Neither Penn State or Boise State have faced each other in the rich history of the two programs, but there’s is one game that has helped put each on the national college football map.
The Fiesta Bowl.
The biggest win many would say in Penn State history took place in the Fiesta Bowl Jan. 2nd, 1987 to win the national championship against Miami 14-10. It marked the second national championship in four years under Joe Paterno and announced strongly Penn State was in the national conversation to stay.
Tuesday’s contest will mark the eighth Fiesta Bowl appearance Penn State with its most recent coming in 2017. That night, Penn State took down Washington 35-28 in what was Saquon Barkley’s last college game.
Leading the Huskies on the sideline that day was Chris Petersen. Yes, that Chris Petersen who had a hand in the Boise State’s first three Fiesta Bowl appearances.
The 2007 Fiesta Bowl proceeded to put Boise State on the map with its incredible 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma on the most famous Statue of Liberty play in history.
It also featured Ian Johnson not only scoring the winning conversion, but also getting down on his knee to propose to his girlfriend, a Boise State cheerleader.
She said yes and since then, the Broncos have been forever linked to the Fiesta Bowl. In 2010, Petersen and sophomore quarterback Kellen Moore led Boise State to a 14-0 record including a Fiesta Bowl win over No. 4 ranked TCU in what was the first non-national championship game to feature two undefeated teams.
The 2014 Fiesta Bowl was the last time the Broncos have appeared in the game, a 38-30 win over Arizona.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.As big as these wins were, none of those games have ever been of the magnitude this game is for Boise State and even the modern day Penn State program.
This one is for a trip to the National Semifinal and a chance to advance to the National Championship.
It’s a position many Broncos have only dreamed of. Without the expansion of the College Football Playoff, the ceiling had been solely the Fiesta Bowl for Boise State.
Now, there are legitimate National Championship aspirations.
“I will say, just for us to be in a position that we are in today is because of the guys that came before us that laid the foundation and won the games to move up to different conferences, allowing us to have just the facility we have today,” safety Rodney Robison said. “I’m extremely grateful for the foundation that they laid for us to be where we are today.”
In its first Fiesta Bowl appearance, Boise State was in the Western Athletic Conference, where it stayed until moving to the Mountain West in 2012. Boise will move to the Pac 12 in 2026.
For Robinson, throwing it back and watching those old Fiesta Bowl games with teammates is something he’s done since arriving in Boise.
“Two years ago, we’re literally watching Kellen Moore and those teams, those old games, and we’re sitting there saying, bro, we’ve got to play like this,” Robinson said. “We’re watching (former running backs coach Winston Venable fly down, knock dudes heads off. And we’re like, okay, this is, this is the standard of Boise State right here.”
Now, Robinson and his teammates are positioned to do something those teams could only dream of. That’s not something lost on the redshirt senior.
“It’s really cool for us to be in this position that we are in today, but when you walk around and you watch those games and you see the pictures all around the facility, that gives you confidence,” Robinson said. ” This team has been here. We had the players in the past. They did this before, but now we have a bigger stage and it’s a 12 (team) playoff. They didn’t get to live out those type of aspirations and dreams so it definitely gives us confidence, and hopefully we have some of that Boise magic with us, for sure.”
