Boise State Exposed as a 14-0 Joke in 2009!

We’re all familiar with the classic film The Wizard of Oz. The 1939 musical of how Dorothy is swept away to a magical land in a tornado and embarks on a quest to meet the Wizard with whom she thinks has the power to return her to Kansas. When I think of Boise State I’m constantly reminded of that old Wizard, of how he had the entire Land of Oz fooled into believing that he was some great being that had the power to do the impossible. He was able to pull it off with smoke and mirrors by hiding behind a cover until Dorothy’s dog Toto pulled it back to see a scrawny old man that simply had no power at all. “You’re a fake, just a fake that’s what you are, how could you do such a thing?” said Dorothy. I’m going to play the role of Toto and pull back the covers on the Wizard known as Boise State’s 14-0 season.

 Collegefootballnews.com published the college football rankings on December 6^th prior to the bowl season. They did a great job of listing them from 1 to 120. Now I’ve cross referenced that list with Boise State’s 2009 schedule. Now let’s go down the list and keep in mind that these are the final rankings: Game 1. Oregon (5), 2. Miami of Ohio (118), 3. Fresno State (61), 4. Bowling Green (93), 5. UC Davis (not a D1 school), 6. Tulsa (87), 7. Hawaii (84), 8. San Jose State (115), 9. Louisiana Tech (102), 10. Idaho (96), 11. Utah State (95), 12. Nevada (30), 13. New Mexico State (112), 14. Fiesta Bowl TCU (4).Now that comes an average rank of 77^th out of a possible 120 teams(UC Davis doesn’t count towards that average). Oregon was the home opener and they had a month to prepare for it as well as for TCU which was the bowl game. Keep in mind that TCU is Boise State’s twin. We didn’t learn anything by watching these two teams play each other. Now that doesn’t mean that Boise State isn’t good. It just means that they don’t deserve to be mentioned in the national title talk. See they’re like the guy that fights at the YMCA and is 32-0 and says that he should be fighting Manny Pacquiao in Vegas for the title. It doesn’t make sense when you look at their body of work. It’s a joke really. The teams that show up to the BCS title game every year are at least battle tested. They play good teams weekly from major programs to get to the promised land of the BCS.

 You can’t keep beating up on the neighbor’s kid and then show up wanting the crystal ball. It doesn’t work that way. Everyone keeps bringing up the 2007 Fiesta Bowl when they beat Oklahoma in overtime with 2 trick plays. That was an outstanding win, however, that was the only real team they played the entire season and they had a month to prepare for it. Oklahoma was ranked 10^{th in} the country coming into that game not #1 or #2. It’s hard to beat any team that shows up 12-0. It’s like stopping a runaway train going down hill at that point, for example, Utah beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl last year. If you only have to prepare to play one game all season long, it’s always a winnable game. If the Bronco’s want to be taken seriously, they should man up and make a bid to enter the Pac-10 and take Utah with them.

While were at it the Big 12 should get rid of lowly Baylor and add TCU. Now all the players would be at the table. There would be no more arguments about who belongs and who doesn’t. When Boise State, Utah and TCU have to play exceptional team’s week in and week out and go 14-0 they would deserve to play for the national title. So until then stop wining and complaining that you don’t ever get invited to the prom because everybody knows that you’re just some dirty old man hiding behind the cover. What's your opinion?

Jay Graves