BOISE, Idaho — This Day In Sports…November 8, 2014, 10 years ago today:
New Mexico rushes for 505 yards—the most ever allowed by Boise State—and rolls up 42 first-half points, but the Broncos still win 60-49. The Lobos’ total on the ground was 65 more than the record 440 yards established by Idaho 39 years earlier in the Kibbie Dome dedication game. UNM’s 49 points were the most yielded by the Broncos in a non-overtime game in 16 years. New Mexico gained 10.3 yards per carry, another Boise State record for futility by more than two yards per attempt. Did I mention the Broncos won?
The entertainment value in this game was high for viewers without a dog in the hunt. It wasn’t a sloppy game. It was just lacking defense more often than not. There was not a single turnover in the game, and there were only eight penalties all night (just three on the Broncos). The teams combined for 109 points and 1,305 yards of offense—658 from Boise State and 627 from New Mexico. Each struck for a 75-yard touchdown on its first play from scrimmage—the Lobos on a run by Jhurell Pressley and the Broncos on the screen pass from Grant Hedrick to Jay Ajayi.
It was an edge-of-your-seat night until Ajayi, who went over the 1,000-yard plateau for the second straight season, peeled off a 14-yard TD run to seal it with 38 seconds left. The thing is, after falling behind by 14 points in the second quarter, Boise State had offensive answers. Hedrick threw for 367 yards and four touchdowns and added 131 yards and two TDs on the ground in rallying the Broncos, becoming the first QB in Boise State’s FBS era with 300 yards passing and 100 rushing in a single game. His 498 yards of total offense still ranks No. 4 on the Broncos’ all-time list (only Ryan Dinwiddie and Kellen Moore have ever topped that).
There was something else at work that night, as it was the first year of guaranteed access for the Group of 5 conferences in the New Year’s Six bowl games. Just like this year with the College Football Playoff, the Broncos had their eye on the prize—one game at a time, of course. (They’d ultimately get it with their Fiesta Bowl win over Arizona.) It would have been brutal for Boise State had it not come back to outscore the Lobos 32-7 after trailing by 14 points late in the first half—and hold UNM to 88 rushing yards in the second. But they did.
(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.)
