Boise State Football: BCS Bowls Won't Extend Invites to the Broncos

For the second year in a row, it looks like Boise State has shanked its way out of a BCS bowl game.

As Boise State kicker Dan Goodale’s 39-yard game-winning field goal attempt began to sail wide right in the final seconds of last Saturday’s game against TCU, fans all around Bronco stadium had their heart skip a beat as that thought of, “Oh my god, it’s happening again,” quickly flashed through their minds.

As the Horned Frogs ran out onto the field, wildly celebrating the 36-35 win, head coach Chris Petersen, senior quarterback Kellen Moore and the rest of the Boise State players could only just stand in disbelief.

Yes, it happened again.

The name on the kicker’s jersey may not have been Kyle Brotzman, who cost the Broncos a BCS bowl game last year with two missed field goals against Nevada, but the result was just the same, and just as painful.

There was nothing else that Moore could have done to win the game.

The senior signal-caller took the ball with just a little over a minute left, and with a little help from a Mountain West officiating crew that obviously knew the many millions the conference stood to gain from Boise going to a BCS bowl game (Pass Interference?), guided the Broncos to within range to kick the winning field goal, just as he had done on one spectacular throw against Nevada last year.

Then, with one lackadaisical swing of Goodale’s leg, Moore watched as his hopes of winning a national championship and a Heisman trophy came crashing down.

Now, instead of spending these final three weeks of the season stating their case as to why they belong in the national championship game, the Broncos will simply be left to search for answers as to how this all could have happened again.

Blame it on Goodale for missing such a crucial kick.

Blame it on third-string back Drew Wright for fumbling the ball and giving TCU new life.

Blame it on the Broncos secondary for deciding that covering Josh Boyce and Brandon Carter on deep routes would be a silly idea.

Or simply blame it on college football fate.

It doesn’t matter where you want to lay the blame, the reality is, Boise State’s BCS bowl dreams have been crushed.

Now, Kellen Moore and the rest of the Boise State seniors will likely finish off their careers in either the Las Vegas Bowl or the Poinsettia Bowl, two bowls they’ve actually been to before.

Something tells me, though, that they all would have much rather gone back to Arizona for the Fiesta Bowl.

It’s a shame that Moore, the winningest quarterback in college football history, won’t get to end his career on the big stage, because he really has been one of the greatest college quarterbacks of his generation.

The only thing he has to look back on and regret is that he never learned how to kick field goals.