thoughts on being goliath

A little less than forty-eight hours have now passed and I have taken time to arrange my thoughts on the Fiesta Bowl. Perhaps I write this because it is therapeutic, step eight in a program or something. Whatever my motivation, I want to make five statements so that we can all move on.

1. If I were to put myself in the recliner of an unbiased sports fan, I would have to say that the 2007 Fiesta Bowl was one of the greatest college football games of all time. Tragically, so it seems, people will talk about this for a long time. This is with good reason because all of the storylines were there. Once every couple years do you get a game complete with David vs. Goliath, trick plays that work, and last minute heroics. I mean, the hero of the game even proposed to his cheerleader-girlfriend on the sidelines. I fear that twenty years from now Disney will make a movie about this, calling it “We are remembering the Invincible Boise State”. Makes me sick.
2. You cannot turn the ball over four times and expect to win a bowl game. No excuses. Seriously kids, don’t get involved too deep with a sports team because they’ll rip your heart out.
3. Everything went Boise State’s way and there is no denying fate. They won every coin toss, got every break, and executed every “draw it up in the dirt” play that they could. I’m not bitter, I just realize that you can’t beat destiny.
4. We can't forget that it was only six years ago that there was another BCS match up in Miami much like this game. On one sideline you had the best program of the 90's, a veteran coach, and the Heisman trophy winner. But on the other side a young coach led his team, who many thought didn't deserve to be there, to pull off the upset.
5. On a positive note, we only lose eleven seniors, which is Stoops’ smallest senior class in his tenure. We still don’t know what Peterson will do (though I suspect he’ll be a Cleveland Brown next fall) but Allen Patrick proved to be a pretty good back. Not to mention he’ll be running behind a much more experienced offensive line and have dynamic receivers to keep the defense honest. We lose Alexander, the Big 12 defensive player of the year. Which is a big loss, but then again, we lose the best defensive player in the conference every year. We reload once again. The only thing is, we have to find a quarterback.

There you have it. Let’s close the book on 2006 and turn the page to 2007. After all, a clean slate is only 238 days away.