You deserve it!

Chad,

Could you give an update on the injury situation (if you have info). That was one hard fought game! Congrats to Austin, he keeps getting better. Looks like the Wolfpack concentrated on Jeremy Childs, and found out that doesn't work. It just opened up Austin and Vinny.

Does Boise State deserve a BCS Bowl? No. But they sure the hell deserve it over Utah. College teams are called "programs" for a reason. It takes time to build and recruit and train...the players the coaching staff etc...
The Broncos killed Utah in Salt Lake City just 26 months ago. The local radio there blasted the Ute program saying they were miles behind the Bronco program even though they are the original BCS Busters.
Even if you give the argument that Boise State isn't deserving based on this years performance, thats cool. But no way in hell they lose to Utah on a neutral field. So now millions of dollars are lost. Most importantly, what do you tell the kids? You beat who you play, but sorry you don't have the opportunity to play somebody better?
in just a few years our kids are going to laugh at this archaic system. The Broncos could have 3 undefeated regular season in 5 years. And yet they are on the outside looking in; to the MTN West Conference it has never lost to.

I have had season tickets for 12 years now. I graduated from Boise State in 1980. I love watching the Broncos and rooting for them. That being said, I don't think BSU is the 9th best team in the country. I don't think they deserve a shot at the BCS this year. We cannot run against decent run defenses. Our O-Line is young, inexperienced and small. They will be better next year, our talent level is going up. We are probably interchangeable at any of the bottom half slots of the top 25 with all the other teams. On any given day, we could beat them and they could beat us. Stack us up against the other top 10 teams, and we would win less than half of those games. No disrespect to the Broncos, they have succeeded this year beyond what I expected.

cah83713, don't talk about scheduling and then compare our schedule to Utah's and include three in-conference foes they had to play. Yes, the MWC had tougher competition this year. They were about even last year with the WAC. The WAC had a very off year this year, the MWC was off last year.

BTW, I would like to see Utah go play at Autzen and come out with a win this year, whether it was the 4th stringer or not. that Oregon team has talent, and the 4th stringer may be the starter next year. He played better than the other three did.

No offense, but if Hamden gets to play more than one or two series in this game, BSU may not still be undefeated. Although we have not see him play a whole lot, everytime he goes in it is almost disasterous. Fresno is not going to be letting up for this game and senior or not, I hope the coaches play the right people for the win.

But he isn't finishing. No way Coach Pete is going risk losing on Senior Day or lose to a WAC team at home. Aint happening.

I am trying to understand how Uath is ranked hire than Penn St? If you want to go by strenth of schedule the big ten is a stronger conference, Penn States only loss was to the Iowa by one point and to be ranked 8 by the BCS don't make since and Uath moved up to 6 and Penn State didn't move up at all after winning that seems pretty funny to me.

I think most of you are more knowledgable than I am on these subjects, but I have to put in a couple cents...

Hamden should start. He's well deserved and its a great Bronco tradition. He'll have Kellen's O-line so I think you'll see a better Bush! I think our defense will allow Bush/Kellen to win.

MWC and WAC. We need all our 'programs' at Boise State to improve before we can approach the MWC or PAC10.

Lots of good points mentioned already. I think its so frustrating that we cant/dont/wont whatever play 'big program' schools. The fact that Idaho got a shot at USC and we cant get anything better than Southern Miss, to me, implies that teams are afraid of an "L" from a WAC team! I'm glad we're playing the Oregon teams (over the years) but lets remind the Georgias, Floridas and Auburns...hey wanna play...dont worry, you'll beat us like UGA in 05...then kick their butts like OU.

I mean the argument can be made about alot of things!
I don't have a problem with Hamden starting I think he's earned it! Utah's undefeated they've had a good year you can't take that away same with BSU. As far as opponents and tougher schedule that stuff is noones fault and I find it hard to penalize teams when other teams don't live up to expectations. I've said before, Southern Miss, and Bowling Green were picked preseason to win or finish 2nd in their conference and they've flopped. Oregon can still finish 2nd in the Pac-10 if they beat OSU, which was a great win for BSU. The WAC is just a bad football conference and it always will be, the sooner BSU goes to the MWC the better. That being said UTAH has benefited from alot of preseson hype off of BYU. BYU had a win streak and took advantage of a weak schedule up to the TCU game. Becuase they were ranked WAY to high (imo) both TCU and Utah have got so called "quality wins" TCU and UTAH also beat up on lesser teams and please don't play the Air Force is a tough team card on us. Utah signature wins Michigan, which really doesn't even need to be explained, Oregon State at home good win wasn't pretty but its a win, and TCU which again wasn't pretty but it still counts. TCU quality wins (imo an overrated BYU). So really they all have one quality win and not much more. As a BSU fan I feel very confident in saying they have done much more than Utah considering the youth on this team.
Gratz to Utah go represent the non-BCS teams well.

Hamden didn't get the starting job for one very good reason: He doesn't play very well. It is obvious every time he has taken the field this year. I am sorry but there it is. Unless coach has a ground game in mind with just a handful of plays we take too big of a risk putting Hamden in. Maybe it doesn't make much difference in post season but then again maybe it does.

I've said this before; it's all about the money. The top schools will play Boise State at their place. So, it's up to the AD to step up and schedule some meaningful out of conference games. Meanwhile, keep expanding the stadium, so that it's feasible monetarily to attract teams from the big conferences to come to Boise. We're lucky that Oregon agreed to come here in 09.

Boise could well be better than Utah this year, but we'll never know. It's doubtful that the Utes could go into Autzen stadium and come out with a win, but they did do a little better schedule wise simply because they are in a better conference.

I'm not a Bush-hater. Don't get me wrong. I love Bush.

Still, there's a game to win here. Give Bush time on the field if the game is no longer in doubt? Sure, no problem. But is the game still in doubt before kickoff? Yes.

Win first. Give Bush his proper dues second.

maybe this was already addressed but i stopped reading cah83713 first post about the past not mattering. if the past didnt matter then why are the same 10 teams always ranked in the top 25 each year? its because they have built their programs over years and years and have proved they belong. we have now had 5 seasons this decade over 11 wins and 2 other 10 win seasons and never less then 8. that is much better then utah this decade by far. if usc, oklahoma, texas, and other teams like that can always get a boost just because of who they are then why can't we? the past does matter and we should definetly be ranked ahead of utah right now.

I agree with justsomeguy...
Who doesn't like bush in the 4th quarter. I would like to see bush in the 4th Q in every game, as long as the game is wrapped up. But starting out the game with Bush is not the way to do it.

as much as i do like bush hamden he should not start a game this important. i dont care if it will be with a better offensive line then he's use to playing with, fresno is still good, not the great team they were made out to be in the preseason, but they are good. we need this win, we cant afford any mistakes early on so the best way to avoid that is to have the same guy start that has started the 11 previous. let him play in the first have if we are up by a couple of scores, but the first couple of series belong to moore.

The computer rankings take a dispassionate view of the teams. No "Cinderella story", no subjectiveness.

Outside of the top 3, the computer rankings are all over the place. Utah is number 5, BSU is 10. Oregon State tied for 20th, Oregon isn't even ranked.

Now, maybe the human factor that rearranges the computer rankings makes things more accurate - I'm not sure, but I do know that I disagree with at least a few teams' positions in the current standings. But I think that what's really nuts in the BCS system is the "ownership" of the bowls by their conferences. Because of that, teams like Oregon State and Cincinnati can play in a BCS bowl, even though they're in the basement of the Top 25, yet higher ranked teams won't get their chance.

The problem is that for the entire season, college football is a meritocracy - the best rise to the top. But when the season ends, that's thrown out the window. Other than the national championship game, most of the bowl participation is based on what conference owns which bowl game, with a bone tossed to a lone non-BCS team. It's fundamentally unamerican - there's a segment of football society that has a "right" to their bowl games regardless of national standing and if one of the lowly non-BCS schools manages to really excel, they'll get a peek into the ballroom, otherwise they're locked out of the game.

It isn't a matter of whether or not Boise State or Utah deserve to get a bowl game - the problem is that this year, like years past, there will be several teams playing in BCS bowls who don't deserve to be there. But, as others have said, it's not going to change because none of the BCS conferences will voluntarily give up the gravy train that comes with the bowl games. Why should they put themselves in the position of having their conference earn a berth when they can have it given to them?