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Petersen leads Broncos back to top 25
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"Earn national respect.” This motivating goal has become a common theme for the Boise State football program since Head Coach Chris Petersen took over as offensive coordinator in 2001.
On Sunday, Sept. 16, Coach Petersen’s Broncos garnered that national respect, finding their way into the Associated Press and College Coaches top 25 polls for the fifth consecutive season.
Although 2006 is Petersen’s first year in charge of the program, it is clear that the team’s progress toward becoming a national power hasn’t skipped a beat. After a 3-0 start to the year, Boise State has gotten one monkey off its back, but now faces new challenges to prove it deserves to be in the spotlight.
“I think the bulls-eye is always big now here at Boise State,” Petersen said. “I think everyone kind of knows what they’re gonna get; we’re gonna fight them hard, play hard and play them tough.
So (the bulls-eye) probably grows a little bit, but I don’t know if it’s that much more than what people think about coming here to play us on the blue turf anyways.”
One of the ultimate goals that remains elusive to Boise State football is a bid to a Bowl Championship Series game in January. One of the new changes to the BCS selection process is an at-large bid by a non-BCS conference team.
With the addition of an extra BCS bowl game; there will be room for one mid-major team, assuming that team finishes higher in the polls than one of the BCS conference champions.
Boise State will have to leap frog Texas Christian University by season’s end, as TCU currently sits at number 15 in both polls and would receive the at-large bid if the opportunity came about.
Currently, the BCS is comprised of the Pacific 10, Big 12, Big 10, Big East and Atlantic Coast conferences. Each of these five conferences receives an automatic BCS bid for the champion of their respective conference.
So with plenty of stipulations left to be played out over the next two months, all Coach Petersen can do is take the season one game at a time. A crucial focus for the Broncos as a very dangerous University of Hawaii team visits Boise Saturday night.
“Everyone always thinks you have to stop the pass (with Hawaii),” Petersen said. “Which you do, but first and foremost you have to stop the run. We’ve done very well in the past stopping the run game, and I think you have to make sure it’s totally one-dimensional to have a chance.”
Hawaii came into the 2006 season with little expectations from the rest of the country. The Warriors were voted the No. 4 team in the Western Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches’ Poll.
However, with two former NFL coaches running the program and top-level quarterback Colt Brennan, Hawaii comes to Boise as one of the scariest teams BSU has to face this season.
“I wish I was playing against a couple guys that don’t know football,” Petersen said. “That would crank me up. (Brennan) is one of those guys who has a good feel for the game. His instincts are very good. For me, that’s one of those commodities that you can’t estimate.”
The match-up against Hawaii will be the first WAC game of the season for BSU.
With five consecutive conference championships on the line and the task of proving they deserve a top 25 ranking, the pressure to succeed is apparent for the Broncos.
“I think the competition level that we’re starting to play is getting tougher and tougher, but I don’t think that distracts us. I mean, we’ve got guys that are fairly mature, and it’s something we talked about way back in the summer time. Not getting caught up in rankings. Our record right now is 0-0. It really wouldn’t matter what our true record is. We just have to go out each week and play the best we can.”
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Jake Garcin