Pease, wrapping up his first season as wide receivers coach of the Boise State Broncos, watched his team make two improbable comebacks to down perennial power Oklahoma 43-42 in the Fiesta Bowl.
The game capped off a 13-0 season for the Broncos, making their first-ever appearance in the Bowl Championship Series.
The interception concluded an Oklahoma comeback that saw the Sooners rally from 28-10 behind to take a 35-28 lead and seemingly clinch the victory with the game nearly over.
“We went from being in control to …having to be in a two-minute situation,” Pease recalled. “Our kids are so competitive that we knew we weren’t out of it at that time.
“We just had to … get our game plan that we were going to use at that time and go with it,” he added. “It got down to the point where they executed it.”
The Broncos - on a fourth-and-17 play with second to go - used what most people call a hook-and-ladder play. BSU coaches and players appropriately refer to the play as “circus.”
Quarterback Jared Zabransky went from goat to one of many Boise State heroes when he hit receiver Drisan James for an apparent first down. But the Broncos weren’t done. James pitched to teammate Jerard Rabb coming the opposite way. Rabb cruised almost untouched to the end zone to set up the tying extra point kick with seven seconds to go.
It was a play Pease said the Broncos “very rarely practice” but walked through weekly during their Friday practices.
“It’s not a play that you really run a whole lot,” Pease said. He also noted that the play has a second option - a trailer that the first pitch receiver can toss it to if necessary. In this case, the second option ended up being a blocker for Rabb.
In overtime Oklahoma jumped ahead 42-35 when running back Adrian Peterson rambled 25 yards to score on the Sooners’ first play. Boise State had to grind out a first down, and then scored on another fourth-down trick play when wide receiver Vinny Perretta hit tight end Derek Schouman for a touchdown. Zabransky had gone in motion on the play.
Rather than opting for another overtime Broncos head coach Chris Peterson recognized that his team was exhausted and decided to go for the win. Using a play commonly known as the Statue of Liberty, Zabransky faked a throw to the right with his empty right hand while handing off behind his back with his left to running back Ian Johnson, who scampered to the end zone untouched for the decisive two-point conversion.
Pease said while there was some feeling of being a team of destiny once the game was over he also had told friends and family in the stands prior to kickoff that he thought BSU would win the game. The reason? The way the team prepared and practiced for the two weeks leading up to Monday night.
“Since we came back from recruiting (in mid-December) our preparation was the key to the whole thing,” Pease explained. “We went into (it) like it was the championship game of the WAC and not just a bowl game for fun.”
Pease said it’s been “totally enjoyable” working with Petersen, who served as the team’s offensive coordinator for five seasons prior to taking over as head coach when Dan Hawkins took the Colorado job following the 2006 season.
“There’s a lot of things that (new) head coaches have to prepare for,” Pease said. “But he was prepared way before that.
“He lets you coach. He’s a great guy to be around. He’s almost still like one of the assistants,” Pease went on. “He has a vision of what he wants to do … and what his role is and he lets everybody else do their job, too.”
Pease said the two have some common background since Petersen served as quarterbacks coach at Portland State in 1993-94.
The impact of the Fiesta Bowl appearance was immediate on Boise State’s recruiting prior to the game and after. Pease said they only had four scholarships remaining to give and two of them took care of themselves almost immediately after the win was secured.
“We had two text messages - another coach and myself - (from) kids that called our phones after the game saying they wanted to commit right there,” Pease said. “Maybe if you had some more openings you could go out and get some more kids that you really want to get or maybe get some kids that are going to Pac-10 schools.”
But he said BSU knew which players they wanted and they’ve had good success getting commitments. Pease thinks beating Oklahoma on such a national stage will only serve to further cement those commitments.
The year at Boise State has been part of Pease’s growing process - and growing pains - since he left the University of Montana after playing in 1985-86. He had a brief professional career and then earned his UM degree in 1990.
After coaching for a time at Montana he moved on to Northern Arizona. The road also took him and his family to offensive coordinator positions at the University of Kentucky for the 2001-02 and Baylor from 2003 through 2005.
Leaving Montana was one of the hardest things Pease had ever done in his life.
“I had such a strong loyalty to the University of Montana,” Pease pointed out, “but I think that was one thing I had to do was to learn to grow as a coach and find out some other things, especially offensively.”
Pease thinks he’s learned what he needed, has worked with good people, and has figured out what he needs to be to reach his ultimate goal of being a head coach. And as an assistant football coach in an always uncertain profession, he keeps his eyes and ears open.
Married to former UM track star Paula Good of Ft. Benton, Pease said it was important to get back to the Northwest. Boise puts the Mountain Home, Idaho native in closer touch with her family and his.
Pease doesn’t necessarily have a timetable for his advancement, but he now realizes that what happens in the coaching profession often is a matter of timing and relationships developed along the way.
“Just being with good people and being in a good program, being in good systems and being with good players,” Pease said when outlining the keys to coaching success.
It also takes a caring and flexible family to be in the coaching profession.
“My family’s been great,” Pease said of Paula and children Halle, 11, and Karsten, 9. “They’ve been kind of the solid foundation of everything. (But) I am tired of moving them.”
It helped landing his latest job in the Northwest. But Pease admits his ideal destination would be back at the University of Montana.
“Believe me, I’m a Grizzly at heart and when I left it was very hard for me, it was very hard for my family, it was very hard on me,” Pease confessed. “I still follow them weekly and watch the progress and how well they’ve done.
“I’m glad for that, and I want them to always win,” he added. “I’ve still got friends there like Kraig (UM defensive coordinator) Paulson, and Bobby (head coach Hauck). We all went to college together. They’re number one in my heart still.”
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