Ex-Boise State football players cringe at bowl matchup. ‘Like rooting against your dad.’
Former Boise State football players will confront divided loyalties Saturday when they watch the Broncos take on the Washington Huskies in the Las Vegas Bowl.
On one sideline is the program they helped elevate into a Top 25 regular.
On the other sideline is the coach — and coaching staff — that led them through some of the most impressionable years of their lives. Only now they’re wearing Husky purple instead of Bronco blue.
It was enough for one of Boise State’s all-time greats, Shea McClellin, to wonder aloud on Twitter which team he should root for.
“Rooting against Coach Pete, for me anyway, is like rooting against your dad,” McClellin said in a phone interview. “It’s hard to do that.”
McClellin received some light-hearted backlash from fans — and a couple former teammates laughed off his predicament. He has since decided that “I have to go for my team,” he said.
But McClellin is not alone in feeling conflicted.
Petersen, who was Boise State’s offensive coordinator from 2001 to 2005 and head coach from 2006 to 2013, built a lasting bond with players through his genuine care for them as people. And this is his final game at Washington and possibly the last of his career.
“It probably wouldn’t take a whole lot of convincing for me to put on a Washington jersey,” said Pete Cavender, the radio analyst for Boise State football who played for the Broncos from 2003 to 2007.
McClellin, responding to fans on Twitter, pointed out the role Petersen played in his life. McClellin, recruited out of Marsing High, became an NFL first-round draft pick in 2012 and just won a state title as the linebackers coach at Corona del Mar High in California.
“You don’t get it cause you never played for him, but I am who I am today because of him,” McClellin tweeted to fans.
Petersen is renowned at Washington for his Built for Life program that emphasizes developing football players off the field, too. But that started at Boise State — and it made an impression.
McClellin noticed the value of what Petersen and his staff instilled in him when he started attending training sessions for NFL rookies.
“He’s not worried about winning,” McClellin said. “He’s worried about growing players into good brothers and husbands and fathers. … At the Rookie Symposium, I thought, ‘I’ve already learned all this stuff from Coach Pete.’ I was already that far ahead in life.”
Petersen credits his assistants for helping him implement the program. His staff at Washington includes Pete Kwiatkowski, Bob Gregory, Jimmy Lake, Scott Huff, Keith Bhonapha and Tim Socha from his Boise State days, plus former Boise State quarterback Bush Hamdan. Current Boise State coach Bryan Harsin, who worked with Petersen for 10 years, has continued to include life lessons in the Broncos’ program.
“That’s in their blood,” Petersen said Friday of his assistants. “That’s what it’s all about is trying to make a difference in guys’ lives. … I think a lot of guys talk a good game about trying to take care of the kids and do right by them. And I think our staffs have always really tried to keep that in the forefront and make this thing more than just football. We love football. It’s all about football, (on Saturday) it’s all about winning that game. But it can’t just be all about football.
“… Whether they get it when they’re with us or when they leave us, everybody knows how important it is.”
Hunter White, who was a Boise State linebacker from 2007 to 2011, said in a phone interview that Petersen’s lessons resonated more as he began his life after football. He works in sales and marketing in Southern California.
“From 17 to 22, Pete was my father away from home,” White said. “He was our disciplinarian, our coach, our mentor. Obviously we were very successful on the field, so if anything that made (the bond) stronger.”
White says he still has moments every week where he remembers something Petersen told the team, and he’s implemented some of those messages into his work life. One key lesson for him was the need to avoid getting caught up in the highs and lows.
“He demanded perfection from us,” White said, “but really it was just perfect effort. He knows none of us are perfect.”
Former wide receiver Shane Williams-Rhodes (2012-15) also has found meaning in Petersen’s words post-football. Williams-Rhodes is married with a baby and is about to move into a new home in the Treasure Valley.
“That has helped me tremendously, especially as far as where I’m at — being a husband, being a father, and all those things,” said Williams-Rhodes, who played for Petersen for two years and against him in the 2015 season opener. “There’s not really one thing that stands out — it’s just so many little things, just simple things, things that even you probably were raised to do, but it’s always different when it comes from someone else.”
So like McClellin (2008-11), you can expect Petersen’s former Boise State players to root for their alma mater on Saturday. But they’ll do it with some reluctance.
“I am definitely going for Boise State,” linebacker Aaron Tevis (2007-11) wrote in an email, “but it won’t be as satisfying of a win as had it been any other team.”
The plus in this matchup, Cavender said, is that it will place a significant spotlight on the Boise State football program. The Las Vegas Bowl airs in prime time on ABC (5:30 p.m. MT) — and any discussion of Petersen’s spectacular career will include many references to his Boise State days. Petersen is 146-38 in 14 seasons as a head coach with five major bowl appearances, including two Fiesta Bowl wins at Boise State.
Petersen was 92-12 with the Broncos, including five top-11 finishes in the AP Top 25.
“Essentially, it’s going to be a showcase of Boise State,” Cavender said. “Coach Petersen has obviously done a lot of good things at Washington, but when you look at Coach Pete’s career, a lot of the memories are going to go to Boise State.”
Chadd Cripe is the Idaho Statesman’s assistant editor and sports columnist. Contact him at ccripe@idahostatesman.com and follow @chaddcripe on Twitter.
This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 7:05 PM.
