Chris Petersen of Boise State Cast in the Mold of Amos Alonzo Stagg

Gone but not forgotten is the 2006 Boise State football team who went 13 and 0. That team won their final game, a historic match between BSU and the football powerhouse Oklahoma Sooners in the BCS Fiesta Bowl.

If the Broncos of BSU were never able to do anything close to that ever again, surely that Fiesta Bowl victory would be enough.

In sports there are Goliaths (monsters of the game) like Oklahoma and USC, and the Davids, if you will, are not always fortunate to slew them.

However, on that one day in history, that game going down as one of the greatest games of all time, David in the form of BSU Football slew the beast with one of the oldest plays in the game of football, Amos Alonzo Stagg’s "Statue of Liberty" play.

In the Fiesta Bowl the Statue of Liberty was played to perfection, and the rest is history. When the media talks to coach Pete they often mention Boise State's trick plays. Coach Pete says, “I like to refer to them as gadget plays.”

BSU coach Chris Petersen (Pete) appears to be a lot like Stagg. Coach Pete loves football and he is a winner. Coach Pete may be just a tad old-fashioned, but his fans love his Stagg-like creativity.

One of the greatest and winningest football coaches of all time, Notre Dame’s Knute Rockne once said, "All football comes from Stagg."

Stagg retired in 1960 at the age of 98: "he had coached for 70 years and held the all-time coaching record for football victories at 314 until 1981."

That same person (Stagg) who created the gadget play, i.e. Statue of Liberty Play, Fake Kick, Lateral Pass, Onside Kick, and the Reverse, was also responsible for the Huddle, and inventing the Tackling Dummy and Football Sled.

All of those things can be seen in part or otherwise on any football playing field anywhere the game is played (at all levels) on any given day.

There is no trickery; there is just winning and losing. Besides, all football plays were made to be modified.

The quarterback of the winning team for the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, BSU's Jared Zabransky, referred once to the BSU playbook saying of the 40 to 80 plays there can easily have another 80 or 120 plays (three to four derivatives from every original concept).

That just depends on the creativity of the coaches and players. Chris Petersen is very creative, and he selects those types of players at Boise State University.

Many of the BSU players have played more then one position and excel at both. For example, recently graduated players Vinny Perretta and Tanyon Bissell were wide receivers, and both were called on to throw the ball.

Since both of these players were highly proficient, many of their throws went for six. Bissell was also a holder on special teams (a fake run or pass was always a possibility). 

Despite the fact that BSU has graduated those players, the Broncos are not worried; they have two wide receivers with quarterback excellence coming off of redshirt and more than two going on. At BSU, gadget plays are always on the menu.