assistant Sean Kugler leads UTEP to bowl
Focus will be key during funky bowl prep
Tight end Pistone commits to Broncos
Beat notes: Ajayi to make NFL decision before the bowl
Harsin press conference coverage
Five redshirts can’t travel to Fiesta Bowl
Jay Ajayi’s place in Boise State’s All-America history
Jeremy McNichols is now ‘The Weapon’
Ajayi, Harsin collect more honors
Boise State’s payout increases
Linebackers become focal point of Broncos’ defense
Boise State has $480,000 worth of tickets to sell
Darian Thompson getting noticed this postseason
Broncos focused on winning, not fun
Jake Roh heads home for bowl game
‘Brotherhood links Harsin, Yates
Jay Ajayi named award finalist
Fiesta Bowl trips have become family traditions
Broncos need a Fiesta win to be ‘back’
Murphy: Past success helped send Broncos to Fiesta
Notebook: Can Boise State help the Big 12?
Boise State needs to sell $1.94 million worth of tickets
Email me at ccripe@idahostatesman.com.
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