BOISE, Idaho — This Day In Sports…September 10, 2004, 20 years ago today:
By consensus, the biggest win to that point in Boise State history, although there were so many more milestones still to come. Before a national audience on ESPN, the Broncos recovered from a 14-0 first quarter deficit to rout Oregon State 53-34 at Bronco Stadium—their first win ever over a Pac-10 school. Everyone had wondered how good Boise State was after it routed Idaho 65-7 in the season opener. Surely the Broncos would find out against the Beavers, who had opened against LSU in Death Valley and had held the Tigers to 15 points in regulation before falling 22-21 in overtime.
Well, Boise State was not fazed by the early two-touchdown hole. Early in the second quarter, coach Dan Hawkins elected to go for it on a fourth-and-one at the Broncos 38-yard line, and from there Boise State went on a 34-0 run. During that stretch, quarterback Jared Zabransky led the Broncos to 285 yards of offense and a staggering 18-4 advantage in first downs. There was this in the Oregonian’s game story the next morning: “It quickly became apparent that for all of its success at LSU last week, the OSU defense was playing a much better offensive team.”
Perhaps the coolest thing was the fact that Idahoans scored every one of those 34 unanswered points: Eagle’s Derek Schouman, Borah’s Tyler Jones, Glenns Ferry’s Korey Hall and Highland’s (Pocatello) T.J. Acree. Acree caught a touchdown pass…from Kuna’s Jeff Carpenter. And oh, that Korey Hall. He had three interceptions on the night, one of them returned for a game-turning 46-yard touchdown that brought down the raucous sold-out house.
The victory propelled Boise State into both polls at No. 23, two months earlier than the Broncos had ever appeared in the rankings. They’d continue to climb as they ran the table in the regular season. Boise State reached the top 10 in the BCS rankings for the first time in school history after a 69-3 romp over Hawaii at the end of October. The Broncos were No. 9 in the BCS and Louisville was No. 10 heading into the Liberty Bowl in Memphis on New Year’s Eve before falling to the Cardinals 44-40 to finish 11-1.
(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.)
