Thursday, December 27, 2018.
The First Responder Bowl on Wednesday was historic for Boise State and Boston College - for all the wrong reasons. When it was canceled, the first bowl game ever to suffer that fate, a malaise set in for fans of both teams. And imagine how players felt, especially the seniors. At first, there was anger. Couldn’t they have waited it out longer than an hour and 21 minutes? But it became evident that the severe thunder and lightning storm over Dallas had three or four more hours to go, and Bronco coach Bryan Harsin and Eagle coach Steve Addazio were concerned about the risk of injury after shutting their players down for that length of time and starting them back up again. The only other college football postseason event ever to be canceled was a special Hawaii-San Jose State charity game in 1941 due to Pearl Harbor.
One of the lasting images of this bizarre day was a Twitter-posted photo of Boise State quarterback Brett Rypien hugging his family after leaving the locker room. Rypien was still in uniform—and probably didn’t want to take it off. A sterling and memorable four-year career ended hanging in mid-air. He was 3-of-6 for 39 yards when the game was called, but since it was “no contest,” the stats don’t count. Rypien’s 13,581 career passing yards, the most in Mountain West history, will have to do. Fifteen other Bronco seniors experienced the same unreal emotions, including Tyler Horton, Jabril Frazier, Sean Modster and A.J. Richardson. Everybody’s still kind of numb.
Boise State trailed 7-0 when the game was stopped with 5:08 left in the first quarter. The Bronco defense had just gotten a stop, and the offense was set to go at its own 14-yard line. I would have liked to see how the thing would have played out. Sure, the Broncos started slowly. But in November they fell behind a ranked Fresno State team 17-3 and rallied to win, and they saw a ranked Utah State squad go through their defense on the first possession like a knife through butter and came back from that for a victory. There were more than 50 minutes left to play when the lightning delay was first called. That’s a lotta football.
We can still name players of the game for Boise State, can’t we? At least give us that. On offense it should be wide receiver CT Thomas, who had two catches for 37 yards in the early going. Thomas’ first one was a 27-yarder that saw the sophomore leap high and have the ball stick in his hands, reminiscent of his touchdown grab just before halftime at Air Force two months ago. On defense, let’s go with safety Jordan Happle. It was Happle who broke up a third-down Boston College pass to give the Broncos the ball back. It ended up being - unbeknownst to anyone - the second-to-last play of Boise State’s 2018 season.
Amidst the disbelief in the Twittersphere over the game’s demise were some classic posts. There was this from Paul J. Schneider, one of his all-time best lines from a career full of them: “UCF has declared itself the winner of the First Responder Bowl.” Freelance writer Kevin McGuire added: “I have a solution. Boise State vs. Boston College in Dublin in Week 0 to open the 2019 season. The Unfinished Business Bowl, presented by Guinness.” Perfect. And people were all over this one. Servpro, the bowl’s sponsor, has this advertising slogan: “Like it never even happened.” Can you say, “Viral?”
Some are wondering if the Broncos’ bowl streak continues since the game officially doesn’t exist now. Of course it does. It’s very simple: “Boise State is riding a streak of 17 consecutive bowl bids (appearances, if you like), tied for the fifth-longest in the country and the longest among Group of 5 schools.” Then in the game-by-game listing in the record book, the university can place a big ol’ asterisk next to it to explain.
TAKEAWAYS AT CHEEZ-IT BOWL
You think Justin Wilcox’s last game against TCU was a defensive battle? The 2010 Fiesta Bowl has nothing on Wednesday night’s Cheez-It Bowl. The Cal-TCU game was defensive—ridiculously so, with a combined nine interceptions, a bowl record. The Horned Frogs passed for 28 yards, but they rushed for 262 and won it on an overtime field goal. The final was (gulp) 10-7. ESPN showed highlights early in the game of Boise State’s 17-10 Fiesta Bowl win over TCU, keyed by Wilcox’s creative scheming when he was the Broncos’ defensive coordinator.
ZACH ATTACK VS. QUACK ATTACK ON SATURDAY
The most consistent Bronco men’s basketball player of late has been senior “post forward” Zach Haney, and he’ll be a key in Boise State’s Saturday night game against Oregon—whether or not injured 7-2 true freshman Bol Bol plays for the Ducks. Haney has scored between 11 and 14 points in each of the past four games, including an 11-point outing in the December 15 loss in Eugene. He has pulled down six rebounds in three of those games, but the exception was four boards vs. Oregon. The Broncos will need to bear down on the glass if they hope to upset Oregon in Taco Bell Arena. Boise State’s other post player, senior David Wacker, is averaging only 2.4 points and 2.7 rebounds in 14 minutes per game.
This Day In Sports…December 27, 1998, 20 years ago today:
A high point in Jake Plummer’s NFL career, when Chris Jacke hits a 52-yard field goal as time runs out to give Arizona a 16-13 win over San Diego at Sun Devil Stadium. The victory clinched the Cardinals’ first playoff berth since moving to Phoenix from St. Louis in 1988. The following week, Plummer would lead the Cards to their first playoff victory in half a century with a win over the Dallas Cowboys.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on 93.1 FM KTIK. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
