The 2021 Boise State Broncos football team represented
Boise State University
Boise State University (BSU) is a Public university, public research university in Boise, Idaho. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding ...
in the
2021 NCAA Division I FBS football season
The 2021 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the 152nd season of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at its highest level of competition, the Football Bowl Subdivision. The r ...
. The Broncos were led by first–year head coach
Andy Avalos and played their home games at
Albertsons Stadium
Albertsons Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in the western United States, located on the campus of Boise State University in Boise, Idaho. It is the home field of the Boise State Broncos of the Mountain West Conference. Known as Bronco Sta ...
in
Boise, Idaho
Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown are ...
. They completed as members of the Mountain Division of the
Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...
.
The Broncos completed their regular season with a 7–5 record and accepted a bid to the
Arizona Bowl
The Arizona Bowl is a postseason college football bowl game certified by the NCAA that began play in the 2015 season. The game is held at Arizona Stadium in Tucson, and starting in 2020 has tie-ins with the Mountain West Conference and Mid-Amer ...
, where they were due to face the
Central Michigan Chippewas
The Central Michigan Chippewas are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Central Michigan University (CMU), located in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. The school fields sixteen men's and women's intercollegiate teams that compete at the ...
. On December 27,
Barstool Sports
Barstool Sports is an American blog website and digital media company headquartered in New York City that produces content on sports and pop culture. Founded by David Portnoy in 2003 in Milton, Massachusetts, the company's two primary owners are ...
(the title sponsor of the bowl) founder
David Portnoy
David Portnoy (born March 22, 1977) is an American internet celebrity, blogger, and founder of the sports and pop culture blog Barstool Sports.
Early life
Portnoy grew up in Swampscott, Massachusetts. He is Jewish and had a Bar Mitzvah. ...
announced the withdrawal of the Broncos from the bowl due to COVID-19 issues within the program; organizers stated that they would attempt to secure a replacement team to face the Chippewas. Later in the day, the Arizona Bowl was canceled, and Central Michigan was named as a replacement team for the
Sun Bowl
The Sun Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played since 1935 in the southwestern United States at El Paso, Texas. Along with the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl, it is the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. ...
.
Previous season
The Broncos finished the 2020 season 5–2 overall, and 5–0 in conference play, claiming a championship game berth in the
Mountain West Championship Game, where they lost to
San Jose State
San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...
34–20. The Broncos announced on December 20 that they would forego playing in a bowl game, ending a streak of 18 consecutive bowl games.
Boise State head coach
Bryan Harsin
Bryan Dale Harsin (born November 1, 1976) is an American football coach and former player who was most recently the head coach at Auburn University. Prior to leading the Auburn Tigers, he coached the Boise State University Broncos from the 2014 ...
resigned on December 22 to become head coach at
Auburn
Auburn may refer to:
Places Australia
* Auburn, New South Wales
* City of Auburn, the local government area
*Electoral district of Auburn
*Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region
*Auburn, South Australia
*Auburn, Tasmania
*Aub ...
in the
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...
(SEC), taking most of his assistant coaches. The university named
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
defensive coordinator and former Boise State linebacker and assistant coach
Andy Avalos the program's next head coach on January 9, 2021.
Schedule
:
Rankings
Personnel
Game summaries
At UCF
UCF hosted Boise State in the 2021 season opener. It was the first meeting between the two
Group of Five
The Group of Five (G5) encompasses five nations which have joined together for an active role in the rapidly evolving international order. Individually and as a group, the G5 nations work to promote dialogue and understanding between developing ...
front-runners, and the first game for new head coach
Gus Malzahn
Arthur Gustavo Malzahn III (; born October 28, 1965) is an American football coach. He is currently the head coach at the University of Central Florida (UCF Knights football, UCF). He was the head football coach at Auburn University from 2013 t ...
. The kickoff was delayed about 2 hours and 46 minutes due to
lightning
Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...
in the area, but the inclement weather passed and the game played to completion without additional delay. Boise State jumped out to a 21–0 lead, but UCF rallied and held on for a 36–31 victory. UCF won their sixth consecutive season opener, and 14th season opener out of the last 16 years.
On their first drive of the first quarter, quarterback
Dillon Gabriel
Dillon Gabriel (born December 28, 2000) is an American football quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners. Gabriel attended and played high school football at Mililani High School in Mililani, Hawaii and began his college career at UCF in 2019 befo ...
swiftly drove the Knights to the Boise State 8 yard line. However, his pass was intercepted by Tyric LeBeauf at the goal line, who ran it back 100 yards for a Broncos touchdown. Trailing 21–0, the Knights finally got on the board with a 23-yard catch and run touchdown by Alec Holler early in the second quarter. In the final minute of the second quarter, Gabriel drove the Knights down the field and with 6 seconds left in the half, scrambled to find Titus Mokiao-Atimalala just inside the pylon for a touchdown and a 24–14 score at halftime.
UCF received the opening kickoff for the second half, and the Knights scored again. This time a touchdown pass from Gabriel to Brandon Johnson, who caught the ball on the right side of the endzone, his foot just inches from being out-of-bounds. With 56 seconds left in the third quarter, the Knights took the lead for the first time. Gabriel connected with Jaylon Robinson for a 23-yard over-the-shoulder touchdown pass, and a 28–24 lead.
The Knights defense stiffened in the second half, forcing the Broncos into three
three-and-outs along with a
safety
Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk.
Meanings
There are ...
. With UCF leading 30–24, momentum shifted back to the Broncos after Tyric LeBeauf intercepted Gabriel for the second time. The turnover led to a Boise State touchdown, and the Knights trailed by 1 point with 8 minutes left in regulation.
Gabriel drove the Knights 75 yards in ten plays (including a Targeting penalty by the Broncos), capped off with a 9-yard go-ahead touchdown run by Isaiah Bowser. With four minutes to go, the Broncos had one last chance. They drove to the UCF 35, but quarterback Hank Bachmeier was scrambling and threw up an easy interception for Dyllon Lester. The Knights were able to roll the clock down, and held on for a 36–31 victory. It matched the best comeback win in school history (21 points in
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
&
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...
). Gabriel finished the game with 318 passing yards, 64 yards rushing, and four touchdown passes, and Bowser has 32 carries for 170 yards (1 touchdown) in his Knights debut.
The Knights extended their streak of scoring both a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown to 50 consecutive games, the longest such active streak in the nation.
UTEP
Oklahoma State
At Utah State
Nevada
At No. 10 BYU
Air Force
At Colorado State
At No. 23 Fresno State
Wyoming
New Mexico
At No. 21 San Diego State
Players drafted into the NFL
References
{{Boise State Broncos football navbox
2021 Mountain West Conference football season
Boise State Broncos football seasons
Boise State Broncos football
The Boise State Broncos football program represents Boise State University in college football and competes in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) as a member of the Mountain West Conference. The Broncos play their home games on ...