Boise State football completes Mountain West perfection. ‘We wrote history.’
The Boise State football team scored on its first three possessions of the game and went into halftime with a 10-point lead in Friday’s regular-season finale at Colorado State, but the Broncos needed a fourth-quarter scoring drive and a defensive stand to secure a historic 31-24 victory.
The Broncos improved to 8-0 in Mountain West play for the first time since joining the conference in 2011. That also happened to be the last time it finished the regular season 11-1.
Mountain Division champion Boise State will host West Division champion Hawaii in the Mountain West championship game.
“For this team, they accomplished something special and I’m proud of them,” Boise State coach Bryan Harsin said. “It’s not over and we know that. … And the best part about it is these guys are excited in the locker room and everybody’s hyped after this win, but then their focus goes back to we’ve got one more and we’re back at home with an opportunity for a championship, which was the ultimate goal.”
The Rams cut Boise State’s lead to 24-21 with 3:49 left in the third quarter when quarterback Patrick O’Brien found tight end Trey McBride on a pass over the middle and he broke a few tackles to get into the end zone for a 28-yard touchdown. The play was reviewed and upheld.
With third-string quarterback Jaylon Henderson making his third straight start, the Broncos went to the air to respond. First it was a 35-yard completion to Khalil Shakir, who was well covered but went up to make the catch over a defender and put the ball on Colorado State’s 39-yard line.
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One play later, Henderson (26-for-36, 253 yards, two TDs) fired a pass toward the sideline and CT Thomas managed to make the grab with his toes just in bounds for a 23-yard completion. A 15-yard run by Andrew Van Buren put the ball on the Rams’ 1-yard line and Henderson showed off his sleight of hand with a fake handoff and a 1-yard touchdown run, which put Boise State ahead for good, 31-21, with 11:26 to play.
“There’s always times where there’s ups and downs, and sometimes more downs than ups, and not one moment is (Henderson) sitting there with his head down,” said Shakir, who led the passing attack with seven catches for 103 yards. “He’ll never fold, and that’s what I love about him.”
Colorado State cut the lead back to seven on a 34-yard field goal with 8:02 to play, and the Rams put together a late drive highlighted by a 41-yard completion to Dante Wright, which put the ball on Boise State’s 41 with less than 4:00 left in regulation. The Broncos answered, though, and defensive tackle David Moa’s first sack of the season left Colorado State facing a third-and-14.
One play later, the Rams punted, and the Broncos ran out the clock to make history.
Whether they won or lost Friday, the Broncos were going to host Hawaii on Dec. 7 in the Mountain West championship game, but being the first team in Boise State history to make it through the conference unscathed wasn’t lost on the players.
“Playing football is all the motivation you need, but adding that on top was something that was special and to be able to accomplish that tonight against a good team like that was something special,” senior safety Kekoa Nawahine said.
“We wanted to imprint ourselves and our own legacy on Boise State history,” junior STUD Curtis Weaver added. “Past Boise State teams always had something, and today we wrote history.”
Colorado State (4-8, 3-5) — a 14.5-point underdog — never went away Friday. The Rams opened the game with a 75-yard scoring drive, and they never let the Broncos’ running game find its footing. After putting up 297 yards on the ground last weekend at Utah State, Boise State managed just 91. Freshman George Holani finished with 42 yards on 18 carries, which left him 88 shy of 1,000 on the season.
But every time the Rams began to tug at the momentum, the Broncos found a way to get it back.
On Boise State’s opening drive, tight end Garrett Collingham took a handoff and thought about throwing a pass as he scanned the end zone for an open receiver. Instead, all he saw was green turf around the right side of the line and he took it to tie the game, 7-7.
After Henderson found CT Thomas on a 5-yard touchdown pass to put the Broncos on top 5 seconds into the second quarter, the Rams tied the game on a drive that included a pair of impressive catches in traffic.
First it was McBride who made a 12-yard grab and got sandwiched between a pair of defenders. One play later, O’Brien hit 6-foot-6 wide receiver Warren Jackson on a quick slant and he also collided with a pair of Boise State defenders, but he kept his feet and stretched the ball across the goal line to tie the game, 14-14, with 8:47 left in the first half.
“I think (Colorado State) coach (Mike) Bobo does a tremendous job. I think he prepares and he’s very difficult to go against,” Harsin said. “To me, he’s able to get his team ready to go. They’re not bowl eligible, and they fought.”
Even as Colorado State threatened an upset, Boise State kept answering. In the first half, two of those responses began with turnovers.
After an interception by Tyreque Jones set up the Broncos’ second touchdown, they engineered a 14-play drive, which took 7:25 off the second-quarter clock and included two fourth-down conversions via quarterback sneak. Henderson capped the drive with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Collingham to put Boise State ahead 21-14 with 1:16 left in the half.
The Broncos got on the scoreboard again before halftime thanks to an interception by Weaver, who tipped the pass at the line of scrimmage and somehow managed to come up with the deflection. The ensuing drive ended with kicker Eric Sachse connecting on a 39-yard field goal with 18 seconds left to send the Broncos into halftime with a 24-14 lead.
This story was originally published November 29, 2019 at 7:06 PM.
