They grow the testicles huge in Idaho. Last night’s Fiesta Bowl between Boise State and Oklahoma might be the best college football game I’ve ever seen. I try not to get carried away with the hyperbole like that, but… I can’t remember a game ever bringing me out of my seat that many times. If that was the climactic game played at the end of a football movie, I’d have left the theatre thinking that a 9-year-old with an overactive imagination wrote it.
When Zabransky threw that interception with just over a minute to play, it felt like, “Well, they finally blew it. They got some good bounces and held the lead for a while, but finally, the better team caught up with them.” If feeling that way makes me a hater, or one of the infinate people out there that didn’t give Boise State the respect they deserved, then hey… so be it.
But then the coaching staff felt like elevating play-calling into an artform, and pulled some plays out of their asscracks that no team could’ve been prepared for. Miracle Moment #1 came on the crossing pattern/lateral play that tied the score at the end of regulation. Then Adrian Peterson put his foot on their throats again, scoring on the first play in overtime.
Then Miracle Moment #2 came on Boise State’s overtime possession, with a fantastic play design and play call. To begin with, how many coaches in the country have the balls to go for the 2-point conversion right there? Perhaps not coincidental to that question… how many coaches have a money play like that in the bag that they know is going to work?
Miracle Moment #3 came shortly after when Ian Johnson proposed to his girlfriend on the sidelines, right after the game. You start with a guy like Johnson, a fantastic person who’s a goddman knitter, of all things… baring his soul and putting his mack down on national television and making an honest woman out of her right there. That’s the sweetest thing I’ve seen since Notting Hill I haven’t seen Notting Hill, and you can just go straight to hell.
The only negative about it was Chris Myers trying to ruin the moment, like he was Berman at the NFL Draft. Before Johnson proposed, Myers actually said, “Okay, I know you want to propose right now,” and then the girl did her “cover her mouth and flip out” thing, before Johnson had the chance to ask. Dick.
