Boise State Broncos Live Up to the Hype, Beat Virginia Tech Hokies, 33-30

Boise State entered tonight’s game as the underdog in a sense, although they ranked third compared to their opponent, 10th-ranked Virginia Tech.

Despite a 49-4 record with nine conference titles in the past 10 years and three undefeated seasons in the past five, Boise State has struggled to establish its place among college football’s elite and justify its legitimacy among teams from powerhouse conferences like the Big 12 and SEC.

Many feel that the Broncos have been unjustly denied a shot at the national championship game, despite criticism that the team’s success has come from a regular season schedule filled with weaker opponents.

Well, strength-of-schedule excuses are no more.

In their first game of the 2010 season, the Broncos faced a worthy opponent in Virginia Tech at a FedEx Field filled with Hokie maroon and orange. The pressure was on the Broncos, who were away from their familiar blue field and smack in the middle of the spotlight 10 miles from the nation’s capital.

Boise State entered tonight’s game with something to prove, and prove it they did.

The Broncos came out with drive and energy, taking a quick 17-0 lead that silenced the 80,000-plus Virginia Tech fans. Tech’s typically solid defense—the only defense ranked in the top 12 in each of the past six years— started out shaky, giving the Broncos good field position and surrendering 20 points in the first half for the first time since 2008.

A Bronco defense equipped with speed and athleticism frustrated the Hokie offense until the beginning of the second quarter, when RB Ryan Williams scored a 1-yard touchdown. Virginia Tech continued to press and got their rhythm back just before the half, cutting the lead to six with a passing touchdown from QB Tyrod Taylor with just a few minutes left in the second quarter.

Virginia Tech went into halftime with strong momentum and rode the wave into the third quarter, as Williams and the Hokie offense began to wear down Boise State's defense. Virginia Tech took a 21-20 lead in the third, the first time the Broncos have trailed in the second half of a game since 2007.

Two more lead changes occurred in a tense third quarter, and things looked bleak for Boise State, who trailed by four with two minutes on the clock until an incredible 56-yard drive ending in a 13-yard passing touchdown from QB Kellen Moore to receiver Austin Pettis.

The Broncos held off the Hokies in the final minute to win, 33-30, in a highly anticipated game that lived up to the hype.

Playing with a chip on their shoulders, the Boise State Broncos rose to the challenge, and, at least after Game 1, still have a shot at a National Championship this year. As ESPN broadcaster Brent Musburger so aptly put it, “there is no better thing in sports to watch than when a team… shows up with the kind of courage shown by Boise State.”