BOISE, Idaho — This Day In Sports…November 11, 2006:
The closest call of Boise State’s unbeaten regular season, as Anthony Montgomery boots a 37-yard field goal on the final play of the game to beat San Jose State 23-20. It’s hard not to draw comparisons between the setup for this Saturday’s road game against the Spartans and the one in 2006. The Broncos were in the middle of BCS drama, having just risen to No. 12 in the BCS standings, which is where they needed to be to get a BCS bowl invitation. The point was being made that nothing can be taken for granted, and that was proven by the scary night in Spartan Stadium. The first Fiesta Bowl wouldn’t have happened had they lost.
San Jose State shut out Boise State in the first quarter for the first time that season and gave the Broncos their first halftime deficit of the year. They trailed 20-12 midway through the fourth quarter before mounting their rally, helped by Ian Johnson. The sophomore sensation had suffered a partially collapsed lung earlier in the game but played through it to the tune of 149 yards rushing. After the game, he had to be helped to a cart that would get him to a vehicle for a trip to a San Jose hospital. Johnson ended up spending five days there and missed the following week’s game versus Utah State after returning to Boise.
With 5:22 left in the game, Boise State quarterback Jared Zabransky scored on a one-yard keeper and then hit Jerard Rabb for a two-point conversion to knot the game 20-20, setting the stage for Montgomery’s heroics. For Montgomery, the winning field goal capped a long climb from a disappointing 2005. He attempted only one field goal in the Broncos’ final six games that year (and he didn’t make that one). Montgomery was only 6-for-10 in 2005 and missed his first field goal of 2006. But with the game-ending kick at San Jose State, the first of his life, he was 12-for-12 since.
It wasn’t the last time the Broncos needed the left-footed Montgomery to deliver in a clutch situation that season. There was this matter of an extra point in the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma on New Year’s Day. Boise State had just scored on the legendary 50-yard hook-and-ladder with seven seconds left in regulation, but the Broncos hadn’t actually tied the game yet. They had to have the PAT from Montgomery to get to overtime. Imagine the pressure on that kick in front of 73,719 fans. He calmly drilled it to knot the game up at 35-35. And you know the rest…
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
