San Jose State stuns Boise State to win its first Mountain West football championship
The No. 25 San Jose State football team was announced as the Mountain West champion by a recording of famed boxing announcer Michael Buffer on Saturday at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, and fireworks lit up the night sky as the Spartans were presented the trophy.
The Spartans continued their historic season with a 34-20 win over Boise State, improving to 7-0 for the first time since 1939 and capping their first winning season since 2012 with their first conference title in program history.
“It’s been a beautiful journey. It’s been magic, and it’s been incredibly challenging,” San Jose State coach Brent Brennan said. “It’s an awesome lesson to learn that if you work hard and stick together, incredible things can happen.”
For the Broncos (5-2), their fourth straight appearance in the Mountain West title game became their first loss to a conference opponent since they fell to Fresno State in the 2018 Mountain West title game.
“The result is not what we wanted, but there’s a lot that was learned throughout this season,” Boise State coach Bryan Harsin said. “We wanted to win this game. It wasn’t just get here. The ultimate goal was to win.”
San Jose State did pretty much whatever it wanted through the air Saturday, and quarterback Nick Starkel’s long college football journey culminated with a historic performance.
The graduate transfer, who made stops at Texas A&M and Arkansas before joining the Spartans this year, set a Mountain West championship game record with 453 passing yards, surpassing former Fresno State quarterback Derek Carr’s 404 yards in 2013.
Starkel completed 32-of-52 passes, finding 10 different receivers, and he threw three touchdown passes, including a 1-yard strike to tight end Derrick Deese Jr. to give the Spartans a two-touchdown lead with 3:48 to play.
“(Boise State) threw a lot of coverages at us, but we had answers,” Starkel said. “Kudos to our coaches and to our offensive coordinator for the game plan.”
Starkel’s longest touchdown pass was the first of the game. He hit Tre Walker on a 55-yarder for a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. It was Walker’s longest reception this season, and he finished the game with seven catches for 137 yards. It was his 12th career 100-yard receiving game.
Boise State cornerback Jalen Walker was called offside on the play as he tried to get a head start on a blitz, and safety JL Skinner missed a tackle, leaving the Spartans’ Walker a clear path down the sideline to the end zone.
“We were shutting them down a good part of the game when we were in man coverage, but they found a lot of loopholes in our zone coverage,” Boise State senior Avery Williams said. “We knew going into the game that they’re a really explosive offense, and the way we were going to stop them was going to be all about us, and they did a great job executing.”
Starkel also lofted a perfect pass down the sideline in the third quarter for a 30-yard touchdown to Isaiah Hamilton, which gave the Spartans a 27-13 lead.
“He was slinging the rock all over the yard,” Brennan said.
The Spartans only got 45 yards out of the running game Saturday, but that’s more help than Boise State got from its backfield.
Without starting running back George Holani, who still isn’t healthy after suffering an apparent knee injury Oct. 31 at Air Force, the Broncos managed just 12 rushing yards — their fewest since 1993, when they finished a game against Northern Arizona with minus-11.
Andrew Van Buren led the way with 26 yards on 11 carries.
“We needed to run the ball much better than we did,” Harsin said. “When you can’t run the ball and you become one-dimensional, I think it’s very difficult to be successful. We needed yards to stay in second- and third-and-manageable.”
Even though they managed just 118 yards of offense in the first half and didn’t score a touchdown until the third quarter, the Broncos cut San Jose State’s lead to seven points or less twice in the second half.
Two-time Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Year Avery Williams cut the lead to 19-13 with a 69-yard punt return for a touchdown.
“Avery Williams is the best in the country,” Harsin said. “He provided the spark and the momentum we needed. Somebody needed to make a play.”
It was Williams’ fourth special teams touchdown of the season and the ninth kick or punt return touchdown of his career, which ties an NCAA record held by former Washington wide receiver Dante Pettis.
“Obviously that’s a really cool accolade, but this championship would have meant a lot more to me,” Williams said.
Boise State quarterback Hank Bachmeier did the honors in the fourth quarter. After hitting tight end Riley Smith on a 40-yard pass — his longest completion of the day — Bachmeier scored on a 2-yard touchdown run, which cut the Spartans’ lead to 27-20 with 10:51 to play.
Bachmeier didn’t have the best day statistically (20-for-41, 221 yards) and he’s probably going to be sore Sunday morning after taking numerous hits and getting sacked three times. Two of those were registered by Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year Cade Hall.
Even though he helped the Broncos stay within striking distance, the sophomore signal caller accepted a lot of the blame for Saturday’s loss, especially when it came to a three-and-out after the Broncos got the ball back, trailing by seven with about 9:00 to play.
“That was our opportunity to tie the game up, and we didn’t get it done,” Bachmeier said. “I have to do a better job and make better decisions to get us out of those third downs.”
Both teams found the end zone after halftime, but they mostly traded field goals in the first half.
San Jose State kicker Matt Mercurio tied an NCAA record with four field goals in the second quarter, the longest of which covered 36 yards.
Boise State freshman Jonah Dalmas missed his first attempt, which was from 46 yards, but he made up for it with a 51-yard field goal, scoring the Broncos’ first points of the day, and a 50-yard kick, which sent Boise State into halftime trailing 19-6.
The last time the Broncos didn’t score a touchdown in the first half was Nov. 6 in their 51-17 loss to rival BYU.
“Our defense stepped up early on. We needed something from our offense,” Harsin said. “We needed to capitalize on the field-goal attempts. We needed to answer back somehow, some way with points of our own. You’ve got to play complementary football with your own team.”
Boise State is still expected to play in a bowl game, but where the Broncos are headed is up in the air. They could end up in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix if the Big Ten or Big 12 can’t fill their spots, and the First Responder Bowl in Frisco, Texas, is also a possibility.
San Jose State is heading to the Arizona Bowl, which is scheduled for Dec. 31 in Tuscon, Arizona.
The Broncos’ destination is expected to be announced Sunday. Several teams around the country have opted out of bowl games because of the COVID-19 pandemic, USC being the latest, but the Broncos don’t seem to have any apprehension about another road trip.
“I’ll play anybody,” Bachmeier said. “It is a pressing issue in the country. Obviously it’s a global pandemic, so we’ll see what happens.”
This will be the 19th straight year that the Broncos have earned an invite to a bowl game.
“Here at Boise State, we’re all about tradition and a winning culture,” Williams said. “After a loss, there’s nothing more exciting than looking forward to the opportunity to prove yourself as a team. As a leader on this team, obviously I’m disappointed and heartbroken we lost this game, but we still have another opportunity.”
This story was originally published December 19, 2020 at 10:11 PM.
