SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Boise State coach Spencer Danielson spoke from the heart just hours after the College Football Playoff bracket was revealed three weeks ago.
He had no idea what his quote would become. But he’s also not backing down.
“Definitely didn’t plan on it becoming a shirt, I can promise you that,” Danielson said.
Talking about Rece Davis and others on the ESPN CFP Show commenting on the ‘favorable path’ No. 6 seed Penn State had by potentially playing Boise State in the quarterfinals, Danielson said he hoped folks would count them out in the Fiesta Bowl.
After the quote went viral on social media, Travis Hawkes from The Blue and Orange Store turned the quote into a shirt. In big letters the shirt says simply, ‘PLEASE COUNT US OUT’ with the Boise State logo.
Boise State has thrived in the underdog role throughout its history, and the Broncos were eager to embrace it again in the Fiesta Bowl matchup.
It was one of the Blue and Orange best-selling Fiesta Bowl shirts leading up to Tuesdays game. Danielson even got one and wore it to a team meeting – leading the entire team to request shirts themselves.
Sure enough, when the Broncos got off the plane in Phoenix on Saturday, the entire team was wearing black ‘PLEASE COUNT US OUT’ shirts.
“It’s the truth,” Boise State quarterback Maddux Madsen said this week. “Everyone is counting us out.”
Fans at Boise State’s pep rally on Monday night in Phoenix – many of them wearing either an orange, blue or black PLEASE COUNT US OUT shirt – chanted ‘Please count us out’ on multiple occasions.
Just like when they were underdogs in their three previous Fiesta Bowl appearances – and won all three games – the Broncos are embracing the underdog role again as double-digit underdogs to Penn State.
“Personally, I’ve dealt with this my whole life, so to kind of have the team, obviously getting the three-seed and a bye is where it initially started, and a lot of people didn’t feel like we deserved it,” Madsen said. “But really what did we do to not (get it)? That’s kind of the way I put it.
“I know this team is going to take on this underdog mentality. That’s what Boise State is built on. You heard that all week.”
Not many national pundits are giving Boise State a chance against Penn State. Not many are even expecting the game to be close.
But Boise State, the little Group of 5 program with a cute blue field up in Boise, Idaho, has continued to prove people wrong time and time again since becoming a FBS school in 1996.
They’ve got another big opportunity on the national stage to do it again against the No. 4-ranked (No. 6 seed) Big Ten runner-ups.
“If you look at Boise State’s history, we’re always being counted out,” defensive end Ahmed Hassanein said. “We want to play in these types of games. We’ve always been counted out. When we come here, every single one of us have been counted out. They already counted us out before, ‘we’re not going to win this game’.
“We just want to prove them wrong.”
One group apparently not counting out the Broncos? Penn State. Coach James Franklin opened his press conference Sunday at Media Day by making reference to Boise State’s travel attire.
“I know they got off the planes yesterday with some shirts and maybe kind of an underdog mentality or not getting respect,” Franklin said. “I can guarantee you they have our respect. We take a lot of price in that as a program we respect everybody that we play, but it’s not hard to create that when you watch them on tape. Boise is a really, really good football team led by arguably the best player in college football and definitely the best running back.
“They have our respect, there’s no doubt about it.”
Boise State is 12-1 on the season, with the lone loss coming on a last-second field goal at now-No. 1 Oregon. The Broncos haven’t lost in three months and ride an 11-game winning streak, one of the longest in the nation, into Tuesday’s matchup.
Ashton Jeanty was the Heisman runner-up, and the defense is No. 2 in the nation in sacks. Boise State feels it has proven it belongs – even if others are expecting a Penn State blowout.
Sure, Penn State is worthy of its praise. The Nittany Lions are 12-2, with one-score losses to playoff teams Oregon and Ohio State. They have maybe the best defensive player in the country in Abdul Carter, and a plethora of offensive weapons including quarterback Drew Allar and tight end Tyler Warren.
But Boise State has been here before – underdogs, counted out in the big game against the bigger opponent. They’ve already done it in this stadium, in this bowl game – when they shocked the world by upsetting Oklahoma to cap an undefeated 2006 season.
And here they are again. Back to prove themselves. Back to upset the apple card. Back to playing for the little guys.
Back to being Boise State.
“That’s what Boise State has been built on,” Danielson said. “That’s what draws people to Boise State. I talked to our staff and our players and I said, everybody in this room, me included, has been counted out at some point in their life. At some point in football, someone said, you can’t do this. And then you say, you know what? I am going to prove you wrong right now, and you work your tail off to earn the right too do it. That’s what this team is.
“That doesn’t correlate to always winning the football games you want to win. But we have been counted out before. We’ve been counted out as a program. We’ve been counted out in games this year. And you thrive in that.”
So go ahead and again, please, count them out.
And see what happens. Again.