Boise State’s Remarkable Journey: A Season to Remember
Every Sunday during the football season, Spencer Danielson logs onto a Zoom call. This isn’t just any call; it’s a ritual that has become a cornerstone of his week. For Danielson, the 36-year-old head coach of the Boise State Broncos, routines are the backbone of his life. They help him balance the demands of his job with personal time for his family and friends. But this particular call holds a special significance. It’s a vital part of his journey in his inaugural season as the Broncos’ head coach.
On the other end of these calls is Chris Petersen, the legendary former Broncos head coach who retired after the 2019 season. “We Zoom for an hour, no matter what,” Danielson said. “He’s my mentor.”
Life took a swift turn for Danielson last year. One moment he was the defensive coordinator, and the next, he was in a room with Boise State athletic director Jeramiah Dickey, being named the interim head coach after Andy Avalos was let go. One of the first people Danielson reached out to was Petersen, who had an impressive 92-12 record from 2006 to 2013, including two undefeated seasons. Danielson, who began his career at Azusa Pacific University and joined Boise as a graduate assistant in 2017, knew he needed guidance from the man who had led the program through its golden years.
“I called him and was like, ‘Coach, I want your help. I want to make this something consistent,'” Danielson said. “I knew that when I became a head coach, this is how I want it to be.”
After revitalizing the team and leading it to its fourth Mountain West title last season, Danielson officially took the helm. But he understood that the challenge extended beyond a single season. Boise State, once a powerhouse in the Mountain West, had lost some of its shine and hadn’t secured a major bowl victory since defeating Oregon in 2017. Danielson aimed to build a lasting legacy, and Petersen became the perfect mentor.
“I don’t see my role as solving his problems. My role is helping him think about his problems, maybe even in a different way and asking him questions so he can get to the solutions,” Petersen said. “It works pretty good because he’s so wide open to really everything and getting the best answers for his team and his program.”
The connection between Petersen and Danielson reflects what Dickey and the current leadership recognized the program needed: a return to the cohesion Petersen had fostered, with a vision for an even brighter future.
Danielson, now boasting a 15-2 record as head coach, has not only maintained the program’s winning tradition but has also taken the team to new heights. This season, the Broncos produced a Heisman Trophy finalist in running back Ashton Jeanty, clinched their fifth Mountain West title, and earned a spot in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff. They lost only once, to Oregon, the undefeated No. 1 team in the country, and secured an improbable first-round bye.
“We were going to be prepared for that success when it happened,” Dickey said. “Now, there’s a momentum that’s contagious.”
But even as the Broncos prepare to embrace their underdog role against No. 3 Penn State in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl tonight, they are not content with merely having a seat at the table.
The Magic of the Fiesta Bowl
There is something in the Arizona air that seems to attract Boise blue. Over the past 17 years, the Fiesta Bowl has become as integral to the school’s lore as the iconic blue field where the team practices and plays. It’s been the stage for some of the program’s most legendary moments, where trick plays have become etched in the annals of college football history.
Despite the turnover of players and coaches over the years, the desert destination continues to call the Broncos back for more. “There’s definitely some good energy there,” said Jared Zabransky, Boise State’s quarterback during its 2006 season.
Zabransky vividly recalls the skepticism surrounding Boise State’s undefeated season, with many dismissing it as a fluke due to a weak schedule. “No one gave us a shot in that game against Oklahoma,” Zabransky said of the 2007 Fiesta Bowl against the Sooners. “But we knew what we had.”
The Broncos stunned the world, defeating a Big 12 champion despite being 7.5-point underdogs. Petersen and then-offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin orchestrated three pivotal trick plays: a hook-and-ladder touchdown to tie the game in regulation, a direct snap touchdown thrown by a wide receiver in overtime, and the iconic “Statue of Liberty” play where Zabransky faked a pass and handed the ball to running back Ian Johnson behind his back for the winning 2-point conversion.
“Every year, they start playing clips of that play,” Zabransky said. “If it’s not the most memorable game of all time, it’s definitely in the top three.”
Three years later, Boise State returned to the Fiesta Bowl and defeated No. 3 TCU by a touchdown. Five years after that, they won again, this time against No. 12 Arizona by 8 points.
As Zabransky watched the final College Football Playoff rankings a few weeks ago, he couldn’t help but smile at the familiar fate. It seemed fitting that the inaugural 12-team playoff would not only include Boise State but also send them, improbably, to yet another Fiesta Bowl as the underdog with a chance to achieve what they couldn’t in the BCS era: play for a national title.
“I never got hung up in the old days about not getting an opportunity. To me, the opportunity was could we get into BCS games,” Petersen said. “But now that the system’s changed a little bit, I think it’s great that they have struck when they’re hot. It’s tremendous.”
Zabransky knows that their 2007 triumph showcased the foundation the program had built, centered around a relentless work ethic and a quest for perfection that Petersen instilled.
“It was a special time,” he said. “And I see some of that in this [year’s] squad. There’s a connection and a complete unity going in the right direction.”
Tonight, Zabransky will return to State Farm Stadium, this time as a fan. With Boise State set to wear the same uniform combination of white jerseys, orange pants, and blue helmets as in each Fiesta Bowl appearance, Zabransky will let his mind wander into the past, hoping to will the future to favor the Broncos once more.
Jeramiah Dickey’s Vision for Boise State
Jeramiah Dickey knew that Boise State had plateaued. It was 2021, and he had just taken the job as the Broncos’ athletic director. As he assessed the program’s internal resources and the broader landscape of college football, Dickey realized he needed to propel the program forward.
The Petersen era was a distant memory. The game was evolving with the advent of name, image, and likeness deals. The Broncos’ last Fiesta Bowl win and appearance had been a decade ago, and the sport’s most storied programs were undergoing transformations through conference realignment.
“We set the bar really high with three Fiesta Bowls, and maybe the perception is we hadn’t done enough from the last Fiesta Bowl to present day,” Dickey said. “But Boise State is, in the grand scheme of things, in the infant stages of being a university and being an FBS program. So what I saw was opportunity.”
Dickey quickly identified “low-hanging fruit” and devised a plan to address the issues. Boise needed to pay its coaches and coordinators more, enhance the fan experience, improve the stadium and facilities, and establish an infrastructure for large donations. He aimed to create a vision that Broncos fans could support, both financially and emotionally.
“We were living too much in the past and not enough in the present and future,” Dickey said. “And this is an industry, as soon as you stop, you die a slow death. So we had to mature as a program and grow up really quickly.”
The former Baylor administrator instilled a new mentality among his staff, encapsulated in the department’s mantra: “What’s next?” It’s also the name of the fundraising initiative Dickey launched.
“The job that has been done by Jeremiah has been amazing,” Petersen said. “I think sometimes people don’t understand really how hard that is to do at a place like Boise, to be able to then compete on a national stage.”
For Dickey, this has been a year of reaping rewards. Not only are the Broncos competing in the CFP, but they are also set to break ground on a north end zone renovation. They have added new video boards and a ticket sales team that has shattered program revenue and attendance records. The capital campaign is ongoing with a $150 million goal for athletics, and in October, Boise State announced it would be moving to the new Pac-12 conference in 2026.
“If I can make a decision that is going to drastically impact my resources and revenues that I can then invest back into the department, to me it was a no-brainer,” Dickey said of the move. “Now, time will tell and ultimately I’ll be judged off that, but I’m always going to bet on myself. I’m always going to bet on our team and I’m going to bet on our community.”
Since the move to the Pac-12 was announced, Dickey has witnessed the response materialize in sold-out season tickets for basketball and six sold-out football games this season. It helps, of course, that the Broncos are in the playoff, but Dickey insists that the results are secondary.
“A lot of the success you’re seeing in the present day started four years ago,” Dickey said. “It all started before we knew what this season would be. So whether the CFP changed or not, we were always looking forward to how to better position ourselves. And sometimes you get lucky.”
Spencer Danielson’s Leadership and Vision
Danielson had 45 minutes to prepare his speech. He had just been named the Broncos’ interim coach and needed to deliver a message to the team. He understood that Avalos’ firing meant players could enter the portal at will, and coaches on the staff were contemplating their futures.
So, he simply asked for two weeks.
“At that point, everything is telling you to look out for yourself,” Danielson said. “So I told them, I don’t know what’s after these two weeks. I don’t know what my future looks like, your future, but I do know we got a great group of seniors that have been through a lot: COVID, multiple head coaches, tough seasons. We owe it to each other, and we owe it to our team to finish these next two weeks.”
With the football team facing its first losing season since 1997 (a year after the program moved up to Division I), former players like Zabransky could sense that something was amiss.
“I love Andy, but when you get to a place where things just aren’t working and you press and press again, there has to be a change,” Zabransky said.
Dickey assessed the situation and made what he believed was a necessary move: firing Avalos and appointing Danielson as interim coach. In hindsight, Dickey’s decision now appears to be a stroke of genius, but even he admits that he didn’t initially plan to make Danielson the permanent head coach.
But players and coaches embraced Danielson’s message, won their remaining two games, and turned a slim chance into another conference title. Over those two weeks, Dickey observed how Danielson’s approach had reinvigorated Boise with the energy the program had been lacking.
“The guy just didn’t have bad days,” Dickey said of Danielson. “I just saw [him] embrace the challenge and show up differently than I had seen a coach show up, and I saw a team respond at a level I had not seen.”
Initially, Petersen delivered a blunt message to Danielson: “You’re not going to get the job.” But Petersen noticed that instead of focusing on securing the position, Danielson turned the focus toward the players. Once he secured the job, Danielson, with Petersen’s help, knew he wanted his approach to be unique. He knew Boise State’s competitive advantage couldn’t be found inside a playbook or a checkbook.
“We’ve got to be different, we’ve got to be efficient and specific,” Danielson said. “Maybe we can’t pay this or that. Let’s capitalize on what we do better than anybody else, which is development, which is taking care of our players. We’re involved in every part of our players’ lives.”
In some ways, it’s hard to view this season as a proof of concept. The Broncos had a once-in-a-lifetime player in Jeanty who had a once-in-a-lifetime season. But Dickey and Danielson are focused on ensuring that Boise is able to not just recruit and develop the next Jeanty, but that it’s able to keep him. Danielson isn’t naive; he wants players who want to be at Boise State, or as Petersen used to call them, “OKGs — our kind of guys.” But he knows the right infrastructure has to be in place, too.
“Jeramiah asks me, ‘What do you need to be one of the best teams in the country consistently and not just a flash in the pan? How do we do this consistently?'” Danielson said. “And that’s funding. There is support here. This is one of the top growing cities in the country. There is money here bringing it in to support our players, not only financially, but in all facets of their life as college football becomes even more professionalized.”
Over the past 12 months, Danielson’s message to his staff has been a consistent one that has borne out in the 12 wins the team has compiled this season.
- “We have more than enough to succeed here,” Danielson tells them. “We have enough at Boise State.”
Celebrating Success and Looking Ahead
On Dec. 6, Boise’s blue field was swarmed by a sea of fans clad in blue. The chants of “Heisman” for Jeanty echoed throughout the stadium. A portion of the goal posts even found their way into the nearby Boise River.
As the clock hit zero and the program secured its second consecutive Mountain West Championship over UNLV, earning a spot in the College Football Playoff, a smiling Petersen, donning a Broncos hat, stood on the field and soaked it all in. He doesn’t attend many college football games these days, working as an in-studio analyst for Fox Sports, and he can’t recall the last time he was in Boise for a game on “the blue.”
“In some ways it felt like, boy, that was a long time ago that I was there, but on the other hand, it felt like it was just yesterday,” Petersen said. “Just being in that stadium with those awesome fans … that place is underrated.”
Few understand that sentiment better than Dirk Koetter. The current offensive coordinator for the Broncos left Oregon in 1998 to become Boise’s head coach before Petersen. It marked the beginning of what would become the program’s golden era, but Koetter remembers a particular day during that year when he stood inside a room at a local hotel, watching snow blanket the city while dealing with an off-the-field situation involving a player who had stolen books from a bookstore.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘Why did I leave Eugene, Oregon, to come to this?'” Koetter said. “That press box wasn’t there. This theater wasn’t here. That indoor [field] wasn’t there. Boise State was probably averaging about 19,000 fans a game.”
Koetter persevered. The following season, the Broncos went 9-3, won their conference title, and defeated Louisville in their bowl game. They went on to win four consecutive bowl games and lost no more than three times in a season through the 2004 season under Dan Hawkins (53-11), a year before Petersen took over and elevated the team to new heights. When Petersen left for Washington, his offensive coordinator, Bryan Harsin, ensured the winning continued, going 69-19 over the next seven seasons.
“I’m very proud of where this program has gone and how we’ve been able to keep the chain of coaches and of the culture in this program,” Koetter said. “To be in this playoff, I think it speaks volumes about the administration here, the fans here, the players here, and the coaches here.”
Koetter has come full circle by guiding this season’s offense to success. After 42 years of coaching at the college level and in the NFL, this might be Koetter’s last run. At his pre-Fiesta Bowl news conference last week, Koetter acknowledged that it could be his last news conference ever.
“I hope it’s not,” Koetter said. “I hope we keep playing.”
Boise State’s season isn’t over; another Fiesta Bowl where the odds (Penn State is favored by 10.5 points on ESPN BET) are against them awaits. And as Koetter and every other coach and player who has worn the Boise blue since the turn of the century knows, it would be foolish to count the Broncos out in the desert.
Originally Written by: Paolo Uggetti
