GLENDALE, Ariz. — This whole Davidand-Goliath thing? No one’s buying it, not really. That storyline has been tried on for size. Players from both teams say it doesn’t fit.
Which is fine. Leave it to the evil media to drum up a story line, then beat it to death. It’s what we do best. You think Fox — master of overkill — might subtly brush the theme into tonight’s coverage?
Anyway, we could have been persuaded to leave the whole topic alone. Except for one thing: Ian Johnson, Boise State’s star tailback, started to reject the idea, then stopped.
“David won,” Johnson said, a smile beginning to curl. “That’s a bad story for them.”
Well, yes. It certainly would be.
Not enough time is spent on Goliath in these deals. We know all about how David moved up from shepherd boy to king. But other than the part where Goliath’s head gets cut off, we don’t hear much more about the giant.
Presumably, when he fell, the other Philistines laughed.
OK, they were otherwise occupied, running from the suddenly rejuvenated Israelites. It was life and death, not the BCS.
But if Boise State wins, what happens to the Sooners?
We set out to discover just that. Mostly, we got the runaround.
“I don’t know why they say Boise is a ‘little guy,’” OU defensive end C.J. Ah You says. “They’re a great team.”
Teammates nodded in bobble-head unison, parroting the party line: The Broncos are good. We respect them greatly. Probably, they even believe it.
But Boise State’s capability isn’t the issue. This is about what happens if the Broncos are too capable. And so, we went for the unvarnished truth.
You know him as Larry Birdine (No. 92 in your program, No. 1 in reporters’ notebooks). Anyway, the lovable lug didn’t shy away from the topic.
What happens if the Sooners lose to Boise State?
“We would have no respect,” Birdine says. “This would probably send our program into a tailspin.”
He was joking, we think — at least about that last part. But the no-respect part might hold.
Because if Boise State has a reputation to make, OU has a reputation to maintain — for itself, and for the BCS’ power structure.
It’s all fine and good for the occasional Boise State to climb into a BCS bowl. Might even make college football’s big boys feel philanthropic, sort of. The Broncos crash the party, have a good time
