BOISE, Idaho — For a moment, he appeared to be channeling a Hickory Husker.
Advertisement
Jadon Dailey was talking about Boise State’s motivation for pulling off a Fiesta Bowl upset. And he could have been riffing the pregame scene from “Hoosiers” (quite simply, the best sports movie ever made).
• Merle Webb of Hickory High, just before tipoff in the state championship: “Let’s win this one for all the small schools that never got the chance to get here.”
• Dailey of Boise State, earlier this month: “We’re gonna try to represent all the little schools, the little guys that get beat on by the big schools.”
Which is funny, in a way.
There’s no doubt Boise State is the upstart underdog in its matchup with Oklahoma. But in everyday life, Boise State isn’t Hickory.
It’s South Bend Central.
Consider that WAC commissioner Karl Benson keeps calling Boise State, which has won five straight conference titles, the most dominant team in the league’s history — and he knows full well about BYU’s former reign, which included the 1984 national championship.
You’ve probably heard that in the last eight seasons, Boise State is college football’s winningest team. Well, since 2001 in WAC games, the Broncos are 43-3.
For the rest of the conference, all those wins work out to losses. And to bitterness, apparently.
Last month, in the moments after a tough loss to the Broncos, San Jose State coach Dick Tomey rolled out another movie reference, referring to Boise State as the “wicked witch of the North.”
“I take that as a compliment,” Boise State coach Chris Petersen said.
When asked last month whether he would pull for Boise State to finish unbeaten and earn a BCS bowl berth — thus ensuring a big payday and a nice dose of prestige for the WAC — Hawaiicoach June Jones instead said he hoped the Broncos lost a game. No surprise there because Hawaii was hoping to win the conference title.
But there might have been a little more than that going on.
“They could lose two (games), as far as I’m concerned,” Jones said.
And not long afterward, WAC coaches voted Jones as coach of the year over Petersen, who didn’t do much in his first year as a head coach except go 12-0.
All of that comes with the territory. Which is fine with Petersen, who says, “That’s why we like the Yankees.”
In the Fiesta Bowl, they’re playing the Yankees. And they’re relishing the role reversal.
Oddsmakers have established OU as the clear favorite. When prognosticators give Boise State a shot, they’re mostly figuring the Sooners might be undermotivated.
That shouldn’t be a problem for the Broncos.
“We thrive off being the underdogs,” Dailey says. “We like the feeling people think we’re gonna get smashed and put in the hospital. That’s great. Let them think that.”
See? Boise State can play the No-Respect angle for all its worth — and for a change, it might be worth something.
Coaches routinely pull that particular card from a well-worn deck of motivational ploys: The opponent doesn’t think we can play. The fans are down on us. The media has written us off.
Some or all of these entities always seem to have disrespected every team, every week. The most absurd instance might have been when Nolan Richardson trotted out the theme during the 1994 Final Four — after Arkansas had been ranked No. 1 for much of the season.
But in this case, for Boise State, it fits. The depth chart is made up of guys who weren’t recruited by the BCS big boys. They’re overachievers, sleepers, projects — you know, the kinds of kids who can play football, but are missing a height or a weight or a 40 time.
But just try to tell that to the Broncos.
“They all think they should have gone straight out of high school to the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Miami Dolphins or whoever,” Petersen says. “They’re out on a mission to prove to the world that everybody made a mistake on them.”
And yes, they know they’re carrying the flag for a whole bunch of guys just like them. And sounding a whole lot like the Hickory Huskers in the process.
Another Hoosiers moment, this one from the good Reverend Doty: “… And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and flung it, and hit the Philistine over the head, and he fell to the ground. Amen.”
No word on what Boise State’s team chaplain might do in pregame chapel. But it’s pretty clear the Broncos would like to win for all the small schools that never got the chance to get there.
Even if some of those small schools consider them to be Goliath.
