This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Boise, Idaho • Boise State University's Student Union occupies the spot where the old football field was surrounded by a wooden fence, with bleachers providing seats for some 500 fans of Boise Junior College's team in the late 1940s.
Back then, coach Lyle Smith could not have seen any of this coming: The suites towering above the field that bears his name. National branding of a program with some substance behind the novelties of blue turf and trick plays and a willingness to play any night of the week. Having a coach win 60 games in his first five seasons, and still leave something undone in 2010.
Smith is 94, young enough to have witnessed the school's stunning rise to the nation's elite college football programs. His summary of the Broncos' story: "Almost unbelievable."
Almost?
The program that made the cover of Sports Illustrated twice this season, reached No. 3 in the polls and was potentially positioned to play for a national championship has been a four-year school for barely 40 years. As of the mid-1990s, just before moving up, Bronco football was not even a dynasty in the Big Sky Conference.
When he reminisces about a national championship, wearing the ring he earned as the school's athletic director in 1980, Smith is referencing a lower level of football. No, Smith never imagined living in a town where everybody would be crushed to have the Broncos miss out on a Rose Bowl invitation.
"Well, we're still hurting a little," Smith was saying on a sunny December morning, three weeks after an overtime loss to Nevada ruined BSU's perfect season and big-time bowl ambitions.
With the Broncos riding a 24-game winning streak, a defeat "was going to happen sometime," Smith said, with a knowing smile and decades of perspective. "We just didn't want it to be this soon."
The Broncos have settled for Wednesday's Las Vegas Bowl against Utah. That would have seemed like a nice achievement, before BSU was winning two Fiesta Bowls in four seasons.
So how did this happen? How can a school in only its 15th season of football at this level win more frequently than anybody else?
As with any success story, there's a convergence of factors: A tradition of winning, beginning with Smith in the Boise JC days. A decent-sized market (metro population: 600,000) with several corporate headquarters, yet no major-league franchise or even another top-tier college program within hundreds of miles. Support that has funded major facility improvements, with more to come, thanks to a visionary athletic director (the blue field was Gene Bleymaier's idea) with nearly 30 years on the job. The continuity that comes from twice replacing a departing coach with an assistant and then keeping the staff mostly intact.
Yet amid everything the Broncos have done lately, they still are not churning out NFL players at a rate that approaches Utah's, as an example. The program's talent level is increasing steadily, but more than anything, coach Chris Petersen and his staff have a knack for selecting and developing their kind of players.
"Our coaches know what they want, and they go out and get them," said offensive lineman Nate Potter. "It doesn't matter who they're getting recruited by. … People get better once they're here."
NFL teams have drafted two Broncos in the first round in the past three years. Still, in the school's WAC era, beginning with the 2002 draft, only 10 players have been taken — four in the first four rounds. BSU just keeps finding and attracting players who "want to prove something," Bleymaier said.
Austin Pettis, who will conclude his career Wednesday as the Broncos' all-time receiving leader, had scholarship offers only from BSU, Utah and Utah State. Defensive end Ryan Winterswyk, a three-time all-WAC player, originally was a walk-on defensive back.
"We seem to have had so many of those type of guys," Petersen said. "That's the message here: If you can play … it's going to happen for you. Our eyes are wide open."
BSU's 11 players who made the All-WAC first team include seven from California, two from the Boise area, one from Texas and one from Washington. That's junior quarterback Kellen Moore, a Heisman Trophy finalist, who was largely overlooked.
Petersen acknowledges having overestimated some recruits, but there can't be many of those. Otherwise, 7-year-old Mitchell Hawkes would not have asked his father as they watched a game this season, "Have the Broncos ever lost?"
Well, not often, in the boy's lifetime. Petersen is 60-5 since being promoted.
"We've created a monster with our fans," Bleymaier said. "So we try to tell them that this isn't normal, and we need to appreciate the journey."
Which brings them to Las Vegas. As Bleymaier spoke, a moving van was parked outside his office, waiting to transport the Broncos' equipment to their latest destination. The van would stop roughly 260 miles from the Rose Bowl.
The program's patriarch attended both Fiesta Bowls and would have loved to see the Broncos play in Pasadena. Yet he knows better than anyone how far Boise State has come, just to be facing Utah in a postseason matchup of ranked teams. Lyle Smith does not need to be reminded to enjoy the ride.
"It has been, and is, a real thrill," he said.
Twitter: @tribkurt —
Boise State's highlights
1958 • National junior college champions.
1968 • Four-year school, competing in NAIA. First victory: 50-2 over Westminster College.
1970 • Moves to NCAA Division II; Bronco Stadium opens with 14,500 seats.
1980 • NCAA Division I-AA national champions
1996 • Moves to Division I-A (now Football Bowl Subdivision) in Big West Conference; 2-10 record.
1999 • First bowl game; Humanitarian Bowl vs. Louisville in Boise.
2001 • Joins Western Athletic Conference.
2006 • Defeats Oklahoma in overtime in Fiesta Bowl to complete 13-0 season (Jan. 1, 2007)
2009 • Defeats TCU in Fiesta Bowl to complete 14-0 season (Jan. 4, 2010) —
Nobody's better than Boise State
Highest winning percentages (1997-2010)
Boise St. 144-32 .818
Ohio St. 140-36 .796
Texas 137-41 .770
Va. Tech 137-43 .761
Florida 136-43 .760
Highest winning percentages, conference games (2000-10)
Boise St. 80-5 .941*
Oklahoma 79-16 .832
Ohio St. 71-17 .807
Texas 71-19 .789
TCU 68-19 .782
* includes one season in the Big West —
Best in the West
Wins by Western schools (2000-10)
Boise State • 123
USC • 110
Oregon • 99
Utah • 96
Hawaii • 90
Boise State's record vs. Utah schools since 1998
Utah State • 10-0
Utah • 3-0
BYU • 2-0
Weber State • 2-0
Southern Utah • 1-0 —
Las Vegas Bowl
P Boise State vs. Utah
Wednesday, 6 p.m.
TV • ESPN
Tickets • Visit http://www.utahtickets.com, or call 801-581-UTIX (8849).