College Football Game Night: My Thoughts from the Boise St-Oregon Game

College Football officially kicked off on Thursday night and there couldn't be more excitement from yours truly.

Though there were a few games on the schedule on this night, my focus was on one single game. The Boise State Broncos playing host to the Oregon Ducks. 

The Western Athletic Conference was taking center stage, and the game couldn't be bigger.

As the tailgaters made their way to the stadium, their barbecue grills, food and beverage in tow, you could feel the anticipation in the air. Two teams were taking center stage, two teams that had just as much to prove as the other.

This game, though important to the University of Oregon, was even more important to Boise State. This was a game they had to win, a game that would keep their name on the national stage as that perennial "BCS Buster."

It wasn't a game where Boise State could just "stay close," they needed to win, and they needed to show the college football world that the preseason hype was more than just that.

So, to get to my thoughts on the game, since that's what I promised. 

This was, arguably, one of the ugliest games I've seen to start the college football season. You would think that a game of this magnitude would be played better by both sides.

Though Boise State took early control, on both sides of the ball, two straight missed field goals by the Broncos kept the lackluster Oregon team in the game.

I say lackluster because Oregon couldn't do a thing on offense, going three and out in each of their first four possessions, not to mention their defense couldn't stop Boise State if they tried.

If you look at the time of possession as the first half closed, Boise State had the ball for almost 24 minutes compared to Oregon's five minutes and their 14 yards of total offense for the entire first half.

Unfortunately, though the game turned ugly in the fourth quarter with fumbles, interceptions and the like, it won't be remembered for the showdown between the top dog of the Western Athletic Conference against one of the top teams in the Pac-10. It will be remembered for what happened at the end of the game.

As Boise State was celebrating their victory, something was said by Boise defensive end Byron Hout to Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount. Before Hout could be pulled away, Blount punched Hout in the jaw knocking him to the blue turf.

As Oregon players dragged Blount towards the locker room, he had a run in with Boise State fans along the sideline and attempted to go after one of them as well, having to be restrained by police.

If getting dominated wasn't enough of an insult to Oregon's loss, their player sucker punching a Boise State player and trying to go after the fans added insult to injury.

What happens to Blount now is anyone's guess, though ESPN's Bob Davie who covered the game, wasn't shy about his feelings. "I'd suspend him from my football team indefinitely," Davie said during his post game recap on ESPN.

For Oregon, that pre-season No. 16 ranking is going to take a hit when the next polls are released some time on Sunday. They'll definitely need to regain their composure as they will begin a stretch of four straight home games starting a week from this Saturday. 

Oregon will welcome in Purdue, 19th ranked Utah, 12th ranked Cal and Washington State before heading back on the road to face UCLA and the University of Washington.

For Boise State, who picked up a much needed win and made a definite statement, will remain at home next weekend to take on the University of Miami of Ohio before playing road games with WAC rival Fresno State and Bowling Green from the Mid-American Conference.

Will this win from Boise State give the WAC more respect nationally? Probably not, because major conference teams will always get more respect and more talk nationally regardless of how pathetic their non-conference schedule is. 

Where the major schools can lose two games and still play for a national championship, teams from the WAC and Mountain West have to go undefeated to even be considered. Even then, it's a huge long shot.