With trick plays, a fast-paced offense, color-coded cheering sections and an underrated defense performing at Bronco Stadium, it is looking a lot like 2006 in Boise. The school that captivated the country with a dramatic Fiesta Bowl victory is 4-0, rising in the polls and inspiring talk of another Bowl Championship Series appearance.
Actually, this year could become more like 2004. The Broncos went 11-0 that season, only to have Utah grab the only BCS bid - then, a top six finish - that was guaranteed to an outsider, sending Boise State to the Liberty Bowl.
The competition is even deeper now. Brigham Young and Utah are ranked ahead of the Broncos, who presumably will need help to overtake them in the BCS standings (first published Oct. 19). Otherwise, BSU would have to hope for an unprecedented at-large invitation to a member of a conference without automatic access for its champion.
In the next decade, these schools will have their own mini playoff. The Broncos will play Utah annually in 2011-13 and face BYU in 2012-15. For now, the Bronco Nation is cheering against the Cougars and Utes each week, not that its leader is engaging in such behavior.
"I don't even kind of think about those guys," said coach Chris Petersen. "I just think about us."
But for everybody else, the signs of another season of possibilities abound on a campus where the bookstore still sells official Fiesta Bowl game programs for $10, one-third off the original price. The new four-level, $35.9 million press box and suites are evidence of the Fiesta Bowl's economic impact.
In the stands, BSU fans conform to weekly instructions to wear blue or orange, by sections of the stadium, which houses a new version of the iconic blue playing surface.
On the field, the Broncos' latest effort features some old, familiar faces. Moore is new, as a redshirt freshman who was not among the backup QBs who lobbied for the Statue of Liberty play for the two-point conversion that beat Oklahoma in overtime in January 2007. But Perretta is back as the versatile player who tossed the option pass for the preceding touchdown. So is running back Ian Johnson, who delivered both the winning conversion and the marriage proposal to the cheerleader, who now supports the team from the stands in a No. 41 jersey with "Mrs. Johnson" on the back.
The coaching staff is also intact, adding more innovations to a unique approach that includes the fastest-acting, no-huddle scheme in college football, with most plays launched with 20 seconds still available. Then there are the trick plays, which seemingly have become part of Boise State's ESPN contract. The sweep/lateral/pass play stunned Louisiana Tech in the Broncos' 38-3 victory in a Western Athletic Conference opener and left Petersen relieved.
"You always want those to work," he said, "because you're really going to look bad if they don't work."
They usually do, which is why Boise State has the best winning percentage of any Football Bowl Subdivision school in this century, going 90-16. "Winning - "It's What We Do" was the message on the blue T-shirt someone handed Kyle Korver, as several Jazz players made plans to attend Wednesday's game during their training camp stay in Boise.
Boise State's players have enough familiarity with unbeaten seasons to know how they're built - "Brick by brick," said linebacker Kyle Gingg - and they also understand what may be ahead for them.
"As long as you keep winning, it's going to get bigger and sort of magnify, outside of us," Moore said.
In some ways, the Broncos like being overshadowed by BYU and Utah at the moment. Their signature win, a 37-32 victory at Oregon, was spoiled last weekend by the Ducks' loss to USC. "I don't think people are saying, 'Wow, we're good,' " Gingg said.
They also have the issue of merely trying to win the WAC title again, after being ovetaken by Hawaii last season. At some point, a BCS opportunity may come into focus. Petersen acknowledges he will pay attention in late November, when things could get interesting. Responding to a question about his team's play against Louisiana Tech, Petersen said, "It didn't feel perfect yet."
Eventually, it might. But only if BYU and Utah cooperate.
