Jacob Thorpe: For now, Washington State’s path to football supremacy in a rebuilt Pac-12 has a major roadblock in Boise
Boise State showed Washington State that the fruits of playing in the former Conference of Champions will still be there in the rebuilt Pac-12.
The high-caliber opponents. The raucous, sold-out stadiums. Even the Heisman Trophy candidates.
All of it was there at Albertson’s Stadium in Boise, Idaho, on Saturday night.
As rivalries emerge, fans of Oregon State and WSU will doubtlessly crow that in former years their schools belonged to a power conference and that Boise State was once a junior college. But the Broncos proved in many ways on Saturday they will be the class of the new conference.
A record 37,711 fans attended Saturday’s game. The Boise State fan experience team did creative and inspired work. Many schools try to make use of gimmicks using the stadium lights and people’s cell phones to entertain fans during the dozens of tedious breaks during a football game. I’ve only seen the team in Boise do it well.
The Broncos have dominated in a lower level for a long time. So much so that, where many teams hang large banners proclaiming their proudest accomplishments, Albertson’s Stadium features one panel listing in small print their 21 conference championship seasons, and another for their myriad bowl games.
No indications on Saturday that list will stop growing.
The fourth quarter saw Boise State bury the Cougars under a barrage of touchdowns by Boise State running back and Heisman Trophy hopeful Ashton Jeanty, who struck a Heisman pose in the end zone after his fourth score of the evening. Prior to that touchdown the frustrated Cougars committed unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on consecutive plays, doubtlessly frustrated by the unenviable task of trying to bring down a player powerful enough to break tackles, and fast enough to score on runs of 59 and 64 yards.
“No. 2 was the problem, getting him down was a major problem at pretty much every level of our defense,” WSU linebacker Kyle Thornton said. “I get a lot of jokes for being the oldest man on the team, but I’ve been around a while and that’s a really good back.”
What a player. Jeanty slipped out of tackles and threw off defenders. He ran to the middle of the defense and then danced to the sideline, moving laterally with more speed than every other player could move in a straight line. He did all of this with two offensive linemen out due to injuries.
All told, Jeanty ran for 259 yards and four touchdowns. He became the game’s protagonist in the way The Greats do. The kind of performance that gets remembered for decades. He runs the way today’s Boise State students will describe to their grandkids someday.
Quarterback John Mateer and the WSU offense had responses to Jeanty’s heroics, at times, and played well enough to win most games. When Jeanty opened the scoring with a breathtaking 64-yard run through the WSU defense, Mateer responded on WSU’s first offensive play with a 52-yard dash of his own. As the Broncos went up two touchdowns for the first time late in the third quarter, Mateer led a long scoring drive that opened the fourth quarter with a 33-yard touchdown toss to Kyle Williams.
Mateer’s running ability kept the Cougars in the game at first, but was eventually offset by seven sacks for 67 yards. Jeanty will be off to the pros before long, but there is little reason to think the Broncos won’t find another star tailback. When he eventually matriculates to the NFL he will join a lineage of professional running backs from Boise State that includes Jay Ajayi, Jeremy McNichols and Alexander Mattison in just the last decade alone.
The Cougars have five more games to play against their future conference mates in what has turned into a preview season. Boise State may be new to the Pac-12, but the road to a championship is paved blue already.